Elliott Holt

Note to self: never again wear red shoes on a red carpet.

"Whereas the AI users got answers wrong or gave up entirely when the AI assistance was withdrawn, the group without AI stuck with the task and were more successful at the end."

I worked with—and deeply admired—Helen for almost 30 years. She was hands down *the best source* about emerging infectious diseases that I've ever known. My first warning of COVID was when on Dec 28, 2019 she reposted a ProMED mail report of an atypical pneumonia cluster: "This doesn't look good."

Correct.

Kate O’Flynn! Matthew Rhys! #emmys

COYOTE VS ACME is legitimately great

COYOTE v ACME is very very good.

It’s probably impossible to explain this to anyone who wasn’t around at the time but I still get chills from looking at this, what an absolutely heroic cultural achievement

Since I occasionally post great negative reviews I will repost this amazing rave for a new novel by Marlon James. Particularly appreciate Garner’s ability to get across how filthy the novel is without using any of the words it does. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/b...

(1/2) Since I haven't seen anyone else mention this one... It was an open secret that Dolly Parton secretly funded a massive number of southern high school bands, most especially predominantly Black high schools. A marching band member in her youth, Dolly never forgot the joy that playing snare drum

The Library is devastated to learn of the passing of Dolly Parton, a music legend and titan of children's literacy. Her Imagination Library program has earned multiple Library Literacy Awards and, in 2018, she visited us to donate its 100 millionth book to our collection and host a story time. 🦋❤️

Lydia Davis will the give the second annual 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 Autumn Lecture, titled ’Dying, or Doing Something Else: Reflections on Marcus Aurelius and Other Stoics’, on 28 October at the New School, New York City. Details and tickets here: www.tickettailor.com/events/londo...

I found it. 2015, much more recent than I remembered. And it wasn't the author of the profile who asked her about it, it was the novelist Michael Cunningham! @elliottholt.bsky.social

Trump accuses the Smithsonian of such heinous crimes as neglecting Flag Day, exhibiting foreign bird feathers, and impugning the honor of Mickey Mouse. What’s the truth? I joined four retired ladies from Citizen Historians to investigate www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

syzygy | noun | the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (such as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system

Largest Lego cathedral in the world being built at National Cathedral in DC

There is a lot to say about the Nolan Odyssey movie. But one point that I think has not been emphasized enough is: this is a film about living in LA, as Nolan, my erstwhile British compatriot and age mate, has done for years. I gather it’s a strange place.

I also hated Nolan’s Odyssey, for many of the reasons Emily Wilson mentioned. I love film and have no problem with adapting stories to fit the medium but Nolan’s leaden script and the film’s lack of moral ambiguity bored me.

Uh, did Emily Wilson's Odyssey takedown crash the @lrb.co.uk website?

"Riley has a formidable talent...for rendering the way a person's particular compound of vanities, insecurities, and sadism is revealed through speech." Damn straight. Hermione Hoby on Gwendoline Riley in @bookforum.bsky.social

The NYRB Author’s Closet, a series of videos of the least camera-ready people in society mumbling inaudibly about Vasily Grossman.

I wrote about the Nolan Odyssey for the LRB. I'll summarize some of my main points below, in case you don't feel like reading all that. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Mark your calendars for 8/4/26 ✨ Etna by Paul Yoon is a breathtaking new work of fiction from the celebrated author of Snow Hunters and Run Me to Earth: https://bit.ly/4nHXGNq

ETNA by Paul Yoon is a #1 August Indie Next Pick for July! Congratulations, Paul, and thank you to booksellers everywhere for your incredible support. Preorder the paperback from your local indie today: https://bit.ly/4nHXGNq

Tonight! Hope to see you there.

I have heard That guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul, that presently They have proclaim’d their malefactions

This captures my feelings about this film.

Set in the High Sierra before and during the California Gold Rush, Josh Weil's gorgeous new novel, "What Came West," offers a fresh twist on Manifest Destiny. Out today from @doubledaybooks.bsky.social. Here's my review for @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/b...

Yea, dost thou jeer

Spain are the world champions after a deserved 1-0 victory over an Argentina team who barely mustered a shot

the pain for Spain is mainly on the wane

Now just rondo, 🇪🇸

Finally! What a beautiful goal. 🇪🇸

I didn’t get into watching ⚽️ until the 1998 World Cup and I remember where I watched every final since then.

¡ Vamos España !

‘Odyssey’ comes from the name Odysseus. The first known use of ‘odyssey’ as a generic term for “journey” was in Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Kidnapped” in 1886.

also true of editors

To France, to France, and get what you have lost!

Yesterday’s third place game was so much fun to watch that I am already mourning the end of the World Cup.

was very touched and surprised to learn I had won this year’s Gabe Hudson Prize for Will There Ever Be Another You. my deepest thanks to Gabe’s mother Sanchia Semere and McSweeneys

Somehow despite its gargantuan scale, 75-foot-high IMAX image, $250 million budget & stacked cast of A-list stars, Christopher Nolan's Odyssey feels like his most personal project...& maybe, w/ the proviso that I've never been a huge Nolan-head, my favorite movie he's made? slate.com/culture/2026...

Messi is the GOAT but oh how I wanted to see Jude Bellingham win.