Join me on Substack!
This week I did something I've been meaning to do for a long time. I stopped using Mailchimp to circulate my newsletters and instead joined Substack.
For those of you who might not know, Substack is a newsletter platform for writers and podcasters that has gained considerable popularity over the last few years. I wanted to join in on the fun and be a part of the larger creative community.
I am calling this Substack the intangibles. I chose that name because I deal in the intangibles every day. The things I write about, many of the things I value – most of them can’t be measured with charts and graphs. How can you measure the impact of a poem or a novel? Or a memoir that changed your life? How can writers measure their own productivity when they’re writing and then erasing words all day? Maybe you spot a beautiful flower on your afternoon walk, you feel your irises widen to take in the view of each petal, you notice your shoulders relaxing, you think of the last time you saw the same type of flower, maybe at a joyful wedding or on a beach vacation. There – you’ve been changed by this flower. But how can you measure the exact amount of happiness it brings you, the way it increases your quality of life? There’s no such metric, at least not any metric I’ve heard of. But that doesn’t mean these intangible things aren’t incredibly valuable, maybe even the most valuable things we have.
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The intangibles is geared toward writers of creative nonfiction and memoir.
You might subscribe because you want to be the first to hear about new classes and writing groups I’m launching. Or because you too are navigating this writing life and would like some company and some big questions to chew on. Because you’re realizing that writing is never just about writing; it’s always teaching us about ourselves. Or because you want to learn how to tell the truth about yourself and about the world.
One of my goals in writing this Substack is to make the writing life more transparent, collaborative and community-oriented. So you’ll get essays on the writing life, craft essays focused on creative nonfiction and ways to join my writing community.
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If you are currently receiving my newsletter then you're already subscribed to my Substack. But if you'd like to start subscribing now you can do so now — there’s a link if you scroll to the bottom of my website, or you can go to allisonkirkland.substack.com.
Free subscribers get access to posts about the writing life, craft essays, monthly recs on things to do and see and read, as well as news about upcoming classes and events.
Paid subscribers get all of the above, plus access to my entire Substack archive, monthly writing prompts and access to a community of other writers.
If you’d like full access but you’re a writer who identifies as disabled and you don’t have the means at the moment, please let me know and I will comp you a yearlong subscription.
Your support means the world to me because it means that I get to create more writing! Thanks for being a part of this community.