Tim Groenland
@groenbot.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.4K following 460 posts
Academic in Dublin. Contemporary literature & publishing.
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groenbot.bsky.social
Here's something that me and Evan Brier have been working on for ages: a special issue on editors in postwar US literature, full of essays by brilliant scholars. Delighted to see it published! post45.org/sections/iss...
Issue 9: Editing American Literature - Post45
Edited by Evan Brier and Tim Groenland
post45.org
groenbot.bsky.social
Fine company indeed - 101 hours! I admit I've never read Clarissa, this looks like a project for a suitable holiday
groenbot.bsky.social
Oh that looks great. Wasn't aware of it
groenbot.bsky.social
Some recent Irish faves: the polyphonic group performance of The Benefactors (Erskine)/ Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits, where the author has fun mapping Dublin class relations onto ancient Syracusan society
groenbot.bsky.social
Teaching a session on audiobooks this week. Anyone have any favourite/interesting/quirky examples? Or interesting reading about the audiobooks industry?
groenbot.bsky.social
No!! Amazing. I had read a similar shorter piece in the Guardian, but somehow missed this
groenbot.bsky.social
Thanks for writing, it's a great intro to a lot of the most interesting things about audiobooks. I'll investigate both of those more closely! I'd like to focus more on Ballerini - I think I'm not the only one to have experience Knausgaard mostly through his hypnotic delivery
groenbot.bsky.social
Thanks! Yes, I'm reading this and finding it very useful to think about platforms, production, reader behaviour etc
groenbot.bsky.social
Oh, excellent. Will check that out thanks
groenbot.bsky.social
Thanks! The first piece I linked describes Henry's book, it sounds like fun - might use that as an example if I can listen to it in time...
groenbot.bsky.social
I listened to the Benefactors on audio and it works really well! It's one of the examples I have lined up, actually. I read Lincoln on paper but must check out that version too, thanks
groenbot.bsky.social
Thanks! I'm long overdue a Middlemarch reread so will check that out soon...
groenbot.bsky.social
Also looking at some favourite examples, like the bit in Lost Children Archive when the family can't agree on an audiobook for the car
The lost children’s stories are troubling our own children. We decide to stop listening to the news, at least when they are awake. We decide to listen, instead, to music. Or, better, to audiobooks.

“When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night…,” says the voice of the man on the car speakers, “he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.” I press Stop as soon as it pauses at the end of the sentence. My husband and I agree that Cormac McCarthy, although we both like him, and even if we especially like The Road, seems a little too rough for the children. Also, we agree that whoever is reading for this audiobook version is an actor acting—tries too hard, breathes too loud—instead of a person reading. So I press Stop. Then I scroll down and press Play on another audiobook.
groenbot.bsky.social
Teaching a session on audiobooks this week. Anyone have any favourite/interesting/quirky examples? Or interesting reading about the audiobooks industry?
groenbot.bsky.social
They're not even allowed one?
No Homers Club
Reposted by Tim Groenland
kateem.bsky.social
Returns of a hundred books (in an unsaleable condition) in one disastrous month from a casually indifferent Amazon lost Handheld Press all that RRP, not to mention lost production costs. Buy your books from independent bookshops.
matthewpb.bsky.social
Returns from a chain bookshop have reduced our sales to a minus figure in the most important sales month of the year.

Please support independent bookshops this Christmas.
groenbot.bsky.social
Why was i programmed to feel pain*

*follow the fortunes of the Irish men's international football team
groenbot.bsky.social
"Even though Mr Rimmington started to feel unwell after day one, he continued to feast on the chewy treats" relatable tbh
Reposted by Tim Groenland
suchmayer.bsky.social
I'm a committed small press author & editor. Small presses are the seed-heads of the books world & they are scorched. Pls read and share this excellent letter on the situation & what's needed in @thebookseller.com, signatories inc Peninsula Press, @cipherpress.bsky.social @silver-press.bsky.social
Open letter on the future of small press publishing in the UK
The industry must work together to ensure the longevity of the UK’s independent presses.
www.thebookseller.com
Reposted by Tim Groenland
gitaralleigh.bsky.social
I've been published by 3 presses on this list and enjoyed books by many more.
If you're interested in commenting on or joining a roundtable on the future of small presses in the UK, link to the form is here: #smallpresspublishing #indiepublishing #ukpublishing
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
groenbot.bsky.social
"By the 2020s, Krasznahorkai has become one of the vanishingly few living world-literary authors whose works are promptly & pretty much automatically translated into English." @andrask.bsky.social has a really interesting series on LK's route to "world authorship" open.substack.com/pub/translat...
László Krasznahorkai, world author (I.)
the system of literary translations in the 21st century
open.substack.com
groenbot.bsky.social
Damn. I've been meaning to become a Krasznahorkai bro for years, but never got around to it; now I'll just look like some normie jumping on the nobel train
Reposted by Tim Groenland
matthewpb.bsky.social
It might be good if the department for culture and Minsiter Patrick O’Donovan made a statement expressing solidarity for the several Irish artists who were in flotilla ships who have been detained by Israel over recent days.
Reposted by Tim Groenland
newschambers.bsky.social
More Irish activists have now been taken by the IDF from international waters including author Naoise Dolan, TD Barry Heneghan and psychiatrist Veronica O’Keane.

They are part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.