Interlude: Substacks I love
Five writers I adore
I’ve been exploring creative adventures inspired by Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. My Artist Dates—moments spent doing something that enchants or intrigues, for the joy of it—help replenish my energy, spark ideas and make me feel braver in the world.
I’ll be sharing more of these dates throughout August. But first, a little interlude: my favourite Substacks! There’s so much on here, I often feel overwhelmed. So I wanted to share my places of comfort, interest and inspiration. I hope you like them, too!
Astro Poets
The first Substack I fell in love with! I adore Dorothea Lasky’s and Alex Dimitrov’s poetry, so their combined project Astro Poets is, to me, perfect. Their wild, playful, cosmic poetry-horoscopes remind me to look up at the sky, remember the moon and stars, and feel all the good feelings of possibility.
A recent reading for my sign, Aquarius:
There wasn’t anything but your energy. You knew that intimately. Friendship is at least the last part that can be. Some bread and things with candied frost. The pink and green icing of these days moves you.
It’s true! Amid news, work and overwhelm, I’ve been moved by fleeting beauty and unexpected joy—the pink and green icing.
You Get in Love and Then by Ella Risbridger
Lines from Ella Risbridger’s essay in In the Kitchen: Essays on food and life slotted into my mind and stayed for weeks, months even. Still now, perhaps. For example:
To know how someone else takes their tea – tea or coffee; milk or sugar or lemon – is a small and delightful privilege because it’s a fact of too little consequence to be ferreted out except with small repeated acts of care.
Ah! So good.
Ella’s recent post on living and cooking while the news is horrific is incredible. I admire how she holds her feelings up to the light, not looking away from pain, confusion or hopelessness. “Listen,” she writes. “I urge you to as well as donating and writing and protesting and striking and anything else you can think of doing, check in with the people in your own community. This is the only real route out of global despair I know: doing something.”
She also writes a series on things she loves. Eating and Reading in a Heatwave is a great post. I’m an enthusiastic person, I revel in someone else’s enthusiasms!
Poetry Today by Maya C Popa
I joined Maya’s writing community this year so can attest to both her knowledge and her contagious energy! Poetry Today is a sanctuary, focused on poetry and wonder. In Maya’s words:
If you sometimes feel bewildered, overwhelmed, ecstatic, uneasy, contented, alert, uneasy—then yours is the mind I wish to invite into the small, crystalline feeling-world of poetry.
Isn’t that great? The feeling-world of poetry. Maya regularly gathers poems on a seasonal theme for the weekend or week ahead, and I always read them slowly, with a morning coffee. I remember deliciously her collection of bread poems and reflections on how bread shaped the literary imagination. There’s a spaciousness to her posts, even the layout with its generous white space, acts as an invitation to pause.
Crispy Noodles by Nina Mingya Powles
Nina Mingya Powles’ monthly notes cover food, writing, making and memory. A recent post included a gorgeous moment spotting a kingfisher while swimming:
An unreal blur of metallic turquoise and I gasp out loud… The little blue bird’s wings seem to vibrate and then it takes off into the trees. A swimmer next to me starts laughing, the kind of laugh fuelled by adrenaline and wonder. I laugh back, out of breath.
I love her love for water and swimming, which I share too. She’s such a fine writer, sentence by sentence, line by line. Nina’s posts are always welcome in my inbox, the tone of her work is so different from anything else I read. I so admire the quality of reflection, drifting, transience.
So Glad I’m Me by Amy Key
Amy Key is the author of the beautiful nonfiction book Arrangements in Blue, which charts her reflections on life, love and friendship—inspired by the music and words of Joni Mitchell.
Her Substack is tender and intimate, regularly bringing me to tears. In a recent post, she shared 19 pieces of ‘Advice no one asked for.’ This one resonated deeply:
#10: More for writers but I think this can apply in other areas of life – when you feel like you’re failing, you’re stuck and frustrated, it can be because you’re in the process of becoming something else. Like you’re fighting the big boss at the end level of an arcade game, and you’re about to progress to the next level. You might have to fight the big boss a hundred times before you break through, but it’s coming. Stuckness and dissatisfaction are part of the deal, trust that you’ll move through it eventually. Maybe even welcome it as a sign of growth.
That idea—of stuckness as transformation—I’ve found incredibly helpful recently.
Bonus: I spotted that the brilliant Bernardine Evaristo has a Substack charting her writing journey through the years. It’s new and it’s already great!
Thanks for reading, friends. I’m wondering about the title Writing with the Seasons. I’ve been thinking about the nature of creativity, how it feels when your creative seasons aren’t quite aligned with the natural world. Quiet and reflective, rather than open and energised in summer, for example.
We have cycles in our writing, in tune with our bodies, the moon, what’s going on in our lives. Fallow phases when we must rest and refill the well. And other times when we’re on fire with ideas!!! So this is a place where I share how it is to write with the natural seasons—and my own seasons, too.
Have a lovely August,
Gemma x
August 2025. This post is by me, Gemma Seltzer. I run Write & Shine, a programme of early morning writing workshops. It’s our 10th birthday, we’re celebrating with mornings filled with writing! Take a look at what we have in store this August.