A Round Up Post
Hi y’all,
If you’ve been a subscriber longer than a month, you know that I’m slightly out of commission at the moment, so there’s no big post for September.
I have a few writing projects outside of this Substack coming out over the next few months. One is an academic article on reading weird modernist poetry, particularly Gertrude Stein, without focusing so much on decoding it (let’s find pleasure in poetry, again! Not everything is a mystery to unravel!) for Studies in American Humor. One is a review of Charlie Hailey’s architecture/eco meditation called The Porch for The Georgia Review that lets me talk about some of my Florida research. I’ve also written some things for a few other Substacks that I’ll be cross-posting as little bonus bits beyond my usual monthly.
A few other things from here: I’m turning thirty this month, which feels like it should be a big deal but also I’ll be pretty miserable on my actual birthday because I’ll be at the tail end of this goddamn gluten challenge. Literally, I’m getting an endoscopy the day after my birthday to test for celiac, ulcers, and a host of other possible issues. I’m lucky to have parents willing to drive six hours one way and give up a few days to take me to my procedure, so my current birthday plan is pretty lowkey beyond family time and maybe making a final pie with wheat flour. Also shoutout to my cousin in ATL for offering to come hang out with me on said birthday even if I spend most of it napping and/or being grumpy.
If you’d like to make my birthday suck less, consider sharing my writing with a friend, or leaving a comment or like on a post that stood out to you. No, I am not above using my current state of wretchedness to guilt people into expanding my email list. Using the referral link gets you a few comped months which gives you access to my archive, including some of my most read/shared works. I’m pretty sure you can also get a free 7-day trial. Just saying.
For now, I wanted to go into my back catalog and pick some of my favorite writing from the past two years. The nature of this project means that quality and staying power is uneven. Some posts I am proud of! Some I kinda hate! Oh well! For new readers, you can get a sense of the topics I cover most: beauty, literature, and American culture.
My birthday post from last year on getting older and choosing a new life:
My inaugural post on symbols of the modern South and why I hate fancy pick-ups:
For American literary culture, consider my primer on what Florida means to America, or my essay on choosing what to teach in an American literature survey course (and the reading list from that course):
For more recent work, my musings on what labor we value in America and the trap of having a vocation:
And finally, my most read post: