Katherine Firth

@katherinefirth.bsky.social

1965 Followers 3044 Following

Writes about writing, especially for PhDs and researchers: poetry, music, food. Blogs at Research Degree Insider

In front of the cathedral. A person walking. A person running. A person in a full sized orange inflatable chicken suite
Chicken in the distance in a crowd at the finish line
Person in a blow up chicken costume surrounded by runners walking to the start line
The manuscript The manuscript is written and corrected throughout in brown iron-gall ink. The pages are filled in a neat, even hand with signs of concurrent writing, erasure, and revision, interrupted by occasional passages of heavy interlinear correction. There is no pagination, no clear or regular paragraphing, and no separation of speaking parts one from another. (Over a third of the Watsons fragment is cast in direct speech.) The manuscript is without chapter divisions, though not without informal division by wider spacing and ruled lines. The full pages suggest that Jane Austen did not anticipate a protracted process of redrafting. With no calculated blank spaces and no obvious way of incorporating large revision or expansion she had to find other strategies - the three patches, small pieces of paper, each of which was filled closely and neatly with the new material, attached with straight pins to the precise spot where erased material was to be covered or where an insertion was required to expand the text.? All three patches are carefully cut to the shape of their written texts and, unlike the quired leaves, are materially tailored to fit narrative need: in the patches to Quires 9 and 10 the only indication of where they are to be placed is provided by the pin holes. The best clue we have that they represent a later stage of creation rather than immediate second thoughts is that all three are written on paper which, though common to themselves, is not used for the bulk of the manuscript. The patches are on thicker paper with distinct chainlines; they may even come from the same sheet and represent a single concerted act of revision.
KATHERINE FIRTH AUSTRALIAN ACADEMIC WRITING SCHO. • 568 STRENGTH • TOP 8% GPT-5.5 SAYS ACADEMIC DEVELOPER AND WRITER KNOWN FOR WORK ON DOCTORAL EDUCATION, ACADEMIC WRITING, AND RESEARCH COMMUNICATION. GPT-5.5 GPT-5.4 MINI CLAUDE OPUS 4.S CLAUDE HAIKU 4.5 GROK 4.20 GEMINI 3.1 LITE KIMI K2 0905 DEEPSEEK V4 LLAMA 3.3 70B LLAMA 3.2 1B GLM 4.7 FLASH MISTRAL 3.2 24B OWENS SB IN THE WEIGHTS • COM
Yarra river reflecting blue sky and gum trees
Level Up Your Essays
Golden broth in a Chinese blue and white patterned bowl
graffitied cobbledi laneway glistening in sun after rain
You think about other things it might do. Setting OpenClaw up to control an AC unit sounds very neat but requires a more comprehensive smart-home setup, which you commit to, and it eventually works. Wrestling with an eBay skill helps you realize that 95 percent of what you enjoy about eBay is browsing, not actually buying things. A vague plan for a meal-prep and shopping-list app explodes on the launchpad as you realize it would involve convincing your spouse to change numerous well-thought-out habits, too, and that the main challenge around shopping and cooking isn’t data synthesis and ingredient inventory but that, basically, “things happen” and “Thai actually sounds good tonight.”
Cover of Summer at Mount Asama " fell in love with this beautiful novel'-HIROMI KAWAKAMI, Translated by Margaret Mitsutani Author Masashi Matsuie
Kleenex golden retriever cuddles kitten going ‘mehp, ugh’
Cover of book: Sticks: A collection of sticks & the people who love them, from the founders of Stick Nation
Bourdieu. Averroës. Coffee. Box of party treats for tomorrow’s guests.
One Step after Another Could it be that our trailing lives are seen by the perhaps god as being sweet and brief like the first scent of summer rain? It's that last wriggle on feet of sand as you ease off wet bathers under a sarong-like beach towel without showing off all your goodies. Tesserae much like this apparently, alas, make up a life: there's no getting away from it. When you come to realise that God is not the answer but the question then you are on your way to wise confusion or even to humility, apologising too for all that sand on the lino floor.
Books, note books, coffee cups, a water bottle, a laptop, folders
Tile Amra’s Armchair Podcast with Amra Pajalic and Katherine Firth
Screenshot of the box, Toga Return
Fancy pencil sharpener. Tiny pencil shavings. 2 totally untouched pencils made sharp and a blunt pencil resharpened.
Fancy semi transparent pencil sharpener, with a crank handle
Little Edwardian wooden fold down desk with green leather inlay, pigeonholes, drawers and papers
Haidee Hicks speaking on a panel with Andi Salamon, Abbe Winter and Narelle Lemon
Moleskin Cahier, Midori pencil, She speaks bookmarks, new book sneak peek
Black and tan dachshund looking shy, demure, unbothered, on her sofa
Personally, I care a lot about science because I think the expansion of knowledge is the only thing that makes us better off in the long run. But whatever, some people want to clean up the park, other people want to help sick kids, and other people want to save the shrimp. Godspeed to all of them. As far as I’m concerned, we’re all comrades in a war that has infinite fronts. Nobody can fight on all of them, and I won’t ask anyone to join mine if they can do more good elsewhere. But there is no neutral territory here. There may be plenty of front lines, but there are no sidelines. The best way to prevent people from taking themselves out of the fight is to recognize that there is no “out” of the fight. There’s no room for anyone to play the Switzerland strategy—“I’m not involved, I’ll just hold on to your valuables while you guys fight it out!” The sum total of our actions will either make the world better or worse. Which is it gonna be?
Rice porridge, soy marinated eggs crispy shallots and anchovies, XO and chilli crisp
Energy snack collection
Sausage in bread with onions mustard tomato sauce
Signing books, piles of them, pens, hands. Journeying with Bonhoeffer: Six Steps on the Path of Discipleship by Andreas Loewe and Katherine Firth
Le grand courage, c'est encore de tenir les yeux ouverts sur la lumière comme sur la mort.
Book, open at a page of French text. Dog. Sofa.
Page of Herman Hesse Siddartha highlighting two uses of ?!
A paved garden, lots of brick, sun and shade
I lived in the first century of world wars. Most mornings I would be more or less insane, The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories, The news would pour out of various devices Interrupted by attempts to sell products to the unseen. I would call my friends on other devices; They would be more or less mad for similar reasons. Slowly I would get to pen and paper, Make my poems for others unseen and unborn.
Page of l’etranger with two sets of annotations, by the same person 30 years apart. The new annotation reads: 2025-what of he is a narcissistic & unreliable narrator, huh? Below, the older marginalia reads: Startling opening Naïve comment
Copy of book with uncut and unopened pages
People sitting and swimming in a river in summer, lots of rocks
And there was already light: A stainless steel glare breaking through the eucalypts; The sky enamel, cobalt-washed, lapis lazuli blue. The north wind blew in from the desert: Drowning in the hot scent of mock orange and ripe mango We longed for the cool change and the sea breeze. It was already the longest day: Why should I await the Light of the World When I already have a surfeit? Into the crowded starry midnight, The neon and electric city festival, Into the early dawn jangling with birdsong, Into my summer: Then came the Christ Child into the brightness And he was more than the sun.
Rattan chairs, a window, very small an incense stick lit.
Garden in early morning shade, green, paving swept, chairs arranged with cushions
Black cat and a theragun
A garden in pale evening light
Egg fried rice and chopsticks
Red and green in the salad dressinf
Sunny day, blue sky, park, green grass, trees
If you want the recipe, please ask!
Ernest Wright Kutrite scissors open on a kitchen bench
Red cabbage shredded
Ham in the oven covered in glaze
Sticky brown glaze with a whiskey bottle in the background
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
Yellow cover of Invitation to a banquet, garden in the background
Black and tan long haired dachshund on beach sand, the wind blows her hair like she is on the cover of a romance novel, you can see a bit of tongue. This picture is a lot.
Pate, toast, fancy jelly thing, cornichons
Green cocktail with basil leaf garnish
Aboriginal art jigsaw
Sausage in bread with mustard and tomato sauce
Dog on lead, foot in gum boot, wet pavement
Joan of Arc statue outside the state library