Recommended by Caroline Osella (they/them)
One of the best novels I've read all year came from this writer. Mars in Retrograde. Read it and feel a lot of feels, admire some excellent word-work, get caught with some characters who will feel so mighty real. He does good notes, too.
Are you literate? Engage with fiction at times? you need this, then. This labour of love and absolute tenacity is the biggest database here of fiction. It also comes with a Discord chat group with helpful rooms (genres, writing issues, reader-swaps etc) and a community of lovely people.
If you are too clever for your own good; hold nostalgia for 80s hip-hop mashups or Dadaist art projects; if you are sick of info- and 'tainment alike; if your head is a jungle at 4am and you do not want to soothe it. Take in a bit of this, my darling, and you'll feel so much worse, really fast. Sublime: (and you know that's not a tasty adjective I'm using, but one word hinting at a million seedy backstories).
Specifically recommending this because of the Cookout Library - a resource gathering writing from Black writers on Substack. Last look, there were nearly 40 writers in there: you'll find something you like, for sure!
A vicious alliance of utter fools, from TERFS to Tr&*p & V%^*e, are peddling information that is embarrassingly wrong. If you want a science-based approach, and you're willing to understand that maybe your high school biology isn't giving you the cutting-edge on how human bodies work, this newsletter will sort things out for you.
You almost certainly engage with and enjoy and have your life enriched by Black cultural offerings. This blog has an intelligent and well-researched set of thought-pieces about the people, the culture, the sociology and psychology of it all.
Dance (with music) is humanity's earliest, most intuitive, deepest core forms of exrpession and communication. When words overwhelm and fail, dance beings space to think-feel our way through life. Substack has books and art a-plenty. Hardly anything on live performance. And even less on dance. We need this. Great reviews, video links, short pieces.
You know that slow life you long for? This brings it into reality. I'm still hearing a lot about "Green Growth". How about if we got real about sustainability and accepted the inevitable sooner, rather than in last minute panic? The paradox here is that *this would enrich all our lives*.
There is nothing like live performance and the magic of human bodies in a space together. And a lot of this, funding cuts notwithstanding, still happens across Europe. Do you want to be USA-centric and miss out - or do you want to know what's happening in European theatre? Here you go, then.
Food, social analysis, smart thinking, make this a newsletter that's a million kilometres away from your average instagram foodie or glossy mag food writer. Gnam Gnam, anche qualche ricetta e photo.
This stack sits in a beautiful space, one I love. you know, the one where queerness, big life questions, searches for compassion and greater meanings, and very cool cultural bits, all come together and mesh into something nourishing and cheeky, something hot but with ethics. Like, you know, if your college ethics and civics teacher was sexy and cool. Also, the writer here wrote a very sweet novel about some queer dilemmas and some messed-up (there's no other kind, is there?) family dynamics.
Yeah, you're queer, but that doesn't mean you know all the other queers (sorry, aunty Brenda, but no, we don't all know each other and attend one big glorious backroom sesh every weekend). You won't even like all the other queers. Maybe you need to spend time with 100 of us to find the 10 who'll be your most beloved. Also - spend less time hunting for queer writing because somebody did it for you.
Biomedicine really is not all that we have. There's entire societies where herbalism holds sway. We might be moving towards a resurgence. But - hey! You need guides for that stuff. You can't just pop outside and start chewing any damn leaf you find. This guide will kepe you safe, teach you stuff, bring you back to your wisdom heritage.
If you, or anyone you know, has had any brushes with the institutions (chemical, infrastructural, social) that determine, firstly what is mental health and secondly, how we approach it, you'll know what a bunch of ideological warfare, proft & highfalutin' careers, and utterly unthinking social conditioning lurks in there. This newsletter documents research, critique, resistance and survival despite the shitola of the diagnosis roueltte wheel.
Hauwa can WRITE! She will give you laughs, insights into a world that is not US/Europe, things that make you question your values and cultural assumptions. She also has a very cool graphic novel that you can buy.
Do you know a lot about USA electoral politics and not much about Malaysia and China? You need this one. Culture, language, food, analysis, and a lot of fun times from a very smart commentator.
There are trees who live, not in forests, but on streets. You can meet some of them here. This newsletter is short, gorgeous, and brings precious moments of the sort that are too rare on the internet.
I eat food. Sometimes I even go out and do it. I am not on Instagrim (sic) and I abhor most food bloggers. This newsletter is extremely unusual: honest, clever, witty food writing; a story about setting up a restaurant in a part of UK that is NOT London; activity on notes that brings snorts or mirth or lascivious desires for better FOOD. Give it a go and see how different this one is!
Unless and until I can be arsed to start a newsletter about The Anthropology of Everything, this will do us nicely. There's great posts here that act both as deep dives and fast overview briefings.
African writers, readers, analysts, curators, artists, humourists, musicians, fashionistas, and more. How much do you know about Africa? Like many of us, it's probably 'not enough'. This newsletter is hekping me address that.
The intersections between creativity, crafting and hand-work, and mental health get discussed here in very readable and original ways. The author has years of experience in this field and has published some deep dive studies. Safe hands here.
You are busy - you need a space that collates news and analysis for you. You don't trust mainstream corp media and you're not even sure about the credentials of some of the alternative sources. You want to read words written by people who are grassroots activists, pushing back against bullshit and holding hope. You're interested in the health of the planet and all the ecosystems in it. You love hyperlocal but you have global and internationalist perspectives and dreams.
I don't even watch movies (might write about why sometime) but I'm familiar with them from newspaper reviews and friends' reports. Back to Back offers the most delicious, intelligent, witty and well-written deep dives, in the format of preposterously well-chosen juxtapositions.
A Chinese migrant to US speaks to us about her life story, mental health, undoing trauma - and brings insights into USA mechanisms around racialisation processes.
Susy is gentle, self-deprecating, brings thoughtfulness and wisdom. She offers healing, gardening, how to get through life and all that. And she writes from UK. What? No! Course not! I'm definitely not a nationalist, so that's not why I think this is relevant. No, it's just that we sometimes have different things to notice and say from here than do the USA-based writers.
White folks! We're everywhere! Talking, writing, chatting shit, showing off. Let's remember that we're not a global majority, and let's remember that we need to listen and engage with a wider set of voices. This is a resource that can help. Be grateful, listen up and enjoy some fine writing.
