Kirsten Shepherd
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Kirsten Shepherd
@kirstensb.bsky.social
27 followers 22 following 48 posts
LitHits founder and co-curator, professor, reader, writer.
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kirstensb.bsky.social
Leaving the doll's house
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Leaving the doll's house
The final lines of Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House stunned its first audiences--and it still has the power to shock us
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December 7, 2025 at 8:42 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
Fate strikes on 'the Tube'
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Fate strikes on 'the Tube'
A flirtatious and clandestine meeting on the subway--from over a century ago...
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November 15, 2025 at 1:01 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
Thrilled to announce that I have a new book out with OUP this week, with co-editor Tzen Sam and translator Gaye Kynoch. It tells the true story of how Ibsen's A Doll's House came about, and the real woman--Laura Kieler, author and playwright--who inspired it: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:38 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
www.stcatz.ox.ac.uk/jrf-in-human...
JRF in Humanities - closing date 14 November - St Catherine's College
St Catherine’s College proposes to elect a Junior Research Fellow in the Humanities. The Fellowship will be tenable for up...
www.stcatz.ox.ac.uk
November 5, 2025 at 3:00 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
A taste of Saki...the brilliant short story writer whose tale of 'Sredni Vashtar' will haunt you
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The grisly fate of Mrs. De Ropp
A young boy finds a fiendish way to silence his harshly oppressive guardian
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November 1, 2025 at 5:46 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
Shakespeare's St Crispin's Day speech (set on October 25!) open.substack.com/pub/lithits/...
St Crispin's Day
A king rallies his outnumbered troops at the Battle of Agincourt
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October 25, 2025 at 12:30 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
'Recovering Laura Kieler--The Real Woman behind Ibsen's A Doll's House' -- Univ of Birmingham, Oct 29, 1.30-3pm, Arts Building 103 (Constance Naden Room – 1st fl). Please join us!
www.birmingham.ac.uk/documents/un...
www.birmingham.ac.uk
October 22, 2025 at 5:45 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
Headless Horseman
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Headless Hessian Horseman
German soldiers were hired by the British to fight in the American revolutionary war. Here's a snippet of a story about an undead one.
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October 18, 2025 at 8:28 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
What is an animal character?
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What is an animal character?
A brutal incident seen from the perspective of a colt
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October 11, 2025 at 4:31 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
'Spicy woods' of October open.substack.com/pub/lithits/...
'Spicy woods'
Following on from our earlier newsletter featuring her poem 'August,' here is Helen Hunt Jackson's ravishing tribute to October
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October 4, 2025 at 8:22 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
New LitHits newsletter just out: open.substack.com/pub/lithits/...
Silent tears of recognition...
In a twist on Classical myth, the musician Orpheus is reimagined as a King of Winchester in this medieval Breton 'lai', a short narrative poem of adventure
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September 27, 2025 at 12:35 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
'But thy eternal summer shall not fade'
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'But thy eternal summer shall not fade'
A classic love poem that invites multiple interpretations
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September 20, 2025 at 10:31 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
On (not) becoming a poet
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On (not) becoming a poet
This week we feature James Weldon Johnson's deeply personal 'A Poet to his Baby Son'
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September 14, 2025 at 7:35 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
A mind-blowing first day of school
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A mind-blowing first day of school
This longer read from a 1916 children's classic captures the anxiety and thrill of the first day of school--and unveils some new and startling ideas about education
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September 7, 2025 at 9:05 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
Ode to a brilliant scientist and her 'humane war'
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Ode to a brilliant scientist and her 'humane war'
A woman poet hails a woman scientist
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August 30, 2025 at 9:48 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
The magic of water
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The magic of water
From the LitHits archives: the opening paragraphs of Moby-Dick
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August 23, 2025 at 2:45 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
The magic of water
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The magic of water
From the LitHits archives: the opening paragraphs of Moby-Dick
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August 23, 2025 at 2:45 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
One poem, many interpretations...
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One poem, many interpretations...
Robert Frost's much loved poem has meant different things to different people
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August 17, 2025 at 12:01 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
'August' by Helen Hunt Jackson
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'August' by Helen Hunt Jackson
A sonnet to the 'middle-aged' month by a poet and friend of Emily Dickinson
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August 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
From our archives: The air carries little creatures
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From our archives: The air carries little creatures
As thoughts turn to summer travel, we come back to Exeter Book Riddle 57 (in translation, followed by the original text). Have another go at this enigmatic medieval puzzle!
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August 3, 2025 at 5:43 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
The primerole and the violet
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The primerole and the violet
This enigmatic lyric from the fourteenth-century (with modernised spelling) resists easy interpretation. It is a balladlike song about an unknown Maiden, once sung to a now-lost tune.
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July 27, 2025 at 4:23 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
A road trip, kinda
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A road trip, kinda
Willa Cather's literary postcard from a journey to the American Southwest
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July 20, 2025 at 9:13 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
Cool temperatures...and crabs! open.substack.com/pub/lithits/...
Crabs!
Notes from a real South Pole expedition detail an unexpected hazard on the way down to the Antarctic
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July 12, 2025 at 10:46 AM
kirstensb.bsky.social
A chestnut gets stuck in an inconvenient place...
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A chestnut gets stuck in an inconvenient place...
Ouch! Laurence Sterne entertains and embarrasses us in equal measure
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July 6, 2025 at 1:00 PM
kirstensb.bsky.social
Just in case you missed Bloomsday... open.substack.com/pub/lithits/...
Bloomsday: 'aquacities of thought'
This week, readers around the world marked June 16––the day James Joyce's Ulysses is set--with marathon readings of the novel. Here, we give you a taste of its audacious inventiveness
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June 22, 2025 at 9:26 AM