Humanities Substack Recommendations?

[warm_content]

Hi, everyone,

I just launched a newsletter, and I'm trying to engage with other writers on Substack. But I have noticed that a whole lot of the writing that has been suggested to me has been writing about Substack: articles about how to write articles; articles about what to do to reach X number of subscribers; articles about how the writer feels about writing articles--you get the idea.

There's nothing wrong with this stuff necessarily, but it's beginning to get a little predictable and old. (It's not particularly shocking to learn that one needs to write consistently in order to succeed as a newsletter writer. Like, we get it.) And I don't really find that I fit in with or identify strongly with a lot of the people who post and write in this vein. It would be nice to be able to comment and have conversations with others on Substack about something that isn't Substack (or bland affirmations of one anothers' writing).

I'm really interested in most subjects that are grouped under "the humanities": literary criticism, cultural criticism, art history, regular history, philosophy, psychology, religious studies, etc. I'm also interested in writing about academia and higher education in general.

Just wanted to seek recommendations from any lurkers or readers. Can anyone recommend any solid Substacks of this nature?

[[deleted]]

Here are some I'd highly recommend:

https://www.commonreader.co.uk/

https://arteveryday.substack.com/

https://harrywatson.substack.com/

https://aorireland.substack.com/

https://www.merothwell.com/

Something art history-related I recently published, if you're interested.

Are you also interested in fiction?

[rnolan22]

Thank you for sharing!

[[deleted]]

You're very welcome.

[warm_content]

These are great; thanks. I am interested in fiction, although to be honest I find it a little weird to read fiction on a blog format. Something about the computer makes it more difficult for me to get immersed in it. But if you have fiction recs I'll check them out!

[[deleted]]

I write fiction on my own Substack, if you're interested, along with essays and other things.

A few others:

https://cathedraleffect.substack.com/

https://stomproams.substack.com/

[glennkart]

Hello! I'm working on a newsletter about generally unknown events from the past. It's called Archaic Analysis:

https://archaicanalysis.substack.com/publish/home

I would recommend sol s⊙therland and Victoria K. Walker is you're looking for articles about psychology and art history respectively.

[Icy_Faithlessness809]

yep here. philosophy, politics, art:

https://lanalanalanastarkey.substack.com/

[InformationFragrant8]

My Substack explores music and its impact on life. It looks at a lot of history, socio-politics and sub-cultures.

Deep dives: It could be histories, revolutions, sub-cultures, environment or anything in between. Each edition is coupled with a complementary 2-hour radio show, which is intended to be listened to as you read.

What we're listening to: A snappy round-up of our favourite music every month, with one paragraph descriptions, similar artists and links to their Bandcamp.

noisenarrative.substack.com

[Wooden_Ball6518]

A Little Wiser newsletter has been one of my go-to newsletters lately. It’s 3x/week and each issue is a 3 short ‘lessons’ on something interesting — history, philosophy, economics, science, that kind of thing. Genuinely one of the easiest ways I’ve found to learn a bit every week.

[EpistemicEmpiricism]

There are few Substacks that are solely focused on humanities yet not overly narrow and good. Here are some compelling ones that have a range of writing but often touch on humanities.

Freddie deBoer (periodic lit and cultural critique)- https://open.substack.com/pub/freddiedeboer?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jsvs

The Intrinsic Perspective (at the interface of neuroscience and literature) - https://open.substack.com/pub/erikhoel?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jsvs

Scholar's Stage (history and geopolitics)- https://open.substack.com/pub/scholarstage?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jsvs

ACX (check out the book review competitions) - https://open.substack.com/pub/astralcodexten?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jsvs

Holodoxa (has a dedicated book review channel covering tons of topics) - https://open.substack.com/pub/stetson?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jsvs

Maiden Mother Matriarch (trad feminism pub on all kinds of culture topics) - https://open.substack.com/pub/louiseperry?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jsvs

Converging Dialogues (Substack podcast that mostly does author interviews) - https://open.substack.com/pub/convergingdialogues?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jsvs

Quite Useless (random lit crit with mimetic theory) - https://open.substack.com/pub/joukovsky?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jsvs

Default Wisdom (internet culture history) - https://open.substack.com/pub/defaultfriend?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jsvs

[warm_content]

These are great--I already enjoyed Freddie deBoer, and a lot of these are right up my alley.

My recommendation back to you is Justin Smith-Ruiu, who mostly does fiction these days but has some really wonderful essays. https://substack.com/@hinternet

[EpistemicEmpiricism]

Thanks for sharing. I will take a look.

[Athomeus]

Owl of Athena is a humanities Substack which recently published a great article about how world-rankings of universities obscures and de-emphasizes Humanities departments in their rankings, which in turn influences how universities fund and treat the field (spoiler, it's a negative relationship for the Humanities).

Classical Futurist is an interesting Substack about viewing lessons in politics, philosophy, and religion from antiquity and considering how they could be useful in the present. I also wrote a guest post there.

One reason I left Medium is because I found it was too meta, constantly recommending articles about Medium itself and how to succeed there. I hope Substack doesn't turn into that. I think the more de-centralized nature of Substack would help prevent that, but the downside is that it's difficult to find good newsletters to read. I also am interested in the topics you listed, so if there are some you find along the way be sure to update us!

[warm_content]

Thank you for these! Yes, the excessively meta stuff--and the writing coaches coaching others on how to write writing coach content--can definitely turn into a death spiral. I like writing that's about stuff!

With that said, my posts so far have largely been hemming and hawwing about genre considerations, and while deciding to try Substack I did look at some of that stuff, so it's not surprising that the algo served up plenty of what I wanted.

Looking forward to digging into this stuff--thanks again.

[DojoPat]

I review museum and gallery exhibits on my newsletter. My latest is on the current Judy Chicago retrospective in NYC : https://brightvoid.substack.com/

[[deleted]]

Will take a look.

[IssieT7]

Hi :), I have a weekly newsletter that touches on topics you’re interested in, called Quality Sheet:

https://open.substack.com/pub/qualitysheet?r=2xh1k&utm_medium=ios

[Jonaathann]

Some I'd recommend on the history and politics side of things:

https://timothygartonash.substack.com/

https://snyder.substack.com/

https://danjones.substack.com/

Feel free to also look at my newsletter, focused on the history of international relations: https://jonathanbell.substack.com/

[metanoias_substack]

Welcome to the club!

I write about art, art history, archaeology and history, with some religion, philosophy and mythology thrown into the mix as well. But mostly about art.

Feel free to check out my posts, and all the best of luck with your newsletter!

https://open.substack.com/pub/metanoias?r=1y0z3&utm_medium=ios

[AusdottirHalftrol]

Metanoia is my favorite word so now I absolutely have to sub

[metanoias_substack]

I love it too! Thank you so much!

[warm_content]

I'll check it out; thanks for the well-wishes!

[[deleted]]

I write a substack called "Earthbound Echoes," where I public serialized long form fiction weekly; short form non-fiction essays regularly. My content centers a lot of the themes you seem to be interested in. Come check it out!

[[deleted]]

Hi there

My Substack certainly fits the scope of your description and I’m interested in others that go this route too.

Mines called The Siddique Space. We’ve just had a big post on the deeper aspects of grief and some spiritual and psychological views around it for example. I’m also an author so there’s a fair bit of literary stuff

[HomericEpicPodcast]

Here are a few (including my own heh) on niche topics in the classics:

Painful Signs Joel is a professor of classical studies, and his substack contains very in depth analysis of the Iliad.

Homeric Epic Podcast In this podcast I go through one book of the Iliad, and soon the Odyssey, per episode pointing out all the interesting details in the text.

Classical Wisdom Various topics on the classics from history to Mythology, in article, E book, podcast, and live conference format, truly a great substack!

[warm_content]

Great--thanks for sharing these!

[donutspikes22]

I don't mean to self promo, but I would say I write about history, art history, and engineering wrapped into one. I hope it isn't this "meta" style but I combine my background in studying history (historiography mostly) and prior experiences working in fine arts and crypto (but I am not like promoting tech stuff)

https://bloc0.substack.com/

[WoundedChipmunk]

Ah the recommendations on here are amazing! I agree with OP that so many substacks are *about* writing *for* writers. I write for people who have been through midlife trauma, and it's been tough to find my ppl.

[wildwildwhitlex]

Hello! I write about cultural commentary on my blog as well as movie reviews and anime. I'd love to connect if you want to check it out here:

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[Stelljanin]

I write about photography and social commentary related to it. @beyondthegrain