Substacks recommended by Rona Maynard

Recommended by Rona Maynard

Dispatches from one woman's life as a Western Muslim told through the lens of mental health, faith, and the multi-generational immigrant experience.

Noha's perspective on otherness and motherness expands my world.

- Rona Maynard

Dispatch from Bewilderness

By Judith Hannah Weiss

Nominated for Best American Essay and Pushcart Prize. Proudly niche since 2006 in posts of 2 minutes or less. A Substack Bestseller in Literature. Subscribe FREE as long as Substack allows. No cost. No risk. No obligation.

Poignant, hilarious and quotable reflections on age, disability and much else from one of Substack's most original writers.

- Rona Maynard

The Publishing Spectrum

By Amanda B. Hinton

Guidance for writers and creative entrepreneurs who want to publish their work from creative truth — not reactive strategy. Get data-informed insights, creative tools and deeply human publishing mentorship.

The virtual art room where creative people build their skills with an encouraging and passionate mentor.

- Rona Maynard

Sparks from Culture by David Roberts

Weekly personal essays on wealth, status, and family from someone with generational wealth, writing with transparency.

David reckons with the responsibilities of wealth and the legacy (in both senses) of a complicated family. Always a penetrating read.

- Rona Maynard

100 Stories by Adam Nathan

In February 2024 I committed to writing one story a month for a hundred months. This is the journey to May 2032. Join me Sunday mornings at 9:00AM for the stories, the backstories, and audio.

Adam Nathan makes magic with words.

- Rona Maynard

Style Your Stack

By Nan Tepper

Need help coming up with a logo? A wordmark? A cover image? Flummoxed by the tech? Do you want to brand your stack? Need a tour around the backend of your newsletter and help setting it up? I do it all!

Nan is a talented designer with a timeless approach. Check her out.

- Rona Maynard

Cambridge Ladies' Dining Society

By Ann Kennedy Smith

Exploring books, literary lives and Cambridge women’s history

Ann writes with authority and grace about women whose lives and art deserve to be better known.

- Rona Maynard

The Granny Who Stands on her Head

By Ann Richardson

After a lifetime of reflection, I write short posts with a touch of gentle humour. Yes, I write on being old, but life is too interesting to be limited to one small part.

Pithy, fearless writing about what it’s really like to be old.

- Rona Maynard

Beyond the Bookshelf

By Matthew Long 📚⚓

After navigating oceans for 24 years in the Navy, I now chart courses through literature and life. Here we explore beyond the bookshelf to discover how the written word shapes who we are and who we're becoming.

Matthew's curiosity, compassion and unswerving commitment to the healing power of reading make Substack a better place.

- Rona Maynard

Unfixed

By Kimberly Warner

When broken is the fix.

Kimberly Warner's hard-won conviction, tenderness and honesty make her stack a home for those seeking hope without bromides.

- Rona Maynard

[B]OLD AGE with Debbie Weil

Sharing what it's really like to get old, from the blessings to the bullshit.

The place for straight talk about aging well. Lively discussions, guests you'll be glad you met.

- Rona Maynard

The Hallelujah Book & Hope Letter

By Tara Penry

Bookish enchantment for grown-ups: a literature professor’s notes on hope.

Tara brings readers together with radiant and erudite essays on literature as a font of hope.

- Rona Maynard

Audacious Women, Creative Lives

By Anne Boyd / Audacious Women

Inspiration for living boldly and creatively

Ex-academic creates a new life of adventure, inspiring other women to live boldly.

- Rona Maynard

Homo Vitruvius by A. Jay Adler

Memoir, poetry, fiction, drama, and essays on all things human: explorations into our reason for being in the world. Living through language and ideas from a professor of English and writer.

Eclectic, erudite and deeply felt, Jay's essays are among the most consistently arresting in my Substack queue.

- Rona Maynard

Debby's Substack: What to Believe

By Debby Waldman-What To Believe

My memoir, What to Believe, is about secrets, suicide, and the power of denial. Each week I'll publish another chapter. Between chapters, I'll write about mental health, grief, resilience, and hope.

Snaps

By Deirdre Lewis

sketches, flash fiction, musings and observations

Deirdre's originality surprises and delights.

- Rona Maynard

English Republic of Letters

By Jeffrey Streeter

A glimpse of distant horizons via "beautifully crafted essays and observations" covering literature, memoir, and faraway cities from a recovering cultural bureaucrat joining up the dots of an international life.

Jeffrey reads with devotional attention, opening a path between literature and life.

- Rona Maynard

What Comes Next?

By Abigail Thomas

Something odd will cross my mind, or a memory will catch me off guard, or my monkey mind will swing from the ceiling fan, or a tiny ant will crawl up the bookcase next to my chair. Then I get curious and curiosity is the first step in an unknown direction

No one writes a moment like Abby, whose moments contain the world.

- Rona Maynard

Touching the Elephant

By Kendall Lamb

Nature writing, memoir, poetry and prose from a meaning-making marine biologist.

Kendall sounds and sees like no one else. She's particularly compelling on the natural world, but I would read her on anything at all.

- Rona Maynard

what now?

By mary g.

writing and talking about writing and other things (but mostly prompts)

Stimulating prompts to explore with literary community builder mary g and her merry band of writers.

- Rona Maynard

The Writer's Journey with Laura Davis

By Laura Davis and The Writer's Journey

A safe, creative sanctuary where people use writing to connect deeply with themselves, their stories, and each other.

A gifted writer and community builder guides you to the heart of a beauty-centered life.

- Rona Maynard

This Very Moment

By Rob Tourtelot

Love, loss, and other emergencies. A Substack Featured Publication 2025.

Rob captures pivotal moments in family life with elegance and heart.

- Rona Maynard

The Next Write Thing

By Nan Tepper

Personal essays about relationships, my dysfunctional family, recovery and living and thriving in a creative life. It's not ALL serious, though. I'm serious about seeing the humor in things, more and more. I need to laugh!

Like a heart-to-heart with a friend who tells the truth about the hardest things--and can laugh about them.

- Rona Maynard

Spark

By Elizabeth Marro

We examine life's questions through the lens of what we are reading and writing. You'll find essays, stories, book recs, interviews, and resources for readers and writers. Let's talk!

A lively, open-hearted community for readers and writers.

- Rona Maynard

BordoLines

By Susan Bordo

Deep dives into politics, gender, history, popular culture and mass media from award-winning, influential feminist philosopher.

Original takes on film and TV from a deeply attentive viewer whose perceptions expand my own.

- Rona Maynard

Holly Starley's Rolling Desk

My living room is the world. Pull up a chair.

Vivid writing full of heart and curiosity.

- Rona Maynard

An Unfinished Story

By Sarah McCraw Crow

Book recommendations, women artists, and interviews with late-blooming authors. Because at midlife, our story is still unfinished.

I trust Sarah not only for her taste in fiction but for her informed appreciation of art. She's terrific on John Singer Sargen.

- Rona Maynard

This Won't End Well: On Loving Greek Tragedy.

By Elizabeth Bobrick

Why do I love Greek tragedy? These mythical stories of war, familial trauma, and isolation illuminate the beauty and darkness of our shared humanity. They tell me something new every time I read them; retelling them here is my passion.

Provocative, original essays for all readers who seek a clearer understanding of the present in the literature of the past.

- Rona Maynard

Writer Everlasting

By Ramona Grigg

We're a writing community, a safe space. We're here to give, to learn, to revel, to commiserate, but mainly we're here to advance and enhance our writing. All posts are free and the comments are always open.

Bracing, honest, real.

- Rona Maynard

Friends with Words

By Tanya Mozias

A linguist, single mother, and former world traveler writing about language, culture, and identity from the most complicated place on Earth.

Great fun for language learners and students of the oddities of language.

- Rona Maynard

Oldster Magazine

By Sari Botton

Exploring what it means to travel through time in a human body, at every phase of life.

Funny, frank, moving, unpredictable. Oldster makes me proud to be old.

- Rona Maynard

Writer, interrupted

By Mary Roblyn

Life happens. We get interrupted. When my husband died, grief opened my heart. Writing, like grieving, is an act of love. I got interrupted, but I didn't give up. Join me! A Substack Featured Publication.

Brave and beautiful writing about where love goes when the loved one is gone.

- Rona Maynard

She's Gone Chilaquiles

By Anna Schott

essays, memoir, food analogies

Anna writes with heart, urgency and an eye for the unpredictable.

- Rona Maynard

Pen, Book and Garden: Notes from Linnesby

By Notes

Literary essays from the Swedish countryside

An original and graceful essayist, Maria interweaves past and present, art and life.

- Rona Maynard

Beyond with Jane Ratcliffe

The internet’s most intimate, illuminating interviews with today’s greatest writers—get an in-depth look into the craft of writing and what it means to be a heart-centered human in a hard world.

A wellspring of inspiration for writing and life. Beyond always leaves me feeling brighter.

- Rona Maynard

@ Home in the World

By Joyce Maynard

Stories, observations, and obsessions from me, New York Times-bestselling author and pie baker, Joyce Maynard

Memorable stories told from the heart by my amazing sister.

- Rona Maynard

Touchpoints: A Writer's Truth

By Beth Kaplan

A writer in mid-career — what's working, what's not, craft, process, success and defeat, what she’s trying to accomplish, and what she has given up on.

A frank, lively and searching look at the rewards and frustrations of a writer's life.

- Rona Maynard