"Going paid"
...as they say.
Friends,
This newsletter has delivered poems to subscribers for well over a year now. It’s an incredibly freeing and heartening experience — to have a readership for my work after a thorough “cancellation.” What I’ve learned is that no poet needs mainstream literary culture to thrive. My career is on my terms, and I can’t be cancelled twice!
Thank you for making the dream possible.
Here’s the ask:
If you’re not a full subscriber yet, please consider it. The cost is as low as Substack will allow me to make it for both yearly and monthly subscriptions.
What I’m doing here is quite unusual in the field of American poetry. I am managing to build a readership without help from academia and their gaggle of gatekeepers. I am an independent artist.
My book Rosary Made of Air was a top-ten bestseller on Amazon for nearly a full week, beating out establishment darlings like Ocean Vuong, last April. Proof that this experiment is working.
Let’s keep freaking out the establishment!
If you’re already a paid subscriber, consider giving a subscription as a gift!
Help spread the word.
Moving forward, at least half of the content here will be for paid subscribers. Free subscribers are still just as welcome as they’ve always been! If things are tight for you, but you really want all the Dispatches, please let me know and I will send you a complimentary subscription.
Bless you!
Joseph