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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

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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.

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Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

laurajcleaver.bsky.social @laurajcleaver.bsky.social · 17h

Next Tuesday the Medieval Manuscripts Seminar is online. Kate Gerry will be sharing her work on the Guthlac Roll. Book 👇 ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

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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

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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

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Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 23h

"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

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Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 23h

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

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Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

So Mayer @suchmayer.bsky.social · 1d

Realism ruined storytelling.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

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

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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

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Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 2d

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

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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".

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Reposted by Irina Dumitrescu

Centre d’Études Médiévales Anglaises @cema-su.bsky.social · 12d

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

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Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 19d

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 · 23d

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...

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Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 23d

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.

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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".

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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

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Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · Sep 7

Oh thank you!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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