Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Irina Dumitrescu

@irinadumitrescu.bsky.social

8.4K followers 2.2K following 490 posts

Writer and professor of medieval literature. I'm a columnist at the TLS, sometimes co-host a podcast with Mary Wellesley at the LRB, and am one of the editors of @creativecritical.bsky.social. irinadumitrescu.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · Nov 6

Doorbell just rang. A package from Australia. The bookseller Nicholas Pounder sent me a small press print of my Times Literary Supplement poem, "Criseyde." It's a private, gift copy, and it has brought tears to my eyes this morning, for so many reasons.

They said Cassandra
Was the cursed one
But every woman knows too much.
I am used by now
To my voice getting caught in my teeth.
It doesn’t help
That I can smell tomorrow’s burning.
No one is interested
In the geometry
Of a falling city.
I sit politely and fan myself
Listening to old philosophies
Trying not to show
I see the sparks of death in their eyes.
My soles feel the road to come
The cool boards of an enemy’s ship
The freedom of early surrender.

25 160 790

Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

Fergal @fergalc.bsky.social · Feb 14

Oh, sorry, it's from a review of a book called "Free", a memoir by Lea Ypi of her childhood in Communist Albania. That particular excerpt refers to Romania, home country of the reviewer Irina Dumitrescu

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

The Great Leap Backward | Irina Dumitrescu

Lea Ypi's memoir of her childhood in Communist Albania asks whether individual freedom is always elusive, even in liberal democracies.

www.nybooks.com

3 8

Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

Longtail News @longtail.news · 18d

Feed: "the process"
By: Irina Dumitrescu on Tuesday, September 23, 2025

The liberating potential of trash

On recycling as creative process

irinadumitrescu.substack.com

1 2

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 16h

"Reading Lessons" was a reprint from this amazing collection on the many forms of reading, which is open access -- download it for free at the link. How We Read, edited by Kaitlin Heller and Suzanne Conklin Akbari

punctumbooks.com/titles/how-w...

How We Read: Tales, Fury, Nothing, Sound – punctum books

punctumbooks.com

5 6

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 16h

An essay about how my early reading shaped me, right down to the rhythm of my jokes, @longreads.com

longreads.com/2019/07/22/r...

Reading Lessons - Longreads

You never stop learning how to read -- probably because you also never stop forgetting how to read.

longreads.com

1 6 17

Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

So Mayer @suchmayer.bsky.social · 1d

Realism ruined storytelling.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

2 14

Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Joe I made u a present (the cover belies its bitchiness)

nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014835...

Daisy - Northwestern University Press

A narrative-poetic retelling of The Great Gatsby from the perspective of a 1990s teen poet Daisy: Poems is a captivating and imaginative take on The Gr...

nupress.northwestern.edu

1 2 11

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you for reading and for the kind words, Zachary!

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 2d

An essay I wrote for @thewalrus.ca on facing my fears.

thewalrus.ca/i-spent-my-l...

I Spent My Life Avoiding Thrills. Then My Son Discovered Roller Coasters | The Walrus

What have I missed out on because I’ve mistaken someone else’s fear for my own good sense?

thewalrus.ca

1 5 18

Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

savin dos louvadeus 🦗 @savcavalcante.behind.camera · Jul 1

fiquei obcecado, catei um catálogo do cara e vi tudo até esbarrar num louva-a-deus - é CLARO que ia ter um

temos um louvinha, uma efêmera e um inseto imaginário, muito simbolismo rolando

print de uma ilustração de Joris Hoefnagel contando um louva-a-deus verde, uma efêmera e um inseto imaginário que parece um dragãozinho de seus patas e quatro asas; todos em cores e feitos com realismo.

no topo, lê-se em latim:"privs locvsta bovem".

1 18 70

Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

Centre d’Études Médiévales Anglaises @cema-su.bsky.social · 11d

The Centre d'Etudes Médiévales Anglaises @sorbonne-universite.fr is convening the 2nd instalment of the André Crépin sessions on Saturday October 18.
@irinadumitrescu.bsky.social will give a plenary on the Chaucer's women and perfection, and we will read folios from a mystery manuscript together!

Fifteenth century woodblock of the Wife of Bath

David and Jonathan from the Vespasian Psalter

1 2 5

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 18d

Thinking of inventing an app where you can tell it that you, say, made a phone call to complain in French, and then followed it up with a formal complaint email in French, composed with dictionaries, not AI, and it just plays ten minutes of applause and shows you videos of fireworks going off.

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 21d

I wrote a Substack post about garbage, and why I love it.

irinadumitrescu.substack.com/p/the-libera...

The liberating potential of trash

On recycling as creative process

irinadumitrescu.substack.com

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 21d

hahahaha!

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 22d

I just did a little more research and found out the goat deal was a myth. Disappointing, but good to know the truth. Karl Marx was indeed imprisoned in the university jail when a student tho.

www.uni-bonn.de/en/universit...

2 1 10

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 22d

That is correct, I only asked for access to a green, as per tradition. But the negotiation took a turn and I was offered the goats.

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 25d

When I negotiated the terms of my current professorship, I asked the chair if it was true that professors at our uni were entitled to pasture land for their goats. He said I could have all the goats I wanted. I still do not have a single goat, though to be fair, I haven't put it through purchasing

Jack Lynch @jacklynch000.bsky.social · 25d

Gutenberg was paid “two large barrels of wine” each year for life by the Archbishop of Mainz, Chaucer received a gallon of wine a day from Edward III, and the British poet laureate received “a tierce of Madeira” every year.

I’m thinking I need to renegotiate my contract with Rutgers.

4 1 57

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 28d

I'd never heard of that! I must see it.

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 28d

I know just what you're wondering: is there a French Bridget Jones' Diary with a lovable-goofy heroine, a brooding Englishman, a fantasy version of the literary world, and every beat both utterly predictable and knocked out of the park? I present to you: "Jane Austen a gâché ma vie".

2 2 22

Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

Digital Medievalist @digitalmedievalist.bsky.social · Sep 11

🚨Job Klaxon🚨

Open rank Professorship in History of the Middle Ages with consideration of digital Methods

📍Institute of History, University of Bern (🇨🇭)
📆Deadline: 19 October 2025
▶️ Information: tinyurl.com/56ywncuj

#Medievalsky #DigitalHumaniities

Uni Bern: Open rank Professorship in History of the Middle Ages with consideration of digital Methods

The Institute of History of the University of Bern is seeking to fill a full time professor position (open rank) in History of the Middle Ages with consideration of digital Methods, beginning 1 Februa...

tinyurl.com

41 48

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · Sep 7

Oh thank you!

1 1

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · Sep 7

Completely random I know! But it just occurred to me that I wish I'd known this stuff earlier, before I ruined a bunch of items I liked. Seems to me that part of sustainability should also be knowing how to care for items without destroying them.

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · Sep 7

Meanwhile, a lady who sold me some of my better clothes told me I should wash them in liquid detergent. And (more of a Euro specific thing) a woman selling intimates said the detergents today disinfect well enough that a 60 C wash is unnecessary.

1 11

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · Sep 7

Those dishwasher tabs that promise to get everything off your dishes also destroy the actual dishes. Meanwhile, the powder costs less than two euros a bag, and you don't even need to fill up the container.

1 6

Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · Sep 7

One thing about the German labor force is that sales people often have a *lot* of training for their jobs. So I've made a habit of asking them how best to care for purchases. This is how I learned you don't need fancy dishwasher tabs. Powder is fine, much cheaper, and gentler on dishes.

4 1 32

Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · Aug 20

Academia may not give you job security, flexibility, or wealth, but it will let you unexpectedly connect to eduroam in foreign cities

29 160 1K