The Enduring Engine: Tracing the Intellectual Legacy of Verne and Wells in Steampunk Culture
The emergence of steampunk as a distinct literary, aesthetic, and cultural movement represents one of the most sophisticated exercises in retro-futuristic speculation within the broader canon of speculative fiction. Defined by its synthesis of nineteenth-century industrial machinery with anachronistic technological advancements, the genre functions as an “uchronia” — an alternative timeline where the trajectory of…
The Dissident Mode: Chris Kraus and the Invention of Autotheory
The literary and intellectual trajectory of Chris Kraus represents a significant shift in the landscape of contemporary letters, marking the point at which the traditional boundaries of art criticism, philosophy, and personal narrative dissolved into a new, hybrid form of expression. Born in 1955 in the Bronx and raised in New Zealand, Kraus’s early career…
Literary Merit in the Digital Age: A 2026 Writing Competition Review
The contemporary publishing industry is currently navigating a period of profound structural disruption, characterised by a fundamental shift in how literary talent is identified, validated, and brought to market. Historically, the transition from manuscript to published work was governed by a rigid hierarchy of gatekeepers, including literary agents, acquisitions editors, and marketing executives. However, the…
The BookTok Revolution
For any writer working in the United Kingdom today, the landscape of the publishing industry can feel as though it has shifted beneath our feet. We have moved from a world where a book’s success was determined by a handful of literary critics and a six-week window on a front-of-store table to a vibrant, chaotic,…
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