Recommended by Josh Kornbluth
I am generally terrified of reading about Covid - it just gets me so freaked out! Erin Kissane finds just the right tone to share important information without either underplaying the dangers or making me want to shut down.
I cannot recommend this enough! George Saunders, whose novel "Lincoln in the Bardo" (as well as his many brilliant stories and essays) has rocked my world, is essentially giving an online masterclass in writing and reading fiction. Following his posts is pure joy!!!
My friend Wendy MacNaughton is just a magical human being: beyond-brilliant artist, fantastic (and generous) teacher, and a spectacularly beautiful person!! I am so relieved that she survived being my passenger during the brief period I was allowed to drive a car!!
The great Hanif Kureishi, who wrote the screenplay to "My Beautiful Laundrette" and the novel "The Buddha of Suburbia," had a terrible accident last year that left him without the use of his arms or legs. Now he is narrating dispatches to this new publication with his usual wit and ferocity.
It's Colin friggin' Meloy, lead singer and songwriter of The Decemberists!! So far he's posted about the nuts-and-bolts of recording their next album (wow!!) and reminisced about his 20s (charming). Having loved listening to him for so many years, now it's a treat to read him as well.
I'm so excited to see that the beloved poet Maggie Smith has started her own Substack! It's one of my life goals to learn about how poems are written (and to learn to read them better), and her first post (which I just read) annotates one of her poems in such a way that I can see how she made many of her choices. I'm so looking forward to following her!