@rpnewcomb
Professor and Chair, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, UC Davis Director, UC Iberian Studies Consortium CompLit | Luso-Afro-Brazilian Studies | Iberian Studies | Translation Western New Yorker, naturalized Californian, runner, punk fan, Red Sox
I've just published a series of translated newspaper pieces by the great Brazilian writer Machado de Assis (1839-1908). They deal with one of his favorite literary motifs - the donkey - and touch on slavery, greed, modernization, and as always, human folly. Open access. #academicsky
Join the Mediterranean Studies forum at #mla2027 in LA! Proposals for both sessions are due March 15. #academicsky
The Ukrainian Institute and @kyivindependent.com have teamed up to popularize Ukrainian classics! Read more at the press release.
kyivindependent.com/rediscoverin...
I loved Walter Kempowski's novel "All for Nothing" and I'm now really enjoying "Marrow and Bone." Next up is "An Ordinary Youth." Looking for recommendations of similar German fiction available in English translation, or of novels about displacement and empire's physical remains. #booksky
Excellent song by the band MAQUINA., from Lisbon. For fans of krautrock, noise, and Primal Scream's "XTRMNTR." //
Excelente canção da banda lisboeta MAQUINA. Recomendo para fãs de krautrock, noise, e "XTRMNTR" de Primal Scream.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqYX...
#musicsky
For absolutely no reason whatsoever, I want to recommend this book, An American Language: The History of Spanish in the United States by Rosina Lozano. www.ucpress.edu/books/an-ame...
Just finished reading Fernanda Melchor’s “This Is Not Miami.” Excellent collection, very much complementary reading to her novels. Melchor is one of my favorite young(-ish) writers, and her depictions of Veracruz are electrifying. #booksky
This is the university library at KU Leuven (Belgium). It was destroyed during World War I. US universities and schools funded its reconstruction. I saw their names carved into the facade when I visited last month. I want to believe that gestures like this are still possible. #academicsky
Just finished Brandon Hobson’s ”The Removed.” One of the best new-ish novels I’ve read in a while. Recommended. #booksky
Looking forward to presenting on Tuesday, January 13 at #KULeuven and the Centre for Global Governance Studies on "Sovereignty and Iberian National Literatures: Comparing Catalonia and Portugal." #academicsky
#mla2026 #academicsky
Drove into Canada today for #MLA2026 in Toronto and the minute I crossed the border the "Kids in the Hall" theme popped into my head. Couldn't be helped.
I mostly listened to old reggae and dub in 2025. But I did listen to some new songs. Favorites:
Crush Your Soul, Living Gracious
Die Spitz, Pop Punk Anthem
Suede, Dancing With the Europeans Nothing, Cannibal World
Real Daze, Shulgin
Sharon Van Etten, Live Forever
Mil-Spec, When the Music Ends 6.52
A group of students walking in front of the Memorial Union patio. A blue gradient and white text reading "UC Davis in Top 10 of Nation’s Public Universities for 5th Year" with the UC Davis logo placed near the bottom right corner.
UC Davis tied for No. 9 among the nation’s top public universities and earned accolades for innovation, social mobility and more in the 2026 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings. This is the 5th consecutive year the campus has been ranked among the top 10 public universities: ucdav.is/46Pv7qx
Rereading “Nostromo.” From a Latin Americanist perspective, it seems preoccupied with the binarisms of the day (Latin/Anglo-Saxon, North/South America), partly recalling writers like Rodó - despite Conrad’s stereotyping and second-hand knowledge. A Latin Americanist novel?
#booksky
#academicsky
Congrats to my childhood friend, the incredible writer and artist, Sophie Campbell, @mooncalfe1.bsky.social, for her work on Supergirl! 🏳️⚧️
Just finished Dan Flores’s “Coyote America.” The coyote is impressive for so many reasons, not least of which is that it’s prospered and expanded its range immensely despite all attempts to destroy it. Coming to a North American city near you, if not there already!
#booksky
Just finished Kei Miller's novel "Augustown." A really nice novel about historical repetition and cyclical injustice and resistance in contemporary Jamaica. Despite the narrator's assertion that it's not a magical realist novel, it compares with Alejo Carpentier's "El reino de este mundo."
#booksky
Finishing up Wilson Harris's hallucinatory, occasionally maddening novel "Palace of the Peacock." An account of a hellish journey upriver in Guyana, it doubles as a lament for and denunciation of colonialism. Worth a look for readers of Joseph Conrad, Alejo Carpentier, and Juan Rulfo.
#booksky
'The author of Girl, Woman, Other and Mr Loverman has been rewarded for her entire body of work, as well as her “transformative impact on literature and her unwavering dedication to uplifting under-represented voices across the cultural landscape”.' Kudos richly merited.
The UC Iberian Studies Consortium just started a listserv. University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) faculty interested in Iberian Studies are welcome to join. Email me at rpnewcomb@ucdavis.edu if interested.
Thank you!
Planning to teach a seminar next year on Latin American literature in translation, focusing on three countries that are “peripheral” to Latin America: Brazil, Jamaica, & Haiti. I’d appreciate any recommendations of scholars of Jamaican or Haitian literature. I have questions!
#academicsky
#booksky
If no one has done this yet, someone should write a paper on the circulation of William DeVaughn‘s song “Be Thankful for What You Got” (1974) between the US, Jamaica, and the UK (via Massive Attack) as an example of cultural exchange across the Black Atlantic.
Delighted to see 'Strategies for Writing Gibraltar into the World'! Congratulations to guest editor, @rpnewcomb.bsky.social, contributors: Edwige Tamalet Talbayev, David Álvarez + José Juan Yborra Aznar. @antonpujol.bsky.social @acis46.bsky.social intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/ijis/38/1
Pleased to announce that the new issue of the International Journal of Iberian Studies features a dossier, "Strategies for Writing Gibraltar into the World," which I edited. It features articles on Gibraltarian literature by me, David Alvarez, José Juan Yborra Aznar, and Edwige Tamalet Talbayev.
My review of Earl E. Fitz’s “The Literatures of Spanish America and Brazil” is out now in the Luso-Brazilian Review.
My translation of the great, dearly missed Alfredo Bosi's "An Ideological Knot - On Interlaced Perspectives in Machado de Assis" has been published in a special issue of Santa Barbara Portuguese Studies dedicated to Bosi, a major Brazilian literary and cultural critic.
The United States are, have been, and will be a multilingual country, whether or not it has an “official” language. //
EEUU son, han sido, y serán país plurilingüe, teniendo o no lengua “oficial.”