It’s the week after the election. You’re inundated with takes, ranging from the knee-jerk-libidinal appeal to the sagely analytical post-mortem. More are certainly coming. Writers be writing. But in the meantime, you’ve got a bed to get out of. Breakfast to make. Maybe, a brain to rearrange. Where are the thinkers starting with the small tasks and bite-size offerings, you wonder—un-ready to metabolize the abstract, holistic macro-take?
The second person is of course a little disingenuous here. But just in case you too have been ISO inaugural motivation, baby marching orders, or even plain old distraction—here are a few newsletters to check out for a creative response to the U.S. election.
In his regular newsletter “The Querent,” the novelist and essayist Alexander Chee offers endurance lessons sourced from years spent organizing with ACT UP in San Francisco. In a letter titled “This Country Is Still That Country,” Chee shares tips that span a gamut from the bracing and pragmatic (“The bitterness you will encounter in others was most likely once the enthusiasm you feel now”) to the genuinely encouraging (“Make time to dance”). As a writer known for sustaining literary citizenship alongside an activist practice, Chee’s a great voice to hear from right this second.
The novelist Patrick Nathan pondered “community, care, and vigilance” in his latest newsletter, sent from his popular Substack, “Entertainment, Weakly.” Don’t be put off by the piece’s plausible but dispiriting title (“America Goes to Its Death“)—like Chee, Nathan’s message is fundamentally encouraging, a call to both action and introspection. I appreciated his nudge to consider the sometimes pacifying role entertainment has played in bringing about the election results. For writers and readers tiptoeing into mutual aid work, this piece is a useful provocation.
Elif Batuman’s “The Elif Life,” is fast becoming a favorite Stack-o-mine, deft at mixing literary analysis, micro-memoir, and cultural criticism. In a “Love Letter” sent this morning, Batuman close-reads a dystopian George Saunders short alongside Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and manages to extract something like optimism. “Instead of being outraged at outrageous atrocities, isn’t it more efficient to be curious—to understand how they happened?” she asks, of both the art and the moment. For us readers and writers, it’s nice to hear this question framed in a specifically literary context.
Another call to curiosity can be found in the author, essayist, and social advocate Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s regular letter, “Good Chat.” In her latest missive, she reminds readers that curiosity, “like hope, is a practice.”
And in a soothing and sillier corner, the culture writer Hunter Harris’s popular Substack “Hung Up” made a space to share post-election “counter-programming” last week, with suggestions ranging from RHONY to Barton Fink. In her Stack, Harris regularly covers film and tv goings-on. Her extremely funny pieces range from micro-reviews to gossip. Vibe-wise, it’s a nice water cooler to kick around while you’re gathering energy to foment.
And finally—for the time being—the journalist Hamilton Nolan’s consistently useful Substack, “How Things Work,” has some timely suggestions. In a November 5th letter, Nolan laid out “one concrete thing that you can do, in the event of political catastrophe, that will actually matter: Join a union.” In a subsequent November 8th analysis, Nolan laid out why and how unions are such crucial forces in American politics. It’s an eye-opening read.
I’ve nerded out about some of these letters before, but in a moment when independent journalism and criticism feels especially worth engaging, let this be a reminder to seek out and support the thinkers and tinkers you respect.
Now, go make breakfast!
