Thanks to everyone who joined me and Heather Bowlan, of the great newsletter PHL Poetry LFG!!!!, which serves as “a digital front door” for the Philly poetry community. I’ve been talking poems, going to readings, and writing alongside Heather since we were both 16, and I’ve learned so much from her about showing up as a way of building the community you want in your life.
And a friendly note: these recordings are generally paywalled, but in the spirit of community and access, this one is totally free! I hope you’ll love it and maybe even be inspired to join us for the rest of Summer School.
We talked about the tendency for writers to isolate ourselves based on our aesthetics and the many different forms community can take, from a workshop or writing group to accountability buddies and just people who know you’re a writer and are cheering your on. Heather’s got great practical advice—use EventBrite to find readings and gatherings happening near you! chat with people at the coffee shop and bookstore!—but honestly what I loved the most was her insistence that we’ve got to put our phones down and go outside if we’re going to actually make connections that matter to us. As Heather says “writers need to get out of our heads and into rooms together,” and I hope you’ll be inspired to go find some new writer friends IRL after this chat.
If you’re in the Philly area, or you’re looking for a model of a great community-oriented newsletter, I think you’ll love PHL Poetry LFG!!!!
To give you a sample of what Heather’s doing in her newsletter—here’s a favorite interview, with Germantown poet Lindo, who I met recently when he came to a reading Heather was giving at a local bookstore’s Pride event. And Lindo and Heather met when they were both at a community meeting in Germantown. It’s the magic of leaving your house and talking to people, in action!!
Our next session will be TODAY, Monday, June 22 at 10:30AM. I’ll be joined by Cassie Mannes Murray, writer, publicist extraordinaire, and the genius behind Pine State Publicity for a chat about finding your audience and building your brand without feeling like a fraud.
Cassie is the smartest person I know when it comes to figuring out how books find their readers. Check out this recent post of Cassie’s, which is chock-full of creative ideas for book events that aren’t a standard reading or conversation:
If you’ve got a book out in the world or coming out soon, I think you’ll definitely want to tune in. Bring your questions!!
You can get the full Summer School line-up and the archive of recordings here:
✨ writer, artist, and poet laureate of Texas Amanda Johnston on the praise song as a way to practice “intentional witnessing,” plus a prompt to write your own praise song
✨ And here’s a little Summer Fridays flashback—a conversation with Sherisa de Groot, about finding joy ✨
If this newsletter has helped you in your creative life, I bet you’d love the bonus resources and paywalled intel you’ll get when you become a paid subscriber, like this piece, on how to pitch yourself to podcasts and newsletters:
