Bécquer Seguín

No Country for Old Men Everything hinges on your interpretation of the word “old”

open.substack.com/pub/becquer/...

Yesterday, I was on @sobremesapod.bsky.social, hosted by the wonderful @eoghangilmartin.bsky.social, to talk about why Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez seems to be loved everywhere but in his own country.

(Link in the thread, which includes other related links.)

Sánchez on the World Stage

Why has Pedro Sánchez been willing to reject US-Israeli aggression against Iran?

@becquer.bsky.social & @eoghangilmartin.bsky.social
discuss the domestic factors informing his foreign policy & Sánchez's vision for Spain and the EU's place in the new world order: open.spotify.com/episode/7lRT...

Jobs, Immigration, and Our Recent Piece on Madrid in The Nation For as long as I can remember, my biggest fear in life was to not have a job.

substack.com/@becquer/not...

I wrote about jobs, immigration, and my most recent piece with @sebasfaber.bsky.social for @thenation.com, which is about Madrid. (Link in first reply.)

It's my first piece in English. My apologies for the delay to all the English-language readers out there. Many thanks for reading.

“Not So Ephemeral After All”: Talking Op-Eds, War, and Memory with Bécquer Seguín - Public Books “Why does the op-ed still hold sway over writers who want to be intellectuals or want to have some public presence?”

New at PB: @xdapena.bsky.social interviews PB literature-in-translation editor @becquer.bsky.social about his book The Op-Ed Novel: A Literary History of Post-Franco Spain (@harvardpress.bsky.social) & the link between contemporary narrative & opinion journalism.

“Not So Ephemeral After All”: Talking Op-Eds, War, and Memory with Bécquer Seguín - Public Books “Why does the op-ed still hold sway over writers who want to be intellectuals or want to have some public presence?”

Today, the interview "de largo aliento" I conducted with @becquer.bsky.social about his book The Op-Ed Novel: A Literary History of Post-Franco Spain is being published. My deepest thanks to Bécquer for the conversation, and to @publicbooks.bsky.social for the opportunity.👇 tinyurl.com/33fh4k3p

“Not So Ephemeral After All”: Talking Op-Eds, War, and Memory with Bécquer Seguín - Public Books “Why does the op-ed still hold sway over writers who want to be intellectuals or want to have some public presence?”

“I became interested in the op-ed as a form. And more generally, I wanted to think about how opinion circulates in modern societies.”

New at PB: Bécquer Seguín (@becquer.bsky.social) in conversation with Xavier Dapena (@xdapena.bsky.social).

“Not So Ephemeral After All”: Talking Op-Eds, War, and Memory with Bécquer Seguín - Public Books “Why does the op-ed still hold sway over writers who want to be intellectuals or want to have some public presence?”

“Muñoz Molina has what we might call a hypermoral sensibility, which drives his newspaper writing and, I argue, simultaneously drives his novel writing.”

New at PB: @becquer.bsky.social on the novelists who became Spain’s premiere op-ed columnists.

“Not So Ephemeral After All”: Talking Op-Eds, War, and Memory with Bécquer Seguín - Public Books “Why does the op-ed still hold sway over writers who want to be intellectuals or want to have some public presence?”

“The op-ed is ‘journalism’s sonnet,’ according to Francisco Umbral, which is a beautiful way to understand an ephemeral piece of writing that is not so ephemeral after all.”

New at PB: @becquer.bsky.social on the art of the op-ed.

Public Picks 2025 - Public Books What were the books of 2025 that dazzled, challenged, and inspired us?

PB editors @megancummins.bsky.social, @njdames.bsky.social, Marlene L. Daut, @taoleighgoffe.bsky.social, Frank Guridy, Tara K. Menon, Leah Price, @becquer.bsky.social, @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social, Abigail Struhl, and Stephanie Wong share their fave books of 2025.

Public Picks 2025 - Public Books What were the books of 2025 that dazzled, challenged, and inspired us?

Our 2025 Editors’ Picks are here! Lit in Translation & Sports co-editor @becquer.bsky.social recommends Luis Martín-Santos's "Time of Silence" (trans. Peter Bush) & @johnnysmith135.bsky.social & Randy Roberts's "The Fight of His Life."

The Spanish-Speaking William F. Buckley - Dissent Magazine Buckley’s seldom-acknowledged fluency in Spanish shaped his worldview—including his admiration for dictators from Spain to Chile and beyond.

He was a hispanophile, but the wrong kind of hispanophile.

This from 2016 by @becquer.bsky.social

dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

How Immigration Transformed Europe’s Most Conservative Capital Madrid has changed greatly since 1975, at once opening itself to immigrants from Latin America while also doubling down on conservative politics.

Madrid's reputation as “a graceless city of reactionary generals and slow-moving civil servants” is undeserved, says Luke Stegemann in his urban biography (@yalepress.bsky.social).

Bécquer Seguín (@becquer.bsky.social) and I are not so sure.

In @thenation.com.

thenation.com/article/cult...

Book cover with aerial photograph showing an oblique aerial view of the city of Paris, picturing the avanue du Bois du Boulogne and the Arc de Triomphe. The surface of the photograph is annotated in red and black ink. The book title and author appear in white serif font: Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts, by Emily Doucet .

My book has a cover! Inventing Nadar will be out in April 2026 from @dukepress.bsky.social.

On Our Nightstands: September 2025 - Public Books A behind-the-scenes look at what Public Books editors and staff have been reading this month.

For the latest On Our Nightstands, Literature in Translation editor @becquer.bsky.social recommends All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess by Becca Rothfeld.

Muchísimas felicidades compa!

I had a fascinating conversation with
@nicoabu.bsky.social about his 4 decade history of the Francoist dictatorship, 'Ni una, ni grande, ni libre'.

We discuss the Spanish path to fascism, how it diverged from the Germany & Italy & how the dictatorship evolved post-WWII while demolishing any idea

Thank you!

What a great privilege to get to know and support the truly stellar faculty at Johns Hopkins, especially early in their career.

We just announced the 2025 cohort of Catalyst Award recipients.

This award will allow them to move into new bold directions.

research.jhu.edu/major-initia...

Congratulations! 🎉

Catalyst Awards presented to 20 early-career Johns Hopkins faculty Faculty across dozens of disciplines awarded $100K to pursue their work

Many congratulations to our Hispanic issue editor @becquer.bsky.social who has just been honored with a prestigious award for early career faculty.
¡Bien merecido!
hub.jhu.edu/2025/06/17/j...

Catalyst Awards presented to 20 early-career Johns Hopkins faculty Faculty across dozens of disciplines awarded $100K to pursue their work

I still can't believe this happened.

Many thanks to @jhu.edu, @jhuartssciences.bsky.social, and @deniswirtz.bsky.social's office for this very, very generous award.

hub.jhu.edu/2025/06/17/j...

cover image for MLN's Hispanic issue

Coming soon! Edited by @becquer.bsky.social + a dossier on Catalan studies edited by Anna Casas Aguilar, Maria Dasca, @albertlloret.bsky.social, and Olga Sendra Ferrer. Managing editor @victoriajane.bsky.social Assistant Editor Lauren Reynolds.
Cover: SON RAVAL © Consuelo Bautista. 2013.

Trump contra Emilia Pardo Bazán Un estudio sobre la escritora gallega es uno de los libros retirados de la biblioteca de la Academia Naval de Estados Unidos

Hoy en @elpais.com, escribo sobre Trump, Emilia Pardo Bazán y el auge de la censura de libros en EE.UU.

elpais.com/babelia/2025...

Hace bien el movimiento MAGA en censurar "El Cuento de la Criada", porque el dedo de Margaret Atwood apunta directamente al ojo de Trump.

Trump contra Emilia Pardo Bazán Un estudio sobre la escritora gallega es uno de los libros retirados de la biblioteca de la Academia Naval de Estados Unidos

@becquer.bsky.social: Su ineptitud literaria se ve reflejada en la selección de títulos censurados. “No parece que los censores hubieran leído casi ninguno de los libros prohibidos”
...entre ellos también se encuentra El cuento de la criada, de Margaret Atwood.
elpais.com/babelia/2025...

Shout out to Baltimore! Courtesy of @becquer.bsky.social

“The Door’s Still Locked”: Fiction after Fascism “Labor” forces us to ask: Who has power? “Horror” forces us to ask: Who is the monster? And the combination of the two, “Labor-as-Horror,” tells us to beware the uncomfortable fractures in our…

“For Estela and Felice—as for Chile and Italy—fascism is in the past. And yet its horrors endure.”

As our Italian issue is prepared for printing, we're reviewing proofs for our Hispanic issue, edited by @becquer.bsky.social with @albertlloret.bsky.social as one of our guest editors for a dossier on Catalan studies. With managing editor @victoriajane.bsky.social