a new name
my substack got a makeover! other topics include slowing down, the internet, creative writing, and, as always, death
You might notice that my publication has a new name - a dying art - and new visuals! The font for the publication name, logo, and image on the welcome page (see below) were designed and hand-drawn, influenced and inspired by Southern Gothic aesthetic, by my talented and brilliant friend and artist Emma Wonsil! Tysm to Emma for always being the real deal, friendship-wise and art-wise, and for making her indelible mark on this little project.
As for the name. These computers are getting pretty smart. We are increasingly scattered and anxious from short-form content and its constant stimulation, the fire hose blast of information, the tyranny of a thousand sources to choose from, the onslaught of “breaking news,” etc etc etc. Not to mention just generally living under a capitalist, fascist broligarchy. It’s the most boring thing in the world to talk about yet it’s our daily reality. We are wearied by our constant efforting, even the efforting of trying to stop efforting so much.
What I find more interesting is talking about how to incorporate slowness, gentleness, and creativity into our movement-building and world-building. What are the practices that promote those qualities within us? For me, it’s creative writing and sitting alongside someone’s deathbed. I am privileged that my day job as a hospice chaplain doubles as a spiritual practice (not all the time - I do work within the healthcare system after all). I also find that writing poems, talking about writing poems, revising poems, and reading poems are spiritual practices that slow me down and fill me creatively.
These two practices have become intimately connected for me as well; as of late much of my writing is inspired by, if not directly about, my work in deathcare or my own experiences of loss. And when I’m not writing about death and spirituality, you might find me thinking about my history, drawing on a lineage of literary Southern women (my mother and grandmother, but also Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, and more). Thus the Southern Gothic inspired visuals.
The name is play on words: hospice chaplaincy being a dying art and writing, in this increasingly AI-generated and fast-paced culture, being a dying art.
I need to say one more thing, since I’m very aware that I’m on the Internet right now and not sitting beside an oil lamp writing by hand with a fountain pen like I wish I had the time and attention span to be doing. Tech certainly enhances my life - read: my new self-care app Finch wherein I get to grow my little bird character with each care task I complete and getting to do In Surreal Life in January which involves lots of Internet as a platform for connection and learning - but I want to use tech and other “systems,” even non-tech ones I’ve created for me and my partner and our home, to be less of a way to “hack life” and more as a tool in service of creativity and ease. My ADHD brain is grateful for things like fingers on keyboards that move as fast as my thoughts, and for apps and practices that gameify care tasks. Computers and phones are tools that move me in the direction of my most calm and creative self (lol? a new mantra? extreme wishful thinking?).
With all that said, I will still take a notebook out to the park or by the Puget Sound every now and then and try to write a poem that way. And I’ll probably tell you about it on the Internet later.
Paper Things and Internet Things My Brain Has Loved Lately:
Novels: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki and a late-to-the-game reading of the My Brilliant Friend series by Elena Ferrante. I read the “metafictional” Ozeki novel after rave reviews from multiple close friends. The story is told from two perspectives: the diary entries of a Japanese American teenage girl living in Tokyo and a middle-aged Japanese American novelist living off the coast of British Columbia who finds the girl’s diary washed ashore outside her home. As for the Ferrante series, I just ate those books up. I love novels that are heavy on descriptions of a character’s interiority and have an unreliable narrator.
Nonfiction Books: How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis and A Matter of Death and Life by Irvin and Marilyn Yalom. The Davis book is exactly what it sounds like and is written by a neurodivergent therapist. It is changing my domestic life and overall relationship to care tasks for the better! The other one is written by the “father” of American existential psychiatry and his late wife Marilyn, who was a feminist author and French scholar, and who died on hospice care in 2019. The illustrious couple wrote this book together in alternating chapters during the last year of her life, as they both faced her impending death and his ever-aging body and brain. As you can imagine, it’s astounding.
Poetry/Writing/Creative Life: if you’re looking for a community of other writers/creatives and a one-month container chock-full of brilliant visiting artist calls, so many fun Slack chat threads, daily prompts that are just beyond in their wild surreality and detail and depth, JOIN THE IN SURREAL LIFE APRIL SESSION. I was in the January session and it was transformative for my creative life! Thank you, Shira <3
Smooth-brained TV: Younger (a rec from my friend B), Sex Lives of College Girls (eye candy/easy watching/funny/sweet as hell), and season 3 of The Traitors (Gabby Windey is the voice of our generation!).
Songs: the new Florist EP from their upcoming album Jellywish. Sonics and lyrics are so dreamy. If you like Adrianne Lenker you’ll love these singles. Full album is out on April 4th, according to my brief Googling. Jellywish is billed as an exercise in imagining a world where magic is a daily companion, possibility is everywhere, and asking the difficult questions is rewarding. (!!!!!!!!!)
Ok, that’s it for now! We were way overdue for a catch-up. I promise to be back soon (this is me trying to have external accountability), with something, who knows what’ll happen! Thanks for being here.