MyAV范

Associate Professor听in Literature in English from 1900 to the Present Day Email: m.sperling@ucl.ac.uk Office: Foster Court 232

Education and Experience听

Matthew Sperling听joined MyAV范 in 2016 as Lecturer in Literature in English from 1900 to the Present Day and became Associate Professor in 2022. He now teaches half the time in the English department and half on BA Creative Arts and Humanities at MyAV范 East.

Before joining MyAV范, he held positions听as Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Reading and听Fellow by Special Election at Keble College, Oxford. He studied at Gravesend Grammar School and听the University of Oxford.

听

Research Interests

Matthew's first novel,听Astroturf, was published by riverrun in 2018 and was longlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019. His second novel,听Viral, was published by riverrun in 2020.听His writing has also been published in 3:AM, Best British Short Stories听2015, The Economist: 1843,听The Guardian,听The Junket,听the New Statesman,听Prospect,听Vanity Fair,听The White Review,听and elsewhere.

Matthew鈥檚 critical writing focuses on modern and contemporary literature and the history of publishing and the book. His monograph, Visionary Philology: Geoffrey Hill and the Study of Words, was published by Oxford University Press in 2014. He has contributed chapters, articles and听reviews to many publications, and he听regularly writes about modern art听for .

He is currently at work on a creative-critical听book about the Ripley novels by Patricia Highsmith.

听

Selected Publications

听(London: riverrun, 2020)

鈥楢 fiercely smart and funny portrayal of tech arrogance, unhinged entrepreneurship, and the vacuous amorality of disruptive startup culture. Viral is a vicious delight.鈥欌�擲am Byers

鈥楢n irresistible, razor-sharp and hilarious takedown of our generation's masters of the universe.鈥欌�擮livia Sudjic

鈥楽imultaneously funny and dead accurate鈥欌�擲unday Telegraph

鈥榁iral鈥檚 vision of our capitalist present is at once absurdist 鈥撯�淯berise the homeless?鈥� Ned suggests, searching for a new enterprise 鈥� and uncomfortably familiar.鈥欌�擬ikaella Clements, Times Literary Supplement

听

听(London: riverrun, 2018)

LONGLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2019

鈥楢 brawn cocktail that nails the zeitgeist... a clever and well-paced morality tale for the modern age鈥欌�擲arah Gilmartin, Irish Times

鈥業 loved Matthew Sperling鈥檚 sly, subversive novel, a听wickedly funny听tale of how to come out on top in a听fake news world鈥欌�擮livia Laing

鈥極utrageous, sexy and funny. Sperling writes with the caustic economy of Waugh or Spark, but his characters have more heart, including the听sockpuppets. The plot is so taut I'm still trying to work out how he brings the tension of a heist movie to thirty-something bedsit London鈥欌�擫uke Kennard

鈥榠t proceeds with the briskness of a screenplay... the author is to be commended for the controlled and unobstrusive voice of his third-person narrator鈥欌��Houman Barekat,听Times Literary Supplement

鈥楢 tale about steroids which seems to be听on steroids听itself: sleek, muscular and just slightly听too real鈥欌�擪ate Clanchy

鈥楢 brilliant anatomy of a certain proliferating type of contemporary masculinity: Instagram-approved, swole with self-regard, yoked with desperation, and, like this novel itself, equipped with an alarmingly strong grip鈥欌�擜dam Foulds

鈥榯his sharp, short, timely novel is not only a powerful account of performance-enhacing drug use, but a snapshot of contemporary masculinity 鈥� not caricatured or simply dismissed as 鈥渢oxic鈥� but brought to life with empathy and wit鈥欌�擭ew Statesman

鈥楢 frank and remarkable debut from a new and authentic voice. I love Matthew Sperling鈥檚 exploration of masculinity, love, and the plural identities that entangle us all in the contemporary world鈥欌�擷iaolu Guo

鈥樷�櫶齣n听Critical Quarterly听(October 2023)

鈥樷�櫶齣n听The Junket, issue 14听(June 2015)

鈥樷�櫶齣n听3:AM听(March 2015)

鈥樷�櫶齣n听The Junket, issue 13听(January 2015)

鈥楻emovals鈥櫶齣n听, issue 1听(2014), 23鈥�32

鈥樷�櫶齣n听The Literateur (April 2014); anthologized in Nicholas Royle (ed.),听Best British Short Stories 2015听(Cromer: Salt Publishing, 2015), 113鈥�127

听 听 听 听 CRITICAL WRITING

Visionary Philology: Geoffrey Hill and the Study of Words (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)

鈥楽perling鈥檚 plundering of the archive makes this study an invaluable and highly revealing document of Hill鈥檚 poetic and scholarly life鈥� the academic monograph invites us to read it as a brilliantly unconventional biography of its subject鈥欌�擲tuart Farley, PN Review

鈥楳atthew Sperling has produced an indispensable book on the poet鈥� He has also, by the way of delineating Hill鈥檚 intellectual genealogy, written a slender but learned history of English romantic philology, an important study that will repay the attention of scholars and critics interested more broadly in the politics and theology of language鈥欌�擯aul Franz, Religion & Literature

鈥榁isionary Philology is an outstanding work of scholarship and synthesis鈥欌�擝eau Hopkins, Notes & Queries

鈥榓 passionately informed, thoroughly fascinating exploration of Hill鈥檚 published and unpublished thought, and one that is sure to set the agenda for further research on this major poet鈥欌�擪arl O鈥橦anlon, Modernism/modernity

鈥榁isionary Philology has performed an invaluable task in its patient account of a variety of abstruse and sometimes rebarbative ideas鈥欌�擜lex Pestell, The Review of English Studies

鈥榯his lean monograph is a superb example of lively and rigorous scholarship, achieving a double whammy by making significant contributions to our understanding of both Hill and literary philology鈥欌�擩ames Underwood, The Modern Language Review

鈥楬ymnody: From Lowell to Riley in Common Measure鈥�, in E.J.F. Allen, Forms of Late Modernist Lyric (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2021)

鈥楲exicography and Modern Poetry鈥� in Andrew Blades and Piers Pennington (eds), Poetry and the Dictionary (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2019)

鈥楪eoffrey Hill and Publishing: 鈥淭he Recalcitrance of the World鈥濃��, in Andrew Michael Roberts (ed.), Strangeness and Power: Essays on the Poetry of Geoffrey Hill (Bristol: Shearsman, 2019)

鈥楴ot Feeling at Home: Poetry and the Hidden Injuries of Class鈥�, in Tom Phillips (ed.),听The Other Lives of Peter Robinson: Essays on his Writing听(Bristol: Shearsman, 2021)

鈥楥ape Goliard鈥�, in Lise Jaillant (ed.), Publishing Modernist Fiction and Poetry (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019)

鈥�The Tribune's Visitation听and Fulcrum Press: The Publishing Contexts of Late-Modernist Poetry鈥�, in Jamie Callison, Paul S. Fiddes, Anna Johnson and Erik Tonning (eds),听David Jones: A Christian Modernist?听New Approaches to His Art, Poetry and Cultural Theory听(Leiden: Brill, 2018),听249鈥�262

Sections on 鈥楤ritish Poetry Post-1950鈥櫶齣n The Year鈥�s Work in English Studies, volumes 93, 94, 95 and 96听(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014鈥�17)

鈥楾he Publishing of Poetry: An Interview between Don Paterson and Matthew Sperling鈥�, in Natalie Pollard (ed.), Don Paterson: Contemporary Critical Essays (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014), 145鈥�152

鈥楤ooks and the Market: Trade Publishers, State Subsidies and Small Presses鈥�, in Peter Robinson (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Contemporary British and Irish Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 191鈥�212

Geoffrey Hill and his Contexts, co-edited with Piers Pennington (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2011)

鈥楾he Trouble of an Index鈥�, Essays in Criticism, LXI:4 (2011), 325鈥�337

鈥樷�淭he Glacial Question, Unsolved鈥�: A Specimen Commentary on Lines 1鈥�31鈥櫶�(co-authored with Thomas Roebuck), Glossator:听Practice and Theory of the Commentary, 2 (2010), 39鈥�78

鈥榃ater鈥�, in Peter Robinson (ed.),听An Unofficial Roy Fisher听(Exeter: Shearsman, 2010), 161鈥�168

鈥樷�淭he Making of the Book鈥�: Roy Fisher, the Circle Press and the Poetics of Book Art鈥�, Literature Compass, 4:5 (2007), 1444鈥�1459