Buckle up for a thread about #PoetryBooks, #bookshops, #booksellers, poetry presses, & how they find each other. Like many poetry lovers, I'm disappointed by the lack of range of poetry books stocked in most bookshops I go in. We all know that shelf - one shelf, mostly faber. For years I assumed 1 of 2 things: booksellers didn't read poetry, and/or booksellers adhered to the old maxim the poetry doesn't sell. Ofc, it won't sell if you don't have it on the shelves, so that's a self-fulfilling prophecy. #PoetryBooks #Bookshops #Bookselling #Poetry

I see the US is catching up to the grotesque 'smiling visibly and publicly is more important than surviving and thriving' discourse we've had in the UK since "freedom" day. #COVIDisAirborne #MaskUp
Image id: poster titled 'Unmasking our smiles' for a children's hospital.

https://twitter.com/lizkatsuleres/status/1645918160934305792

Image description: Poster titled 'Unmasking our smiles' with a row of surgical masks over a block of text: 'join us and 'unmask your smile' as we commemorate the end of the mask mandate. Biodegradable masks will be available to decorate with your symbolic words and pictures ...

Small note on the #UCUstrike. I'm not doing university teaching anymore, after 18 years. Why? Hourly pay has gone down from £40 per teaching hr in 2014 to £16 per contact hr in 2022. Contracts have gone down from 9 months to 10 weeks. 1 contact hour = 4-8 hrs work. #ucuRISING The last undergraduate teaching I did, in 2021, was paid £1300 the semester for 2 courses, including writing 1 from scratch, all the reading prep, reading & commenting on student work every week, marking at the end (out of contract time, typically). It took up 2 days a week.#UCU