I sometimes let the sub stack newsletters pile up in my inbox - not a comment on any particular one, rather my own need to subscribe to so many newsletters because Instagram is more often than not an odd place to follow/openly gape at writers/artists I love and respect - but then I read yours and I’m immediately reminded why I subscribe. :)
Sending you light, brotha ✨✨ Lovely read, convenient timing. SOP demands such urgency and clarity. No room for fluff or context. I guess the whole point is to make them want context?
The Cheever of it all! I really enjoyed this whole post especially the subtitle. I also deeply agree about now being the time to hold up a mirror. (In a healthy ecosystem, of course, artists are essential reflectors, always.) So many thoughts about MFAland but really enjoyed thinking about your ambitions, the clarity of your goals (“I wanted to write about gay things in a way that I had seen Ann Beattie write about restless yuppies and directionless people,...”), and the inclusion of Greenwell as an unapologetically queer gaze. Thank you and ALSO yay your younger self! Clear seeer, hard worker. ✨🦚
The balance is always so, so nice to see from BT. So much literary discourse seems to turn into a sort of spoiled (both as in "privileged" and as in "rotten") litany of invective, of cheap, unearned, virtue-signaling "FU"s hurled at one's political opponents. Lit Hub has been like this for a while and has gotten worse lately, particularly in its unbalanced, one-sided, and histrionic posturing re: Israel & Palestine. In BT there are no clickbait headlines, just measured consideration and reconsideration that wind up revealing far greater truths than explicitly "political" writing on the internet and in the major print journalistic sources of the day in the US, UK, and elsewhere.
I look forward to reading your reflection on this reflection, maybe a decade from now. Not just how the world acts on you, but your relationship of your past and future selves. And may you continue to find grace there.
My sister worked with C elegins at Madison with similar goals. The debriefing since has been complex for her, as is with my own grad school debrief. That first generation college/grad school experience. All that and yes.
I sometimes let the sub stack newsletters pile up in my inbox - not a comment on any particular one, rather my own need to subscribe to so many newsletters because Instagram is more often than not an odd place to follow/openly gape at writers/artists I love and respect - but then I read yours and I’m immediately reminded why I subscribe. :)
Sending you light, brotha ✨✨ Lovely read, convenient timing. SOP demands such urgency and clarity. No room for fluff or context. I guess the whole point is to make them want context?
The Cheever of it all! I really enjoyed this whole post especially the subtitle. I also deeply agree about now being the time to hold up a mirror. (In a healthy ecosystem, of course, artists are essential reflectors, always.) So many thoughts about MFAland but really enjoyed thinking about your ambitions, the clarity of your goals (“I wanted to write about gay things in a way that I had seen Ann Beattie write about restless yuppies and directionless people,...”), and the inclusion of Greenwell as an unapologetically queer gaze. Thank you and ALSO yay your younger self! Clear seeer, hard worker. ✨🦚
The balance is always so, so nice to see from BT. So much literary discourse seems to turn into a sort of spoiled (both as in "privileged" and as in "rotten") litany of invective, of cheap, unearned, virtue-signaling "FU"s hurled at one's political opponents. Lit Hub has been like this for a while and has gotten worse lately, particularly in its unbalanced, one-sided, and histrionic posturing re: Israel & Palestine. In BT there are no clickbait headlines, just measured consideration and reconsideration that wind up revealing far greater truths than explicitly "political" writing on the internet and in the major print journalistic sources of the day in the US, UK, and elsewhere.
You had me at lol. And I'm glad of it.:)
I look forward to reading your reflection on this reflection, maybe a decade from now. Not just how the world acts on you, but your relationship of your past and future selves. And may you continue to find grace there.
So very timely 💀 Thank you for your wonderful reflection!
Deeply beautiful.
My sister worked with C elegins at Madison with similar goals. The debriefing since has been complex for her, as is with my own grad school debrief. That first generation college/grad school experience. All that and yes.