🎧 A Creative Inspiration Playlist
Plus a re-introduction of who's writing this letter
Slant Letter is a newsletter for writers looking to craft your angle, write like you mean it, and do it in style—from your friendly editor in book publishing.
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Some news from the weekend! Sometime between the toddler’s third meltdown of the day and when I finally finished my breakfast on Saturday, I got an email from
Thanks to you, we’re now a bestselling publication! If you’ve been here for a while, you know that Slant Letter is designed to support you in your creative work—with craft advice as well as solidarity for the full range of the creative process with its highs, lows, meaningful moments and existential crises. So it makes me very happy to know that this letter is meeting you where you are, as I always hope it will!
To celebrate, I want to do three things: 1) tell you a little more about who’s writing this letter, 2) open up a 20% discount for all monthly and annual subscriptions, and 3) share a playlist of some of my go-to Substack reads that I have a hunch you might love, too.
Who’s writing this letter?
Steph here—I’m a reader first, writer by passion, and editor by profession. By day, I’m an executive editor in book publishing, where it is my joy to support authors into their best work. I started down this path 16 years ago when a professor was kind enough to sit me down and suggest I get an internship at the publishing house across the street from campus. Since then, I’ve worked for various small presses, a Big 5 imprint, a magazine, and now make my home at an independent publisher.
There’s nothing I love more than to join a writer in the studio of their idea and help them bring it into its boldest expression. Publishing is risky business—demanding, rewarding, and if you stick around long enough, it’ll break your heart, but only because your heart is first in it, and that’s the only kind of work I really want to be in. For worse and for better, I’m in it for life.
I live in the tri-state area with my husband Zach, our three-year-old daughter, our almost one-year-old son, and I think of them all when I say relationships are the greatest disruption to ever grace my life.
We embarked on a local move just before Christmas (1/10 do not recommend) to a midcentury house with built-ins that I know exactly what to do with and a backyard cottage garden I do not, though I’m committed now, and have been properly initiated a la poison ivy hands.
Otherwise, I’m an Enneagram Four to my God-love-her core. It’s weird how much of a rush I get from a good thrift find. My closet is full of office clothes of a pre-pandemic, pre-parenthood life that no longer fits me, but I will swipe on a bold lipstick as part of any day’s daily uniform. The last time I painted my toenails was I think November, as in, last year (do not ask me the last time I braved the nail clipper with my baby’s incessantly-wiggling toenails). I will never get over the image of my daughter’s palm up at the communion rail next to mine, expectant of something good.
I’m passionate about writing that moves. Memoir that makes room for me and for others (our close reading of Maggie Smith’s memoir is going on right now!). Spiritual writing—and by that, I mean any writing that willfully engages paradox and life as a process in which we make and are made. I’m interested in the ways the creative process and our lived experience cycle through rhythms of life, death, and resurrection or rebirth.
I don’t take well to hacks, overpromising, down-talking to your reader. I take quite well to creative consistency and patience, telling the truth, and respecting your reader and acknowledging they have their own multitudes and mysteries.
If that sounds like you, then that makes Slant Letter a kindred space for all of us. I’m tickled pink you’re here.
A Creative Inspiration Playlist
Furthering the celebration, and in the name of some creative cross-pollination, I’ve put together a playlist of sorts of some Substack publications + memorable posts that inspired me and might speak to you, too. Enjoy!
For when you want a walk in the woods with a friend who will tell you like it is: Sayable with
, whose gorgeous book The Understory releases today!
For when life is hard enough and you need a writing practice that will be gentle and grounding: A Gentle Landing with
For when publishing is maddening + mystifying + you need someone who can be both acting explainer and trustworthy guide: my go-to’s are
with Agents and Books, Publishing Confidential with , and at Before and After the Book Deal
For when you have way too many tabs open and what you really need is a poem (and a sustainable paradigm for publishing!): The Liminality Journal with
For when you want to feel at home in your body as you deserve:
with KJ Ramsey
For when you want to get serious about writing tools and craft but who has time for an MFA: The Unschool for Writers with
For when you like your contemplative practice with a side of mischief:
The Rewilded Life
For when you want dish and discourse on the weird, wild publishing industry (and reccs for summer reading!):
For when you want to be up on the latest meme cheekiness like the cool kids but also want to recover your long lost belief in humanity: The Swipe Up with
For when you find yourself in a creative rut and need to to read BEAUTY to reawaken the writer within: Writing In the Dark with
For when you want to give Substack a whirl but are tech-daunted or don’t know where to start: Writers at Work with
For when you’ve been othered and need someone who gets it (and also want to see a great book club in action): Othered with
For when you have a million ideas and creative glimmers and just need a little organizational help: The Clearing with
For when you want global justice now and you’re also just really tired: Creaturely with
For when you are standing on a threshold, unsure of which way to go: The Soul Minimalist by
For when you’re still an ‘80s and ‘90s kid at heart but you’re also doing the grown-up work of unlearning:
with Sara Billups
So many good reads and this isn’t even all of them! You can see everything I’m reading here and recommending on my homepage.
💬 What about you? I want to know what’s on your reading list—a newsletter you love, a book you’re mad about right now, or a go-to favorite writing resource for you. Let me know in the comments, and if you have a newsletter, share it too!
Take heart and stay feisty,
If you’ve found something that speaks to you here
Hit that 🤍 button, restack this, or forward to a friend. This letter is this editor's off-hours labor of love. Your word of recommendation is how our kindred community grows.
Oh hey! Thank you so much for including me. And well done on the bestseller front! I always rush to open Slant Letter.
Thank you for the shout out! Writing about writing (esp spiritual writing) is one of my favorite things.