Email Subscriptions I Recommend To Friends, Coworkers, and Family Members
When they ask me for a good literary magazine or newsletter that publishes essays, or a short story, or resources on writing, or where to get news.
In the midst of the pandemic, a friend asked me for one resource where she could get the best resources on the coronavirus. She was panicking, the internet was flooding with lots of information, she didn’t know which ones to read, and I recommended Jessica Wildfire’s blog. I’ve been reading her thoughtful, insightful, and research-packed articles for years now, and she’s still the best online resource for essential topics like public health, the climate crisis, and social injustice.
A while back, I cleansed my email the same way I sold my old sofa that was more a problem—like the way it pained my back whenever I sat on it—than a good use. For years, I’d subscribed to many blogs, newsletters, and news media I never read. I unsubscribed from all those I did not read (it took me weeks to clean my inbox)—and do not have any intention of reading. The email subscriptions I now subscribe to are the ones I read. When I don’t have time to read them, I add them to my TBR lists. These are the ones I recommend to friends, coworkers, and family members when they ask me for a good literary magazine or newsletter that publishes essays, or short stories, or resources on writing, or where to get news. I’m sure there are countless magazines and newsletters where I’m missing reading good essays and short stories but the ones I’m listing below, I can attest to their wonderful stories and essays—for I’ve read them for years.
Essays and short stories
Longreads (5 selected essays every Friday)
Narratively (you know that feeling when you open the first page of a novel and before you know it hours have passed. You forget the time, you’re invested in the characters, and the story. The tension makes you squirm, you want to find out what happens next. This is what I feel every time I read a Narratively story. The only difference from the novel is the stories are true stories and I can finish reading the essays in a few minutes.)
Electric Literature (I love their recommended readings which are short stories and novel excerpts that arrive on Mondays and their creative nonfictions that arrive on Fridays.)
Emerging Writer Series, The Audacity (The essays published in this series are bold, weird in a delightful way, moving, and so human.)
The Sun Magazine (both short stories and essays)
Memoir Monday (a collection of the best essays around the world published each week arrives in your inbox)
Our planet, the climate crisis, and the natural world that surrounds us
(These days, I don’t walk past a tree without looking up. The vanished river in the small town where my mother was born troubles me. And the sweltering humidity in Addis Ababa as I write this newsletter—it has never been this hot in March before—troubles me.)
The Crucial Years (essential!)
Reason to be Cheerful (In our dying planet, there’re incredibly good news from all over the world where we can see the survival of our planet like this story, A Notorious Invasive Plant Shows Promise in Green Construction)
Writing Resources
(Because I’m a writer, I subscribe to blogs and newsletters that talk about the craft of writing—and particularly the short story)
Story Club, George Saunders
The Art of Flash Fiction, Kathy Fish (I’ve learned about writing good flashes from Kathy’s newsletter than any other online resource.)
Lit Mag News (I’ve learned more about the workings of literary magazines from Lit Mag News than any other newsletter or blog)
The Practicing Writer, Erika Dreifus
Funds for Writers, Hope Clark
Erica Verrillo blog
Bookish, Christine Sneed
News
I get my news in my inbox only from two sources. These two are not boring. And I like that they use a list form, which makes it easy for the eye to read.
1440 Daily Digest (they have over 4 million subscribers)
Others
The Marginalian, Maria Popova (If not for this newsletter, I would not have known about Platero and I by JUAN RAMÓN JIMÉNEZ, a lovely book about the story of a man and his donkey, and the life they lead.)
Word in Black (stories, voices, and perspectives of Black America)
How to Feel Alive, Catherine Price
Leo Babauta, Zen Habits
Thank you so much for mentioning THE PRACTICING WRITER!