Patti Smith has launched a newsletter on Substack called The reader is my notebook, in which she will share weekly pieces featuring written thoughts, poetry, and music. Paid subscribers will also receive access to her first serial, titled The Melting.
While revealing she has written in hidden stacks of notebooks since the age of 12, Smith explained her motivation for the project. In the first newsletter, she wrote,
“Now, in the time of the pandemic, isolated from family, friends, and fellow workers, we are reinventing our processes. Through Substack I plan to form an inter-connective body of work for a responsive community. Each week I will post my weekly ruminations, shards of poetry, music, and musings on whatever subject finds its way from thought to pen, news of the mind, pieces of this world, free to all.”
She continued by describing The Melting as “a journal of my private pandemic.” Smith added, “My first entry was exactly one year ago, on April 7th, the night before the full Worm Moon… I will post the first few entries for everyone. Then, for my paid subscribers, I will post an installment every week, as well as posts relating to its expanding world, finally fulfilling my Jo March fantasy as she serialized her Gothic tales for the newspaper..”
The punk rock pioneer joins Substack just as many prominent writers have decided to leave the platform due to its generous support offered to anti-woke figures like Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Sullivan, and Matt Yglesias.
Subscribe to The Reader is My Notebook here.
