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nicksturm.bsky.social
Nick Sturm
@nicksturm.bsky.social
5.4K followers 3.5K following 3.9K posts
post45 poetry, small press publishing, print culture, history of arts funding | Lecturer in English @ Georgia State | co-director of @nysnetwork.bsky.social | editor of books w/ Fonograf & City Lights | book with Columbia UP | nicksturm.com
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Nick Sturm @nicksturm.bsky.social · Jan 8
it's official--my first book will be published by @columbiaup.bsky.social

Such a Thing as New York School: Print Culture, Publishing Communities, & American Poetry--an account of how publishing practices give material forms to American literary communities & the group labels that describe them.
Reposted by Nick Sturm
thetattooedprof.bsky.social
Lmao fuck yooouuuu
E. Gordon Gee, 'universities have become isolated and arrogant'. By Evan Goldstein and Len Gutlin. Subhed: the former university president on how the sector got into trouble.
November 14, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
dmimno.bsky.social
Our libraries are cutting staff so that Elsevier can have its 32% profit margin
brendannyhan.bsky.social Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 4d
A staggering statistic: "North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year." What are we doing?
hansonmark.bsky.social Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 5d
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
November 14, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
johannawinant.bsky.social
my library bought @kristingrogan.bsky.social ’s beautiful book and yours should too
November 13, 2025 at 9:43 PM
nicksturm.bsky.social
one of the best experiences as a scholar is reading one sentence--here, Dan tying the professionalization of creative writing to the formation of the NEA--about which you're preparing to write an entire book.
annotated text of a paragraph from Sinykin's article about literary sociology and allegory
November 13, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
dan-sinnamon.bsky.social
For the haters who say Big Fiction over-relies on allegory, my most explicit, spirited defense of allegorical interpretation. "Sociology and Allegory," published as part of a series on the sociology of literature in IASL. Lemme know if you want a PDF
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Sociology and Allegory
The question of the relationship between internal and external analysis of literature remains open across disciplinary inquiries. Although Pierre Bourdieu claims to offer a definitive answer to the qu...
www.degruyterbrill.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
kwissoker.bsky.social
I was interviewed by Lisa Regan on the The Academic Publishing Podcast about publishing finances -- everything from why a press might want a subvention to why the system as a whole in in big trouble if everyone goes for the free pdf and no one is paying for the books themselves. She had smart Q's!
Ken Wissoker on Finances
Ken Wissoker is Senior Executive Editor at Duke University Press where, since arriving in 1991, he has published over 1400 books. Ken acquires books across the humanities, social sciences, and the art...
academicpublishingpod.alitu.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:26 PM
nicksturm.bsky.social
AAUP-provided STC is the real path to student success
makecommon.bsky.social Make Common @makecommon.bsky.social · 9d
<reaches, shakily, through debris, to vial of special teaching cocaine>
November 7, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
itshoje.bsky.social
From the top rope
November 5, 2025 at 10:24 PM
nicksturm.bsky.social
On 11/24, @nysnetwork.bsky.social is hosting a free online event for Women in Independent Publishing, the incredible collection of interviews with women editors & publishers assembled by Stephanie Anderson

feat. Maureen Owen, Patricia Spears Jones, & MC Hyland!

www.unmpress.com/978082636707...
November 5, 2025 at 8:47 PM
nicksturm.bsky.social
saw an NYC art world girlie on IG freaking out about Mamdani & unironically saying "freedom isn't free"--absolutely thrilled for her crash
November 5, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
hadas.bsky.social
me arriving at mamdani's new york
November 5, 2025 at 6:45 AM
nicksturm.bsky.social
couldn't preorder fast enough!

www.inkwoodnj.com/item/6CvPe_C...
Middlemen by Laura B McGrath | Inkwood Books
A revealing account of how agents have shaped book publishing and the literary canon from the 1950s to todayMiddlemen rewrites literary history from the perspective of one of its most important but le...
www.inkwoodnj.com
November 4, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
pbsnews.org
Citing a chronic shortage of financial backing for independent publishers & nonprofits dedicated to writing and reading, a coalition of seven charitable foundations has established a Literary Arts Fund that will distribute a minimum of $50 million over the next five years. https://to.pbs.org/4o6lqua
$50M Literary Arts Fund will support independent publishers and nonprofits
Citing a chronic shortage of financial backing for independent publishers and nonprofits dedicated to writing and reading, a coalition of seven charitable foundations has established a Literary Arts F...
www.pbs.org
October 29, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
deebeehobbs.bsky.social
bless
perryodontal.bsky.social Perry Areolar @perryodontal.bsky.social · 13d
the password to the louvre surveillance server was "louvre"

www.thesocialpost.it/2025/11/02/f...
according to the liberation newspaper, documents dating back to a 2014 inspection by the French National Agency for the Security of Computer Systems reported a staggering detail: "the password of the louvre's video surveillance server was simply " louvre. "
November 3, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
mellymeldubs.bsky.social
As DH grows, it’s increasingly important to publish conference papers, but there hasn’t been a clear venue for that.

So I’m thrilled to share this new home for DH proceedings, which will include CHR papers & more.

Thanks to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social for leading this effort!

bit.ly/ach-anthology
Screenshot that reads: Introducing the Anthology for Computers and the Humanities Taylor Arnold, Maria Antoniak, Miguel Escobar Varela, Marie Puren, Mila Oiva , Amanda Regan, Lauren Tilton, and Melanie Walsh 1 Data Science and Statistics, University of Richmond, U.S.A. 2 Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder, U.S.A. 3 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore 4 Laboratoire de Recherche de l'EPITA, Paris, France 5 History and Archaeology, University of Turku, Finland 6 History and Geography, Clemson University, U.S.A. 7 Rhetoric and Communication Studies, University of Richmond, U.S.A. 8 Information School, University of Washington, U.S.A. Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.63744/HHsQG7hNWyxG Published: 25 September 2025
October 29, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
archivesgig.bsky.social
New York, NY: Curator, Moving Image & Recorded Sound, Schomburg Center at New York Public Library
New York, NY: Curator, Moving Image & Recorded Sound, Schomburg Center at New York Public Library
archivesgig.com
November 3, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
ceaubin.com
Call for (post-PhD) historians and cultural scholars for the pod! We have a specific wishlist of scholarship we’re looking to add to the lineup:
- ancient & medieval history
and/or
- histories of anywhere other than the US and UK, preferably outside Europe

Pitches to: [email protected]
🤗🤗🤗
November 3, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
tomtomorrow.bsky.social
all the respect to the first person who figured out how to cook and eat an artichoke, that shit wasn't self-evident
November 3, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
cityofangelle.bsky.social
They literally ruin everything they touch
Scooby-Doo screenshots. Top panel: ghost labeled “Something I used to love sucks now” Fred says “Let’s see who’s behind this” Bottom panel: Villain is unmasked, labeled “Private Equity”
October 31, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
mattseybold.bsky.social
The 100th episode of American Vandal. Launching the 12th season. Live at UPenn English Faculty Lounge with @cnewf.bsky.social, @whitneytrettien.bsky.social, & an incredible assembly of faculty, students, visiting scholars, & friends of the pod.
Criticism & The Chatbot Bubble (Vandal Live at UPenn English)
with Christopher Newfield & Whitney Trettien
theamericanvandal.substack.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
acolton.bsky.social
It's pub day (birthday 0?) for Writing Through Writer's Block: Lessons from Modern American Fiction! This is a study of how authors have used the archetype of the blocked writer to identify, analyze, and ultimately work through both internal and external constraints on their creative abilities.
Writing Through Writer’s Block
uipress.uiowa.edu
October 29, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
manshel.bsky.social
Just learned that WRITING BACKWARDS has won Narrative's 2026 Perkins Prize, "awarded to the book making the most significant contribution to the study of narrative in a given year." A true honor, especially given the prize's past recipients!

www.thenarrativesociety.org/barbara-and-...
A paperback copy of "Writing Backwards: Historical Fiction and the Reshaping of the American Canon" on a wooden desktop.
October 29, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by Nick Sturm
alicebennett.bsky.social
actually more common is that I attempt to search all libraries rather than just “featured libraries” and then it forces me to sign in to actually use the catalogue for its intended purpose
beckhams meme in which victoria is worldcat insisting that a book located in scotland is actually 0.7km away from me in norway
October 28, 2025 at 8:20 PM