Your approach of encouraging reading and writing as a way to facilitate metamorphosis regardless of motivation is so important and has struck me deeply - thank you for sending this just before the New Year!
One reason I started my own newsletter was that you showed what was possible. Inspirational is a word often used too lightly. Here, it fits exactly. Thank you, Celine.
wow wow wow WOW... where do i begin on how i feel about this...
1. i read this whole email, with my notes app open, copying and pasting paragraphs to keep close.
2. i am a senior in gender studies & ethnic studies, and i have such a desire to share what i've learned in my classes with people who cannot afford to spend hours reading, and having complex concepts explained to them by someone with decades of teaching experience... and i've been held back by that insecurity you described about never knowing enough to start. never feeling like there's enough time to write, or that if i'm writing or reading, it should be for class, not pleasure.
3. i forwarded this essay to my mom. she pursued her phd in english, but never finished her dissertation after she became a caregiver for her ex-husband ~13 years ago, and eventually also a second parent to my sister's 6 children, after my sister became a single mother. she has diligently written her 3 morning pages for several years after reading The Artist's Way. i would love for her to write something to share with others, now that she lives with my grandpa, and has much more time to read & write.
4. insert Audre Lorde quote from Sister Outsider about how poetry is a form of writing for the working class because it can be done quickly & in short bursts.
5. thank you! so many of us feel inadequate & afraid of looking like a dumbass when we're vulnerable and actually trying really hard.
Tyler! Thank you for this comment!!! I feel very touched by the LENGTH and THOUGHTFULNESS and the fact that you forwarded this to your MOTHER…the highest of compliments. I imagine it means a lot to her that you're encouraging/supporting her writing! And hopefully she'll have time now for her own work.
Also, I think the desire to share ideas you've learned/been excited by—bc it's so special to come across a revelatory idea, and really meaningful imo to transmit that excitement to other people—is really important and worth honoring. I hope you have time in 2026 to write for yourself and to share with others!
omg I'm very happy it was motivating! also, just read your newsletter and I really love the quote from the poet Alice Oswald that you included:
"It was probably when I took up gardening that I discovered that being was better than thinking—that actually you don’t have to think things through, you can garden all day and your mind will have been moved by the gardening. And it’s the same when you’re in water. You’re thought through by the water rather than having to think."
Thank you! I also loved what you said about giving something two years instead of one, as I've found that is a sweet spot where you can tell if something is for you or not.
I took your advice and went back to read your very first substack post. It felt awkward, unpolished, it didn’t sound like you at all and I loved it. I feel inspired to start putting my writing out there now. Thank you for everything you write and share with us
haha I do reread my old posts and I'm like…wow…this is embarrassing…but I'm trying to reclaim it as an EXCITING feeling (because it's great to observe one's growth/maturity and be able to compare early work with later work!)
really glad this post was encouraging, and all the best with your own creative adventures!!
What a divine article to read just as I approach a new year and the age of 30. I've been wanting to write for so long and have suffered from various reasons or forms of procrastination such as: "what if no one reads my writing?" "what if I have nothing valuable to say?" and "what if my friends read my writing and I self-censor my words from fear of exposure?"
Anyway, off to publish my second newsletter feeling much better about all of this. Thank you thank you for another thoughtful piece.
must say I LOVE my 30s so far they have been much more serene than my 20s (which were chaotic and full of uncertainty, anguish, the usual early-adulthood woes)…so I am wishing you a wonderful decade ahead!!!
What a lovely picture of my 30's and I've heard almost exclusively the same from all of my friends! (can't wait to rid the uncertainty and anguish goodbye)
Thank you Celine for another year of curiosity into literature. I have a question that I want to ask: I have read a lot of your essays and noticed you always find very good references/books/related essays that help you expand more on the topic you write about. How is your process? You find a book you like to read first and then find a topic to write about, or you find a topic you want to write about and inquire more into it by reading a lot? Thank you so much.
Thank you for reading!! And this is also such an interesting question…I worry this is an unsatisfactory answer, but it's a bit of both?
A lot of my writing begins from just collecting up everything that I've been drawn to recently, and trying to find connections between things (it's the Fredric Jameson strategy: 'mark everything you notice… then combine them in as many categories as you can think of' https://oxonianreview.com/articles/the-notes-of-fredric-jameson)
I'll also start writing something, and read FOR that piece, or just ambiently read whatever passes in front of me and seems enticing…and very often find new ideas, quotes, perspectives that can go into an existing piece and enrich it
Once the piece is done, it all seems divinely ordered—like everything just mysteriously and perfectly came together. But the process is kind of a convergence between what I'm reading naturally, and what I'm reading in search of, and the piece evolves over time to bring everything together.
Yes to performativity and imitation as a way of learning and actually doing! Karen Barad writes about performativity as a mode of *embodied* comprehension that helped me really understand its role — to perform you have to have observed and noted and are trying to *be* — “a performative account insists on understanding thinking, observing, and theorizing as practices of engagement with, and as part of, the world in which we have our being.” (meeting the universe halfway ch 4)
omg I've been meaning to read Karen Barad—her name keeps on coming up! Thank you for referencing her; this idea of performance as embodied comprehension is so useful.
I really love her work, both for the rigorous entanglement of physics, process, & philosophy, and for the way she shows what’s possible with form even? in academia, e.g. Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart doi:10.1080/13534645.2014.927623
it’s hard to overstate the impact your exuberance for a rich intellectual life has had on me!! this newsletter was such a delight, we are all so lucky to have your work in the world
thank you Shenai!!!! very very touched by this and have also so enjoyed reading YOUR newsletter and missives from your life (especially intrigued by your tradition of setting intentions for the next year! https://clarionsong.substack.com/p/intention-setting-2026 and may steal this format)
An additional reason to write is to create a record of what you were thinking for the future.. I'm 63 and do far have three grandchildren and I imagine that one day when my grandchildren are older, perhaps at my age, they might read a few of my essays. I know that the few letters I have from one grandfather and two great-grandfathers are very precious to me.
I love this. I really cherish the small bits of writing I have from my dad (and he cherishes what he has from HIS parents)…writing is an especially meaningful way to connect to one's predecessors, whether it's family or people who have had similar ideas/ambitions/struggles. It's a lovely thing to pass on.
Thanks for reading and for all your thoughtful comments!!
It's fabulous to learn about your well deserved success through your persistence 💖 I wrote every day as part of my humanities PhD and it basically broke me by the end, so the practice of writing more swiftly and writing in public seems like a pragmatic antidote.
BTW I think the message about the crisis in literacy is only going to get amplified in 2026. My day job is in public libraries and we're preparing for participating in a government-instigated 'national year of reading' about making reading more fun and attractive. I realise the irony of that sentence: government...."make" it fun...
Thank you for reading! And it’s also so interesting to hear how your library system is thinking about this. I feel that 2026 will be a year of crisis and opportunity—lots of people are sick of feeling drained by short-form content, and are really eager to experience the joys of slow, sustained focus…
I keep on seeing articles about more literary readings, more book clubs, and so on—so I’m very hopeful that there will be grassroots and more scaled efforts to bring people into the literary fold
personal canon was one of the first newsletters that substack recommended when I got started on the platform a little over a year ago and as i read bits and pieces of your canon I thought 1) this woman is a spectacular and articulate writer and is such a seamstress in the way she weaves her interests together so flawlessly and 2) despite everything we’ve been told about the world there is a massive global appetite for reflections like these and there is still hope for an internet community that is intellectual and stimulating and wanting to immerse in things they find cool (not just what’s popular, not just what’s profitable, not just slop).
your work is an inspiration celine :) and you’ve put so much dedication to your craft and the results show insurmountably so. it makes me wonder where i could be on my substack journey two years from now, not to compare of course but because anything really can happen and even if it takes years to find your footing - the time will pass anyway
omg…thank you!!! this is very touching (screenshotting to look back on this when I’m stuck on a draft tbh)
it means a lot that you left this comment and I really treasure every single testimonial that I am encouraging people in their own interests!! I get such profound joy from other people’s thinking, writing, art &c and hope to always see more and more of it
This is exactly what I needed to read today. I have so many quarter full notebooks of my thoughts (I love that you quoted your own journal entries) and I’ve tried to start up a blog/substack so many times. Maybe now is the time to commit to two years of both without trying to be perfect.
thank you for reading! and when it comes to starting—I think doing whatever comes to mind first, and feels good ENOUGH (not perfect) is the ideal way to begin! in 2 years you'll be an even better writer than now, and happy you began
i appreciate that you bring an openness and accessibility to intellectual pursuits that invites people to join and engage, including myself. it brings me so much hope to read your words and hear how you practice your values through your written work. thank you for continuing to be brave in sharing your voice and encouraging all of us to do the same as intentionally as we can. happy gregorian new year to you 🎆
ah, thank you! I think you're one of my very earliest readers, so it means a lot—happy new year to you as well, and wishing us both a brave and exciting 2026!
i appreciate your kind words. i’m happy that you have so many more readers now, and i hope that translates into offline community as well wherever you go. all the best to you, hope you enjoy london life!
Your approach of encouraging reading and writing as a way to facilitate metamorphosis regardless of motivation is so important and has struck me deeply - thank you for sending this just before the New Year!
thank you!! I’m really happy it resonated, and I hope 2026 is a very promising year for you!
One reason I started my own newsletter was that you showed what was possible. Inspirational is a word often used too lightly. Here, it fits exactly. Thank you, Celine.
thank you Jörgen—I’m always touched by what a thoughtful reader you are, and so happy that I! also! get to read and appreciate your writing now
Oh, thank you. It gives me a mix of performance anxiety and pride. :)
wow wow wow WOW... where do i begin on how i feel about this...
1. i read this whole email, with my notes app open, copying and pasting paragraphs to keep close.
2. i am a senior in gender studies & ethnic studies, and i have such a desire to share what i've learned in my classes with people who cannot afford to spend hours reading, and having complex concepts explained to them by someone with decades of teaching experience... and i've been held back by that insecurity you described about never knowing enough to start. never feeling like there's enough time to write, or that if i'm writing or reading, it should be for class, not pleasure.
3. i forwarded this essay to my mom. she pursued her phd in english, but never finished her dissertation after she became a caregiver for her ex-husband ~13 years ago, and eventually also a second parent to my sister's 6 children, after my sister became a single mother. she has diligently written her 3 morning pages for several years after reading The Artist's Way. i would love for her to write something to share with others, now that she lives with my grandpa, and has much more time to read & write.
4. insert Audre Lorde quote from Sister Outsider about how poetry is a form of writing for the working class because it can be done quickly & in short bursts.
5. thank you! so many of us feel inadequate & afraid of looking like a dumbass when we're vulnerable and actually trying really hard.
Tyler! Thank you for this comment!!! I feel very touched by the LENGTH and THOUGHTFULNESS and the fact that you forwarded this to your MOTHER…the highest of compliments. I imagine it means a lot to her that you're encouraging/supporting her writing! And hopefully she'll have time now for her own work.
Also, I think the desire to share ideas you've learned/been excited by—bc it's so special to come across a revelatory idea, and really meaningful imo to transmit that excitement to other people—is really important and worth honoring. I hope you have time in 2026 to write for yourself and to share with others!
also: quote from artist Dahlia Raz: "shit art is better than no art."
This was so good! You inspired me to start my first newsletter soon after reading your post: priscillaposada.substack.com/p/reverse-hangman
Thank you—I've been meaning to do this for a very long time, but was too scared :)
omg I'm very happy it was motivating! also, just read your newsletter and I really love the quote from the poet Alice Oswald that you included:
"It was probably when I took up gardening that I discovered that being was better than thinking—that actually you don’t have to think things through, you can garden all day and your mind will have been moved by the gardening. And it’s the same when you’re in water. You’re thought through by the water rather than having to think."
Thank you! I also loved what you said about giving something two years instead of one, as I've found that is a sweet spot where you can tell if something is for you or not.
I took your advice and went back to read your very first substack post. It felt awkward, unpolished, it didn’t sound like you at all and I loved it. I feel inspired to start putting my writing out there now. Thank you for everything you write and share with us
haha I do reread my old posts and I'm like…wow…this is embarrassing…but I'm trying to reclaim it as an EXCITING feeling (because it's great to observe one's growth/maturity and be able to compare early work with later work!)
really glad this post was encouraging, and all the best with your own creative adventures!!
What a divine article to read just as I approach a new year and the age of 30. I've been wanting to write for so long and have suffered from various reasons or forms of procrastination such as: "what if no one reads my writing?" "what if I have nothing valuable to say?" and "what if my friends read my writing and I self-censor my words from fear of exposure?"
Anyway, off to publish my second newsletter feeling much better about all of this. Thank you thank you for another thoughtful piece.
must say I LOVE my 30s so far they have been much more serene than my 20s (which were chaotic and full of uncertainty, anguish, the usual early-adulthood woes)…so I am wishing you a wonderful decade ahead!!!
thank you for your kind comment!
What a lovely picture of my 30's and I've heard almost exclusively the same from all of my friends! (can't wait to rid the uncertainty and anguish goodbye)
Thank you Celine for another year of curiosity into literature. I have a question that I want to ask: I have read a lot of your essays and noticed you always find very good references/books/related essays that help you expand more on the topic you write about. How is your process? You find a book you like to read first and then find a topic to write about, or you find a topic you want to write about and inquire more into it by reading a lot? Thank you so much.
Thank you for reading!! And this is also such an interesting question…I worry this is an unsatisfactory answer, but it's a bit of both?
A lot of my writing begins from just collecting up everything that I've been drawn to recently, and trying to find connections between things (it's the Fredric Jameson strategy: 'mark everything you notice… then combine them in as many categories as you can think of' https://oxonianreview.com/articles/the-notes-of-fredric-jameson)
I'll also start writing something, and read FOR that piece, or just ambiently read whatever passes in front of me and seems enticing…and very often find new ideas, quotes, perspectives that can go into an existing piece and enrich it
Once the piece is done, it all seems divinely ordered—like everything just mysteriously and perfectly came together. But the process is kind of a convergence between what I'm reading naturally, and what I'm reading in search of, and the piece evolves over time to bring everything together.
Thank you so much for your answer. I will follow this to see how it leads me into writing the topics i am struggling with. ☘️ happy new year.
Yes to performativity and imitation as a way of learning and actually doing! Karen Barad writes about performativity as a mode of *embodied* comprehension that helped me really understand its role — to perform you have to have observed and noted and are trying to *be* — “a performative account insists on understanding thinking, observing, and theorizing as practices of engagement with, and as part of, the world in which we have our being.” (meeting the universe halfway ch 4)
omg I've been meaning to read Karen Barad—her name keeps on coming up! Thank you for referencing her; this idea of performance as embodied comprehension is so useful.
I really love her work, both for the rigorous entanglement of physics, process, & philosophy, and for the way she shows what’s possible with form even? in academia, e.g. Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart doi:10.1080/13534645.2014.927623
it’s hard to overstate the impact your exuberance for a rich intellectual life has had on me!! this newsletter was such a delight, we are all so lucky to have your work in the world
thank you Shenai!!!! very very touched by this and have also so enjoyed reading YOUR newsletter and missives from your life (especially intrigued by your tradition of setting intentions for the next year! https://clarionsong.substack.com/p/intention-setting-2026 and may steal this format)
so kind of you, thank you!! very much hope the intention setting is fruitful for you :]
Congratulations on such an important milestone, Celine! It’s so beautiful to see what happens when we keep the promises we make to ourselves. 🤓
thank you Petya!!! and yes, it feels so great to be like…I told myself I would stick it out for 2 years and I DID! wishing us both a great 2026
An additional reason to write is to create a record of what you were thinking for the future.. I'm 63 and do far have three grandchildren and I imagine that one day when my grandchildren are older, perhaps at my age, they might read a few of my essays. I know that the few letters I have from one grandfather and two great-grandfathers are very precious to me.
I love this. I really cherish the small bits of writing I have from my dad (and he cherishes what he has from HIS parents)…writing is an especially meaningful way to connect to one's predecessors, whether it's family or people who have had similar ideas/ambitions/struggles. It's a lovely thing to pass on.
Thanks for reading and for all your thoughtful comments!!
It's fabulous to learn about your well deserved success through your persistence 💖 I wrote every day as part of my humanities PhD and it basically broke me by the end, so the practice of writing more swiftly and writing in public seems like a pragmatic antidote.
BTW I think the message about the crisis in literacy is only going to get amplified in 2026. My day job is in public libraries and we're preparing for participating in a government-instigated 'national year of reading' about making reading more fun and attractive. I realise the irony of that sentence: government...."make" it fun...
Thank you for reading! And it’s also so interesting to hear how your library system is thinking about this. I feel that 2026 will be a year of crisis and opportunity—lots of people are sick of feeling drained by short-form content, and are really eager to experience the joys of slow, sustained focus…
I keep on seeing articles about more literary readings, more book clubs, and so on—so I’m very hopeful that there will be grassroots and more scaled efforts to bring people into the literary fold
I'm definitely seeing a lot more people reading books on the tube compared to a couple of years ago.
Precisely the kind of sober encouragement I wish there was more of online, thanks for this lovely reflection.
this is a really kind comment, thank you Carmen 🕊️
personal canon was one of the first newsletters that substack recommended when I got started on the platform a little over a year ago and as i read bits and pieces of your canon I thought 1) this woman is a spectacular and articulate writer and is such a seamstress in the way she weaves her interests together so flawlessly and 2) despite everything we’ve been told about the world there is a massive global appetite for reflections like these and there is still hope for an internet community that is intellectual and stimulating and wanting to immerse in things they find cool (not just what’s popular, not just what’s profitable, not just slop).
your work is an inspiration celine :) and you’ve put so much dedication to your craft and the results show insurmountably so. it makes me wonder where i could be on my substack journey two years from now, not to compare of course but because anything really can happen and even if it takes years to find your footing - the time will pass anyway
omg…thank you!!! this is very touching (screenshotting to look back on this when I’m stuck on a draft tbh)
it means a lot that you left this comment and I really treasure every single testimonial that I am encouraging people in their own interests!! I get such profound joy from other people’s thinking, writing, art &c and hope to always see more and more of it
wishing you the best in your newsletter writing!!
This is exactly what I needed to read today. I have so many quarter full notebooks of my thoughts (I love that you quoted your own journal entries) and I’ve tried to start up a blog/substack so many times. Maybe now is the time to commit to two years of both without trying to be perfect.
thank you for reading! and when it comes to starting—I think doing whatever comes to mind first, and feels good ENOUGH (not perfect) is the ideal way to begin! in 2 years you'll be an even better writer than now, and happy you began
i appreciate that you bring an openness and accessibility to intellectual pursuits that invites people to join and engage, including myself. it brings me so much hope to read your words and hear how you practice your values through your written work. thank you for continuing to be brave in sharing your voice and encouraging all of us to do the same as intentionally as we can. happy gregorian new year to you 🎆
ah, thank you! I think you're one of my very earliest readers, so it means a lot—happy new year to you as well, and wishing us both a brave and exciting 2026!
i appreciate your kind words. i’m happy that you have so many more readers now, and i hope that translates into offline community as well wherever you go. all the best to you, hope you enjoy london life!