I’ve been pleasantly baffled by the engagement I’ve received on Substack, both in terms of subscribers to this newsletter and the discussions the topics have sparked in the comments. For a very long time, I’ve been feeling like Instagram’s needy ex-girlfriend. The platform has already told me it doesn’t love or care about me anymore but there I am, still turning up to events where it will be, still taking selfies in the hopes that it will notice me, still gripping its framed picture to my chest at night.
When it comes to being a writer, platforms like Instagram and TikTok aren’t really fit for purpose. It’s not in the interests of a writer to churn out work to appease an increasingly hungry algorithm, nor (unless you are a spoken word poet, perhaps) do our words always translate as successfully over to video. But it took me a very long time to realise that a much more suitable, more rewarding platform was right under my nose.
Before we get into any introductions (or re-introductions, for those who have been here since the beginning) I want to say a huge thank you to anyone - old or new - who has supported me here. I’m truly grateful and hope that my email in your inbox once a week can be an invitation to take five minutes to yourself, to relax, to unwind, to think. We could all do with living a little slower than social media demands.
So, to get to know each other a little better I thought we’d do a short Q&A! And for anyone who fancies it, do introduce yourself in the comments and let’s be friends. Feel free to answer some of the below questions yourself as a way of starting.
Who are you and what do you do? I’m Alanna, a Brighton-born writer and poet currently living in rural East Sussex. For the last 8+ years, I’ve been a creative copywriter, writing for brands like Google, Aston Martin, Tattoodo and MarieMur. I do my creative writing (mostly) on the side and have been published by Cosmopolitan, Metro, Stylist, Dear Damsels, Aurelia Magazine, Foundation FM and the BBC. I also have an MA in English & American Literature and wrote my dissertation on female decapitation in the works of Virginia Woolf.
What are you writing right now? Alongside this weekly newsletter, I’m currently working on my first novel, a work of literary fiction that follows a sticky, sinewy age-gap ménage à trois. Perhaps my newsletter on age gaps makes more sense now!
What are you reading right now? Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors and Boy Parts by Eliza Clark. I promised myself that I’d finish Boy Parts before starting Blue Sisters, but I couldn’t wait…
Given that this is a pop culture newsletter, what’s your favourite bit of “discourse” at the moment? I’ve been loving all the conversations around celibacy as a result of Bumble’s dating ad flop. I’m not celibate myself, but I can absolutely empathise with people choosing that path over mediocre app dates and endless situationships.
What’s a passage of writing that particularly stirs your soul? “I wake up & it breaks my heart. I draw the blinds & the thrill of rain breaks my heart. I go outside. I ride the train, walk among the buildings, men in Monday suits. The flight of doves, the city of tents beneath the underpass, the huddled mass, old women hawking roses, & children all of them, break my heart. There’s a dream I have in which I love the world. I run from end to end like fingers through her hair. There are no borders, only wind. Like you, I was born. Like you, I was raised in the institution of dreaming. Hand on my heart. Hand on my stupid heart.” - Meditations in an Emergency, by Cameron Awkward-Rich
Outside of writing, what else stirs your soul? Eating something that my father has grown in the garden, hearing someone play the piano in a public place, holding hands with my friends, National Trust gardens, coffee with pouring cream, being near an ocean or meadow, cracking the spine of a new notebook, bedside lamps, rose and violet creams, the smell of my warm sleeping dog, being clumsily, inarticulately in love and training myself to see poetry in normal things.
Hopefully, now we know each other a little better! Once again, thank you so much for your support. And if you ever want me to write about something specific in this newsletter, feel free to drop a comment. I’m always on the hunt for new topics.
Love Alanna x
Congratulations Alanna!
Cam Awkward-Rich - what a poet. Great post, Alanna!