Introducing . . .

Welcome to Remembering Play!

my annex in 2020

Hi All,

As many of you know, I became a writer in early 2020 which means I started calling myself one. The revelation was huge, freeing me of an angst I’d carried for years (I know I’m a creative, but what kind?). I only arrived at an answer because society as I’d known it was suspended. It was the first time since I was 23 and my mom died that I felt total and complete permission to sit in a room and stare at a wall and come out with nothing to show for it. A lull in the worship of productivity.

I pushed a desk against our unused front door and created a makeshift annex in the entryway. I read poetry and hung quotes and listened to music and wrote letters to friends. Soon I was drinking coffee instead of beer, staying up late to write.

Definitions of “play” vary, but all agree on two things: engagement and enjoyment. Some definitions assign play to children, others to sports, but there’s consensus about the why of an activity. We don’t do it because it’s practical or purposeful. We do it because we love it.

In the past 2+ years I’ve written consistently and have published a handful of essays. Among them is “Juno’s House Rules,” a piece that tumbled out of me faster than most and delivered a certain clarity: This is the stuff I really want to write about. Obviously it helped that Roxane Gay liked it enough to publish in the Emerging Writer Series in her newsletter The Audacity. Since then, I’ve recognized I have a lot more to say about relationship models and friendship and sexual liberation and solitude, so I’ve decided to make “Juno’s House Rules” the title essay of a collection.

Researching queries and book proposals, I’ve come up against countless versions of, “Don’t even consider pitching agents without a platform of hundreds of thousands of social media followers.”

I know we’ve been litigating Capitalism v. Art for ages, but it’s pretty farcical to ask an easily distracted person to join social media to promote a book she’ll never end up writing because she’ll be too busy scrolling. I’m not on social media as a conscious form of self-control.

Which brings me here, to this format, overtly starting a newsletter to build a platform I’m told I need. I’m excited about Substack because I’ve heard friends and celebrities alike describe the form as sincerely communal, more honest. I hope so.

So welcome to Remembering Play, a newsletter about permission to do the things you love to do. I chose this theme to give myself the regular reminders I need, and to extend them to others who might also need them. Maybe that’s you.

I plan to send out 2-3 newsletters a month and include a small assignment in each. I follow through when instructions come from the outside and suspect I’m not the only one. If assignments stress you out, ignore them. Only do things that sound fun.

Thanks for joining me.

p.s. I imported the email list I’ve been using for publication updates and I won’t be offended if you unsubscribe.