Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · 5d

'But Winnie decided that "no woman (it is not my business to consider a man’s life) has any excuse for living a life that is not worth living".' A sad & ultimately inspiring essay by @akennedysmith.bsky.social on 19th-century women's education, female solidarity & the importance of good teachers.

Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 6d

I wrote about this moving biography of Winnie Seebohm, who fought to have the right to study at Cambridge in 1885. ‘Do not be misled into thinking that because it is history it has nothing to do with you' Victoria Glendinning writes. '1885 is yesterday. It is probably tomorrow too.’

A life worth living

Winnie Seebohm and the marvellous Mrs Marshall

akennedysmith.substack.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · 8d

'For most of my students, the benchmark of whether they fall in love with a work of literature is if they can ‘relate’ to it ... I often suggest that they should go to fiction for the opposite reasons: that it opens up new fields of experience, new worlds, new cultures.' Via @judecook.bsky.social.

Jude Cook @judecook.bsky.social · 8d

A September Substack essay from me on the last day of the month. Read What I Love There: On Literary Subjectivity for FREE here: judecook.substack.com/p/what-i-lov...

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · 22d

'It must have appeared to the young Virginia Stephen as if they were worlds apart; while she was stuck at home with her father and her tedious domestic duties, ‘Miss Harrison’ was a brilliant Cambridge scholar who was already famous for her lectures.' Interesting essay by @akennedysmith.bsky.social.

Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 22d

Who's afraid of Jane Harrison? I wrote about the Cambridge classicist who inspired Virginia Woolf.

The ghost of Jane Harrison

The woman who haunts Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own

open.substack.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · 22d

Wonderful essay by Susie Boyt on Barbara Pym's beautiful, yet quietly devastating, late-career novel The Sweet Dove Died, which Boyt argues may have remained unpublished for so long 'not because it was too quaint but because it was too uncomfortable'. It's a real favourite of mine.

New York Review Books @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social · 23d

"The text is a matrix of longing and loathing, the two states often indistinguishable."

Susie Boyt on Barbara Pym's The Sweet Dove Died at @literaryhub.bsky.social

The Art of Caustic Cosiness: On Barbara Pym’s The Sweet Dove Died

In December 1967, eleven years before The Sweet Dove Died was published, Barbara Pym wrote to Philip Larkin, enclosing her first draft. (The two maintained a correspondence for fourteen years, befo…

lithub.com

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Reposted by Emily Midorikawa

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Sep 3

‘For years, his biography on press releases was just four words long: “Eagle scout, Missoula, Montana.” David Lynch wasn’t just American, but freakishly American, and like any good scout was both pathologically self-assured and incurably naive.’

Ruby Hamilton on Lynch: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Ruby Hamilton · Things go kerflooey: David Lynch’s Gee-Wizardry

For years, his biography on press releases was just four words long: ‘Eagle scout, Missoula, Montana.’ David Lynch...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Sep 8

And I very much look forward to reading Ghosted. Great to connect with you on here. All the best with everything.

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Sep 8

'The Victorians had turned death into something of a pageant...The Great War, however, turned death into something sudden, cruel and unknowable.' Having written about Victorian Spiritualism in my last book, Out of the Shadows, I found this idea, & @alicevernon10.bsky.social's essay, so interesting.

Alice Vernon @alicevernon10.bsky.social · Sep 8

I'm thrilled to have an extract from Ghosted on @literaryhub.bsky.social today! The chapter on Spiritualism in the aftermath of WWI really broadened my understanding of ghost-hunting, and made me realise just how much grief is tangled up in our search for spooks.

lithub.com/the-rise-of-...

The Rise of Spiritualism (and Séances) After the First World War

The First World War began in July 1914, and by its conclusion in November 1918, over nine million soldiers had been killed in the conflict. Each death was devastating to relatives and friends left …

lithub.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Sep 4

Morning reading. I love the way that this essay by @judecook.bsky.social captures the essence of a place, & intertwines the author's personal memories with his literary work. It also made me miss Paris. 'Paris in the Blood': open.substack.com/pub/judecook...

Paris In the Blood

How To Research a Novel

open.substack.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Sep 3

'Can you sum up your mixed experience in one word? "Home. Both places are home."' So much chimed with me in this interview with Emily Itami, author of Kakigori Summer: mixedmessages.substack.com/p/emily-itam...

Emily Itami: “I don’t know how else to be – I cannot exist any other way”

The author on being one of the crowd, interrogating mixed identity and language as the root of thought

mixedmessages.substack.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Sep 3

Entries are open for The Book Edit Writers' Prize 2025 judged by @janiceokoh.bsky.social (deadline 13 October). More details here: www.thebookedit.co.uk/writers-prize

The Book Edit Writers' Prize — The Book Edit

The Book Edit Writers' Prize for unpublished, unagented novelists from communities currently under-represented in British publishing.

www.thebookedit.co.uk

Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Aug 26

I now really look forward to reading Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon, which I have just ordered.

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Aug 26

'As a teenager who once ached for stories of young people like me, my oft-stung adult heart fills to think that we can now share Tsujimura’s tales with the people we’ve grown up with, grown up around, and grown apart from.' Wonderful LitHub essay by @yukitejima.bsky.social tinyurl.com/mwv7f6dm

On Bringing the Novels of Mizuki Tsujimura to English Readers

As a literary translator who was born in Tokyo, raised in Los Angeles, and now ping-pongs between the two cities, I often find myself describing books (that I neither wrote nor translated) to reade…

tinyurl.com

Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Aug 25

Back at my desk today after a summer break & catching up with reading. And what a joyful & inspiring post to get me back into the swing of things: 'Libraries to fall in love with' by @akennedysmith.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/akennedy...

Libraries to fall in love with

And lots of other good things coming up

open.substack.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Aug 1

From @oliviacampbell.bsky.social's always interesting Substack - an essay focusing on inventor Leona W. Chalmers and a history of period protection products (a real window into past women's lives) open.substack.com/pub/oliviaca...

An Inventor Ahead of Her Time

Leona W. Chalmers creates a sustainable, effective period product solution.

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Emily Midorikawa

So Mayer @suchmayer.bsky.social · Jul 7

Writers! Note that AI translation (under the guise of "global access") is being seen/used as the weak point to get AI into publishing (possible bc Eng lang publishing is weak on translation). Stand with translators & for more human translation, fairly paid!

The Bookseller @thebookseller.com · Jul 7

The founders of independent publisher Bloodhound Books have launched a new AI fiction translation service, Globescribe.ai 👇 #BookSky

Bloodhound Books founders launch AI fiction translation company

ebx.sh

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Reposted by Emily Midorikawa

Ginny Tapley Takemori @ginnytkmr.bsky.social · Jul 21

Great review of Nancy Wu’s narration of Vanishing World, clearly pointing out the ways in which she brings her humanity and skill to the job. A timely reminder why we shouldn’t let AI replace human narrators!

VANISHING WORLD by Sayaka Murata Ginny Tapley Takemori Trans Read by Nancy Wu | Audiobook Review | AudioFile Magazine

AudioFile Audiobook Review: Nancy Wu narrates a story of an alternate reality in Japan in which children are created artificially, not by intercourse. Wu brings a measured clarit

www.audiofilemagazine.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Jul 22

Thanks @akennedysmith.bsky.social! It was an honour to see my book Out of the Shadows featured in your excellent Substack newsletter. It's great to see Emma Hardinge Britten - famed orator & spirit medium - getting more of the interest she deserves.

Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · Jul 22

In her lectures Emma Hardinge Britten spoke up for female emancipation, claiming to be channelling the views of dead male spirits. My post on her early career and the spiritualist craze that crossed the Atlantic (Queen Victoria was a fan). Thanks to @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social for her inspiration!

The Englishwoman and the President

Speaking up for Abraham Lincoln

open.substack.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Jul 17

Love and good London novel, and there are some great recommendations in this interesting piece by @jacquiwine.bsky.social.

JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · Jul 10

New on the blog today, I've written about some of my favourite novels set in London.

Featuring books by Patrick Hamilton, Muriel Spark, Anita Brookner, Olivia Manning and more! #BookSky 💙📚

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/07/10/l...

London Novels – ten favourites from my shelves

Back in May, Faber and Faber reissued Alexander Baron’s brilliant novel The Lowlife, the entertaining, picaresque story of an amiable Jewish charmer trying to get by on his wits in seedy post-war L…

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Emily Midorikawa

Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · Jul 15

Jane Harrison was also a notable Town figure in #Cambridge - she was in the first cohort of new women magistrates to serve the Borough (with Florence Ada Keynes, Clara Rackham, & Leah Manning IIRC) in 1920 following a change in the law removing the ban on women magistrates.

Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Jul 15

Lots of great cultural recommendations, plus an interesting profile of classical scholar Jane Ellen Harrison, in @akennedysmith.bsky.social's latest Substack: Cambridge Notebook #16 open.substack.com/pub/akennedy...

Cambridge Notebook #16

Summer heat, cool nonfiction and the legendary Jane Ellen Harrison

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Emily Midorikawa

Eleanor Fitzsimons @eleanorfitzsimons.bsky.social · Jul 15

What a fantastic portrait of the amazing Jane Ellen Harrison. I have written about her early career, when she collaborated with Oscar Wilde among others. oscarwildesociety.co.uk/publications...

Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Jul 15

Lots of great cultural recommendations, plus an interesting profile of classical scholar Jane Ellen Harrison, in @akennedysmith.bsky.social's latest Substack: Cambridge Notebook #16 open.substack.com/pub/akennedy...

Cambridge Notebook #16

Summer heat, cool nonfiction and the legendary Jane Ellen Harrison

open.substack.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Jul 15

I wrote the preface for the first issue of new literary mag Bluebell - out now - & was delighted to discover so many interesting new voices in its pages. I look forward to many future issues. www.bluebellmag.com/bluebell-iss...

Bluebell Issue No.1 Comes Out + Book Launch @ UEA

We are so excited to announce that the very first issue of Bluebell has come out! Here are some of the pictures for our friends who have been waiting for months: And we are happy to announce tha...

www.bluebellmag.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Jul 15

Lots of great cultural recommendations, plus an interesting profile of classical scholar Jane Ellen Harrison, in @akennedysmith.bsky.social's latest Substack: Cambridge Notebook #16 open.substack.com/pub/akennedy...

Cambridge Notebook #16

Summer heat, cool nonfiction and the legendary Jane Ellen Harrison

open.substack.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Jul 2

'Here’s what I wish I knew all those years ago. It can be better to take decades to get published.' Such a heartening piece on learning from experience & writing what pleases you by @jessicabergergross.bsky.social, author of fiction debut Hazel Says No. @literaryhub.bsky.social. tinyurl.com/snrwtbf7

Jessica Berger Gross on the Special Euphoria of Debuting as a Novelist in Her 50s

Five years ago, when I mentioned the idea for my novel Hazel Says No over avocado toast to my now editor John Glynn, he said, “I love it! And you’ll be a debut!” I practically spit out …

tinyurl.com

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Jun 16

Just wonderful! So glad I found it thanks to you.

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · Jun 16

Completely fascinating - & moving - piece by Yukiko Duke on a mother-daughter book translating relationship, & the joys & challenges of transforming Japanese prose into another language. Essay translated by @iangiles.bsky.social. Thanks @jolloyds.bsky.social for sharing this.

Swedish Book Review @swedishbookreview.bsky.social · Jun 15

"We were even so bold as to take time off from our working days to pick wild strawberries or go walking and swimming. It was all going so well! That was when we encountered a word – a small, sneaky word – that brought us crashing back down to earth."

swedishbookreview.org/joy-translat...

‘The Joy of Translating is Gone’ | Swedish Book Review

by Yukiko Duke, translated by Ian Giles

swedishbookreview.org

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