everything that starts must end ✨
join us for a special live reading on June 2.
Hi Writers,
We’ve been thinking a lot about endings.
They can feel final—like a period at the end of a sentence. But normally, the end of one sentence leads to the start of the next.
Almost a month ago, we completed our inaugural Spring Writing Salon.
For six rainy Mondays, we met at Index Space in Chinatown to write together.
We read Jamaica Kincaid, Brandon Taylor, Alexander Chee, Octavia Butler, and Ursula Le Guin.
We printed each other's stories and annotated them—on the train, on our couches, and in between work meetings.
We put pen to paper (real paper!) in a way that felt the opposite of writer’s block or the blinking cursor on a blank screen.
And each week, we returned to our writing table with feedback, questions, and advice that made us better writers.
By investing in each others’ work, we invested in our own. Working through each other's writing taught us so much about each other that we left details about our day jobs and even horoscopes until the last session.
By the end, we were all friends.
And, just like everyone who is discussing their writing, we were also discussing life. And Severance (the show and the book), Sinners, bad roommates, family stories, and community gossip.
Before we knew it, the salon was over. But not quite.
This ending feels like the start of eight new stories ready to be told in this world.
It feels like the start of many friendships sparked over six intimate weeks and a signal chat. And of things we can’t predict from this time and place, right now.
The butterfly effect, or whatever.
CELEBRATE OUR SPRING SALON FELLOWS!
Next month, our writing fellows are taking up the stage in a one-night-only reading in Brooklyn. If you want to hear from eight exciting new fiction writers, join us at Dear Friends Books on June 2 at 7 pm.
We owe so many thanks
To the Writers Club team for dreaming this up.
To Index Space for hosting.
To Dear Friends Books for giving us a place to read.
To Harper Perennial for gifting us eight copies of Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft.
To Brandon Taylor, whose Substack was gospel.
To Bria Benjamin for the stunning live reading flyer.
To Nassir for the cupcakes from Martha’s Country bakery.
To Deval Mistry for the photos he took of our graduating class.
To the printer at the Macon Library for holding us down.
And to everyone who applied and bravely shared their work.
Most of all—to the eight writers who showed up, week after week:
Byul, Kha, Marie, Monique, Naqiya, Radhika, Skyler, and Zoe.
We’re so proud of you. and we’re so excited for what’s next!
Lastly, we have one final announcement.
After our reading, the writers club will be going on summer break.
During this time, we encourage you to continue writing (and reading).
Reach out to the friends you made at a writers club meeting, workshop, or our Spring mixer. Publish that Substack! You got this.
We hope this will be a beginning of a lot of things: more personal writing, more time for rest, more things we haven’t done yet. More, more, more.
Let’s call this a comma, not a full stop.
with gratitude,
the writers club team
P.S. Don’t forget to submit to our zine. Submissions close this Sunday!
I'll miss y'all :'(