Subscriber Writing Roundup
Edition VIII
Happy April, bookworms!
It’s the first Monday of the month which means it’s time for our monthly Subscriber Writing Roundup!
But, before we get stuck into links, last week we featured Avery B’s a deeply personal essay on the book that set her on the path towards healing and growth, after suffering an eating disorder relapse.
We’re also recommending three more brilliant substacks this week:
Edward Rooster’s From The Future — Imagining the Future through the Past, by writing Lyrical Historical Essays and Science Fiction Novels.
Mikhail Skoptsov’s Textual Variations — Subscribe to learn why so many movies exist in multiple versions, and what this means for film history and culture. Also, some quality criticism.
Emily Henderson’s The Bittersweet Weekly — For readers searching for a richer perspective on the bittersweet moments that make up modern life.
Now onto the subscriber writing. What follows are 23 links to great pieces of writing from BTMU subscribers. From criticism of Yuval Noah Harari to therapist breakups, from short story fiction to explorations of 19th century women, there’s something for everyone.
Dive in!
Matthew Long interviews the Paris based author Samuel Lopez Barrantes and reviews his new book, The Requisitions.
In this short story, Japanese-American David Okamoto decides to follow in his father’s footsteps and enlist to fight in the Vietnam War. What he searches for is glory, but what he’ll find is something much, much darker. By Andrei Atanasov.
Zork (the) Hun offers his thoughts on the books of our modern day Humpty-Dumpty (Yuval Noah Harari) and the sorry state of the world they so perfectly exemplify.
Anthropologist Justin S. Bailey travels back to the 1830s to voyage with the young Charles Darwin on his five-year journey around the world to explore the notion of how much the act of wandering inspires our grandest ideas.
Kameron Sanzo unpacks the etymology of "burnout," and investigates how energy language informs our experience of, and our contribution to, the phenomenon of burnout.
Konstantin Asimonov writes about a children's book that is at the same time a postmodernist masterpiece:
Sutee Dee recounts his top culinary experiences in Peru, drawn from seven years of explorations around the country.
Rolando Andrade, from Outside the Therapy Room writes about the repetition of emotional and behavioural patterns and illustrates what he wants to say with a short fiction story, "Why do you get caught up in someone else's decision?"
In 'Be Grateful for What You Can Throw Away', once and future freelancer Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson shares a writing technique that has served him well for forty years.
In ‘Children Recreated for Life’, Zoe Carada writes about a children health and wellbeing measure enforced in postwar Germany, inviting us to reflect on the horror of doing harm in the name of doing good.
Peter Clayborne explores how the situation in Palestine might mirror previous times when direct action movements worked to influence global events.
Let a child show you the best prize to win on an Easter egg hunt. By Robin Reardon.
Hermann J. Diehl explores Ansel Keys's vast influence on American eating; was the influence good or bad?
Terry Freedman rarely attends meetings willingly, and in this post he explains why, based on his experience of three insanely dysfunctional meetings:
Kevin LaTorre finds that faith is beyond intellect and into mystery:
Sheila Dembowski discusses how mindfulness has helped her to keep her priorities straight in her Kindness Boomerang essay entitled "Just Breathe"...
Steve Henneberry finds happiness after his therapist breaks up with him.
The lives of ordinary women in 1900 come to life in this story by Ann Gauger.
In 1770, Stomp Freedomfoot is a theater ‘squatch bumbling through the Cumberland Gap, and in 1871, he’s murdering conductors on trains: what changed him? By Jonathan Delp.
Maj-Britt Johnson writes about experiencing the death of a friend, while living in Kenya, and about the secret they both shared.
Now that the Oscars are over, Amelia Schmidt wants to talk about The Zone of Interest, Martin Amis's novel that loosely inspired the movie:
James Ron continues the story of the Space Cadets Rovin and Homie and their Earth friend Harvey.
Mikhail Skoptsov theorizes why the climax of 'Dune Part 2' ended up being rather rushed and offers other thoughts on the film:
That’s all folks!
Right, thanks a lot Micky and everyone here for giving me my next ordeal: which story to read first from this lineup, and when! I wonder if I should take time off this week…
What an honor to be mentioned here!! Thank you!