Author | Lightnews

Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 2d

And to the many others whose writing or mentorship found its way into this project: @vl1959.bsky.social, @poetphd.bsky.social, @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social, @bradleyfest.bsky.social, @biblioracle.bsky.social, @manshel.bsky.social, @epikt.bsky.social, @mai-linhhong.bsky.social, @hiphination.bsky.social

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 2d

A million thanks to @samcohen.bsky.social and @profdgd.bsky.social for their kind work as editors and readers.

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 2d

We find, then, that literary authors have been acting all along as theorists of composition when they imagine scenes of writing or the failure to write.

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 2d

The book also tries to break down the divide between literary studies and writing studies. By applying a writing studies lens to fiction, we can better understand the frustrations that authors depict and see how those depictions offer practical lessons to writers of all kinds.

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 2d

The chapters look to Lucy Ives and DFW on MFA dogma, Nam Le and Philip Roth on ethnic typecasting in the literary market, Sheila Heti and Salvador Plascencia on perfectionism, and Ben Lerner and Bernard Malamud on how writing about other arts (painting, especially) can restore a writer's practice.

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 2d

It's pub day (birthday 0?) for Writing Through Writer's Block: Lessons from Modern American Fiction! This is a study of how authors have used the archetype of the blocked writer to identify, analyze, and ultimately work through both internal and external constraints on their creative abilities.

Writing Through Writer’s Block

uipress.uiowa.edu

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 3d

Anyway, my book on writer's block in American fiction comes out tomorrow uipress.uiowa.edu/books/writin...

Writing Through Writer’s Block

uipress.uiowa.edu

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 3d

What actually beats writer's block: understanding writing as ordinary labor; analyzing standards set by genre, audience, institution, or market; taking charge of one's relationship with those standards; and seeing half-formed ideas through before evaluating their potential. No AI needed

AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief

Publisher last week reported jump in revenue in academic and professional arm thanks to AI licensing deal

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Aaron Colton

Nick Sturm @nicksturm.bsky.social · 3d

No grift here. Preorder Aaron's book!

Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 3d

So much grift in this zone depends on an understanding of writer's block as intangible or even indescribable. Shamelessly: I touch on the writer's-block self-help industry in the coda of my book (out tmrw)

Writing Through Writer’s Block

uipress.uiowa.edu

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 3d

So much grift in this zone depends on an understanding of writer's block as intangible or even indescribable. Shamelessly: I touch on the writer's-block self-help industry in the coda of my book (out tmrw)

Writing Through Writer’s Block

uipress.uiowa.edu

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 6d

My book (made possible by @samcohen.bsky.social) on why fiction writers are always, always writing about writer's block is out next week (yikes!). It centers critiques of literary institutions/markets and compositional lessons for real writers. Consider pre-ordering! BLOCK40 will discount by 40%

Writing Through Writer’s Block

uipress.uiowa.edu

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Reposted by Aaron Colton

Anna Ioanes @annaioanes.bsky.social · 9d

It’s the official publication day for Painful Forms! I’m so pleased to see the book out in the world and grateful forever to @uncpress.bsky.social for making that happen. uncpress.org/978146968894...

Painful Forms

In the wake of World War II, Americans struggled to grasp the shifting scale of violence brought on by the nuclear era. To grapple with the overwhelming suff...

uncpress.org

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Reposted by Aaron Colton

Jesse Grabman @jgrabman.bsky.social · 13d

Another plug that my lab @nmsu.edu will be admitting up to 2 PhD students this year (application deadline: January 15th). We study (eyewitness) memory, metacognition, and individual differences. More information here:

www.grab-lab.com

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Reposted by Aaron Colton

Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 17d

I don’t think a long book is even primarily about plot, or character, or any of the patterned information on its pages. A long book is practicing over time a way of being in the world. Reading even a very good summary is not the same as giving over some portion of your own life to that practice.

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Reposted by Aaron Colton

Sam Cohen @samcohen.bsky.social · 21d

Mail call! New from New American Canon, @acolton.bsky.social's Writing Through Writer's Block uipress.uiowa.edu/books/writin...

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Reposted by Aaron Colton

Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 24d

In my mailbox today, a book well worth reading.

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Reposted by Aaron Colton

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 26d

I think we’re really going to have to do a lot more of this. A massive deprogramming so that people can read more than ten words at a time without anxiety.

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...?

Universities teaching literature students how to cope with long novels

Critics blame GCSE English for deterring teenagers from the subject, describing the literature syllabus as boring and repetitive

www.thetimes.com

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · 28d

sydneyreviewofbooks.com/essays/welco...

Welcome to the Word Factory | Sydney Review of Books

Why are university managers excited about AI? Detailing the industrial and intellectual conditions of AI’s uptake, Andrew Dean argues that the disavowal of aesthetic judgement has helped pave the way ...

sydneyreviewofbooks.com

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · Sep 7

The idea that "learning to use AI" is as complex and professionally advantageous as, say, learning Python in 2007 drives me nuts

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · Aug 20

I'm interviewed in @forbes.com this week about how students can't develop as writers if they don't also develop as readers, how AI tools diminish students' original thinking, and—so long as it remains a genre—how to write a meaningful college admissions essay.
www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoe...

What Teens Lose When AI Writes The College Essay

More students are using ChatGPT to draft college essays, but at what cost? Experts warn it hinders critical thinking and leaves them unprepared for college writing.

www.forbes.com

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Reposted by Aaron Colton

Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · Aug 18

Increasingly, what makes sense to me is framing a class as a *dialogic community* and assessing students on their contributions as members of that community. Such contributions can be and should be as spontaneous as they are regulated. +

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Reposted by Aaron Colton

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · Aug 15

teachers!

excited to share a new website at this late date of Aug 15 to try to help us collectively prepare for back to school in the interpretative humanities classroom assaulted by the AI grift, so we don't have to go it alone.

take a look, share, + most importantly: CONTRIBUTE
against-a-i.com

AGAINST AI

against-a-i.com

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Reposted by Aaron Colton

Anne Balke Staver @anneavelo.bsky.social · Aug 13

Really appreciated this discussion with @tressiemcphd.bsky.social on AI in higher ed and what we and students are losing in terms of opportunities to go from struggling to mastering something, and learning as a relational/social process. www.nytimes.com/audio/app/20...

I can’t copy text but it’s a section from late in the interview quoting Tressie MC about emotions and learning

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · Aug 13

!!! Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello would be my recs—also Waiting for the Barbarians

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Aaron Colton @acolton.bsky.social · Jul 15

The book, it has a cover!

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