Lecturer in English and Creative Industries at the University of York.
Ottaline Wallace Happy Ed Balls day! It’s celebration time, as today marks the tenth anniversary of its birth. For the past decade, a very niche and underground #edballsday subculture has been thriving, […]
Taylor Swift’s 2020 albums are a product of the pandemic, but they also allow a break from it. Through her writing, she shows us what escapism really means.
The ground shakes on impact and we scream, shout and make inhuman noises. Our teachers look on, smiling at our rambunctious, too-smart-for-their-own-good group full of black joy.
I don’t care about what a book looks like on a shelf. I have never cared about the aesthetics of being a reader – books simpering on their pedestals, waiting to pose against a gravel backdrop and gain a million likes.
ussell T Davies’ new drama It’s a Sin hit channel 4 screens during HIV Testing Week 2021. It is apt that Davies’ series finds its feet in a similar climate of health anxiety to that of his cast.
Not long ago, I believed that transgender characters played by cisgender actors were largely positive and helped to progress conversations about trans lives. Yet, they were all played by cisgender men, and in some cases reiterated dangerous stereotypes or tropes.
I chose to study English literature at university because I liked reading. What 17-year-old me didn’t realise was that I liked reading in moderation, and on my own terms.
Dr Alex George, who became a household name after appearing on ITV’s Love Island in 2018, has been appointed as a ‘Young Mental Health Ambassador’. Dr Alex has been given this position by the Prime Minister himself as a result of his constant campaigning and advice regarding mental health during the pandemic.
The Queen’s Gambit really needs no introduction. Drop the title into Google and you’ll find near-hundreds of headlines lauding it as one of the most-watched shows ever. Crikey, okay, big stuff. About chess? Surely not.
One of the focal points of Joe Biden’s inauguration was Amanda Gorman and the poem she performed, The Hill We Climb. As the inaugural poet, Gorman presented her piece with an eloquence that summarised a hope for a nation that still has time to change.
thestray.org 