Joel Calahan
@joelcalahan.com
Apprentice philologist. Poetry translation and history teaching. Chair-leg hero.
Emeritus: Signal to Noise, Chicago Review
reader-in-chief of Caliber, an occasional newsletter of translation and reading
[ask at calibernewsletter at gmail dot com]
Emeritus: Signal to Noise, Chicago Review
reader-in-chief of Caliber, an occasional newsletter of translation and reading
[ask at calibernewsletter at gmail dot com]
Pinned
Joel Calahan
@joelcalahan.com
· Dec 17
Verge Books
www.vergebooks.com
Very proud to announce the publication of my chapbook The Bees, out now from Verge Books. It’s a translation of Book IV of Vergil’s Georgics, full of practical tips for beekeepers, and lovely lyric depictions of hive life.
Purchase, repost, spread the word!
www.vergebooks.com#/joel-calaha...
Purchase, repost, spread the word!
www.vergebooks.com#/joel-calaha...
Reposted by Joel Calahan
Einstürzende yn the clownes
January 24, 2026 at 4:24 AM
Einstürzende yn the clownes
Reposted by Joel Calahan
Finally got a byline in @defector.com, and it's about a famous crime writer, a pair of retired LAPD detectives, a former NSA codebreaker, and two of the most famous unsolved cases of all time. defector.com/michael-conn...
Michael Connelly Should Stick To Fake Crime | Defector
The origin of Michael Connelly’s new true crime podcast, Killer in the Code, was a rather far-fetched tip fielded by Rick Jackson, a retired detective from the Los Angeles Police Department. A self-de...
defector.com
January 23, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Finally got a byline in @defector.com, and it's about a famous crime writer, a pair of retired LAPD detectives, a former NSA codebreaker, and two of the most famous unsolved cases of all time. defector.com/michael-conn...
Reposted by Joel Calahan
this photo. minneapolis. 💜
📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune
📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune
January 23, 2026 at 10:04 PM
this photo. minneapolis. 💜
📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune
📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune
Reposted by Joel Calahan
(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang (Remastered 2006)
YouTube video by Heaven 17 - Topic
www.youtube.com
January 23, 2026 at 7:27 PM
The experience of living under the technological saturation phase of capitalism is one of weighing one’s need for any commodity versus one’s willingness to tolerate the harassment through email, text, and mail from the company that inevitably follows.
January 23, 2026 at 6:12 PM
The experience of living under the technological saturation phase of capitalism is one of weighing one’s need for any commodity versus one’s willingness to tolerate the harassment through email, text, and mail from the company that inevitably follows.
Reposted by Joel Calahan
Another friend put it to me like this: "ICE has made the classic Nazi mistake. They've invaded a winter people in the winter."
January 22, 2026 at 3:58 AM
Another friend put it to me like this: "ICE has made the classic Nazi mistake. They've invaded a winter people in the winter."
Reposted by Joel Calahan
My sense about Republicans pulling museum exhibits and censoring books and classrooms is, they're too late.
The last ten years has seen mass breakthrough of marginalized narratives in popular culture. They're closing the barn doors after the horses went out, and now everyone sees them doing it.
The last ten years has seen mass breakthrough of marginalized narratives in popular culture. They're closing the barn doors after the horses went out, and now everyone sees them doing it.
January 23, 2026 at 3:12 PM
My sense about Republicans pulling museum exhibits and censoring books and classrooms is, they're too late.
The last ten years has seen mass breakthrough of marginalized narratives in popular culture. They're closing the barn doors after the horses went out, and now everyone sees them doing it.
The last ten years has seen mass breakthrough of marginalized narratives in popular culture. They're closing the barn doors after the horses went out, and now everyone sees them doing it.
I learned a new word this morning, from a Percival Everett novel
![Fescennine (adj.)
"vulgar, obscene, scurrilous," from Latin Fescenninus (versus), a rude form of dramatic or satiric verse, from Fescennia, city in Etruria, noted for such productions.
The Fescennine Songs were the origin of the Satire, the only important species of literature not derived from the Greeks, and altogether peculiar to Italy. These Fescennine Songs were rude dialogues, in which the country people assailed and ridiculed one another in extempore verses, and which were introduced as an amusement in various festivals. [William Smith, "A Smaller History of Rome," London,
1870]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sfadmpuifdn2tc726b4aaowd/bafkreibn4la34a5l2gnevcsbflmsi3dxuhv5voqoquqqyrfohc7ovicooi@jpeg)
January 23, 2026 at 3:04 PM
I learned a new word this morning, from a Percival Everett novel
Thinking of my friends and family in Minneapolis, getting ready to head there myself for a visit.
In solidarity with all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and those who try to protect them.
In solidarity with all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and those who try to protect them.
January 23, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Thinking of my friends and family in Minneapolis, getting ready to head there myself for a visit.
In solidarity with all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and those who try to protect them.
In solidarity with all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and those who try to protect them.
Reposted by Joel Calahan
On my blog I'm starting a series where I translate sections of Calvino's masterpiece Invisible Cities, a random city at a time.
Here's Zemrude.
www.joelcalahan.com/translation-...
Here's Zemrude.
www.joelcalahan.com/translation-...
Translation: from Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino
Cities and Eyes. 2.
It is the mood of the beholder that gives the city of Zemrude its form. If you pass by whistling, your nose gliding along in the air, you’ll come to know it from beneath: the wind...
www.joelcalahan.com
January 23, 2026 at 3:54 AM
On my blog I'm starting a series where I translate sections of Calvino's masterpiece Invisible Cities, a random city at a time.
Here's Zemrude.
www.joelcalahan.com/translation-...
Here's Zemrude.
www.joelcalahan.com/translation-...
so correct.
happy to drop anyone here a postcard trailing San Diego sunshine. I have a full roll of postcard stamps and a brand new package of Stabilos ready to go.
happy to drop anyone here a postcard trailing San Diego sunshine. I have a full roll of postcard stamps and a brand new package of Stabilos ready to go.
cannot recommend this enough in these leaden times. a fancy tea, a bottle of ink, a sheaf of handkerchiefs: it's the trifles that keep us sane, mostly.
the trick to weathering all kinds of badness is to always have one little thing hurtling its way to you in the mail
January 23, 2026 at 5:47 AM
so correct.
happy to drop anyone here a postcard trailing San Diego sunshine. I have a full roll of postcard stamps and a brand new package of Stabilos ready to go.
happy to drop anyone here a postcard trailing San Diego sunshine. I have a full roll of postcard stamps and a brand new package of Stabilos ready to go.
On my blog I'm starting a series where I translate sections of Calvino's masterpiece Invisible Cities, a random city at a time.
Here's Zemrude.
www.joelcalahan.com/translation-...
Here's Zemrude.
www.joelcalahan.com/translation-...
Translation: from Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino
Cities and Eyes. 2.
It is the mood of the beholder that gives the city of Zemrude its form. If you pass by whistling, your nose gliding along in the air, you’ll come to know it from beneath: the wind...
www.joelcalahan.com
January 23, 2026 at 3:54 AM
On my blog I'm starting a series where I translate sections of Calvino's masterpiece Invisible Cities, a random city at a time.
Here's Zemrude.
www.joelcalahan.com/translation-...
Here's Zemrude.
www.joelcalahan.com/translation-...
dispatch from Minnea-ham-olis
5 giant hams so I can make it through the day.
January 23, 2026 at 3:49 AM
dispatch from Minnea-ham-olis
Reminded of this post by a random like, I actually do stand by my claim that these songs qualify as anthems of our national character.
(To be clear: Merry Clayton's "Gimme Shelter," not the Rolling Stones'.)
(To be clear: Merry Clayton's "Gimme Shelter," not the Rolling Stones'.)
“Trapped in the Drive Thru” by Weird Al, the parody of R. Kelly. Or “Gimme Shelter.”
what is the national anthem to you?
January 23, 2026 at 3:47 AM
Reminded of this post by a random like, I actually do stand by my claim that these songs qualify as anthems of our national character.
(To be clear: Merry Clayton's "Gimme Shelter," not the Rolling Stones'.)
(To be clear: Merry Clayton's "Gimme Shelter," not the Rolling Stones'.)
“But stout is way better!” I protested to my friend, who kept trying to serve us Heineken at his backyard barbecue. We had to keep refusing all afternoon—we were at a lager head’s.
January 23, 2026 at 2:21 AM
“But stout is way better!” I protested to my friend, who kept trying to serve us Heineken at his backyard barbecue. We had to keep refusing all afternoon—we were at a lager head’s.
Voting for Pete Buttigieg in the Dem primary as a single-issue voter: correcting Gramsci mistranslations.
Everyone botches Gramsci. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
January 22, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Voting for Pete Buttigieg in the Dem primary as a single-issue voter: correcting Gramsci mistranslations.
here’s a mix I made years ago of giallo soundtrack themes
(the soundiiz transfer only landed eight tracks but still good imho)
open.qobuz.com/playlist/509...
(the soundiiz transfer only landed eight tracks but still good imho)
open.qobuz.com/playlist/509...
Open Qobuz
open.qobuz.com
January 22, 2026 at 1:55 AM
here’s a mix I made years ago of giallo soundtrack themes
(the soundiiz transfer only landed eight tracks but still good imho)
open.qobuz.com/playlist/509...
(the soundiiz transfer only landed eight tracks but still good imho)
open.qobuz.com/playlist/509...
Reposted by Joel Calahan
waking up to the Belgian PM quoting Gramsci at Davos re: Trump www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
January 20, 2026 at 1:09 PM
waking up to the Belgian PM quoting Gramsci at Davos re: Trump www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
Reposted by Joel Calahan
Today I also finished My Sister's Hand in Mine: The Collected Works of Jane Bowles--a novel, a play & a handful of short stories--& if you read nothing else in it Shirley Jackson fans should read "Camp Cataract," which has that same quality of queasy domestic disquiet teetering on a crumbling cliff.
January 21, 2026 at 1:52 AM
Today I also finished My Sister's Hand in Mine: The Collected Works of Jane Bowles--a novel, a play & a handful of short stories--& if you read nothing else in it Shirley Jackson fans should read "Camp Cataract," which has that same quality of queasy domestic disquiet teetering on a crumbling cliff.
The whole internet loves Musicology Duck, a lovely duck that was kidnapped by a rogue French bus driver! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is actually a musicologist
January 21, 2026 at 12:31 AM
The whole internet loves Musicology Duck, a lovely duck that was kidnapped by a rogue French bus driver! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is actually a musicologist
Reposted by Joel Calahan
“But what deeply troubles me now is that for all the steps we've taken toward integration, I've come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house."
Dr. King said this famous quote on March 27th, 1968, mere days before his murder. But the context around the quote is interesting...
Dr. King said this famous quote on March 27th, 1968, mere days before his murder. But the context around the quote is interesting...
January 20, 2026 at 3:40 AM
“But what deeply troubles me now is that for all the steps we've taken toward integration, I've come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house."
Dr. King said this famous quote on March 27th, 1968, mere days before his murder. But the context around the quote is interesting...
Dr. King said this famous quote on March 27th, 1968, mere days before his murder. But the context around the quote is interesting...