Next Contests and Flight Plan - June Edition

(And a very discreet fundraising appeal, so subtle you won't even know it's happening)

Dear Republic,

By now, it may have occurred to you that The Republic of Letters represents something really special. Assuming that you’re having this thought, there are good structural reasons for it — namely, that it’s set up differently from just about every other publication in existence. Publications, for deep-seated organizational and financial reasons, tend to fall into the following patterns. 1.They feel obligated to have a ‘brand’ or ‘editorial line,’ which, invariably, reflects the views and temperament of the founders/funders. 2.They get into a committee mindset and, to deal with all the competing interests of whatever stakeholders are involved, they adopt a consensus position, which, inevitably, becomes the safest available course of action. 3.They privilege a particular clique and that clique ends up hoarding all the resources that the publication has.

The Republic of Letters avoids almost all of these pitfalls. There’s no ‘line,’ there’s no committee-think, the majority of the contributors are unknown to me before their piece pops into the ROL inbox. The editor is responsible for the tone of ROL and for many of the topics covered, but the alternative to that it is committee-think, and — as everybody knows — there is nothing worse in arts and ideas than committee-think. I do startlingly little editing on the pieces, and the result of trusting the contributors is a remarkable diversity of viewpoints while the pieces remain stylistically the writers’, as opposed to being chopped up into tiny little bits as is industry SOP. I am the Mekhi Phifer here, you are the Eminem.

Or if you prefer a different movie analogy you can think about it like the dungeon master from Nymphomaniac, imposing some guardrails, making sure nobody gets hurt, but other than that letting the contributors/readers have all their BDSM fun.

In the last week alone, we have had thoughtful, bracingly honest reflections on life from a butcher (who is also a municipal lawyer), from an archeologist who manages to write strikingly like Louis-Ferdinand Céline, from a museum security guard, from an octogenarian who can write on gay life in America stretching back to long before Stonewall. If that’s not a democratic sensibility, I don’t know what it is! And that’s in addition to our bread-and-butter — sharp, debate-driven pieces on the storm und drang of angsty writers.

That seems the perfect segue to the fundraising appeal. Et voilà. The weekly budget of ROL is $350. That’s $50x3 for contest winners, $75x2 for commissions, plus a bit extra in bonuses. That comes out to $1400 a month, $16,800 a year if publishing every day. At most publications, that might be half the salary of a single proofreader or maybe a hefty portion of the snack budget. Here that covers hundreds of pieces, many of them from writers who may well be reaching a significant audience for the very first time.

Since the future of ROL will be a close-run thing between riding off into the sunset and my foolishly burning through the budget I have, please do help me to not foolishly burn through the budget. And keep in mind that many of you who give will also end up receiving payouts for articles you write — like in a giant fucking ferris wheel of gift economy goodness. So I do hope all of that is persuasive and that you switch to a paid subscription if you haven’t already.

That seems the perfect segue to announce the next round of contests.

1.Congratulations! you have been selected to deliver a commencement address — at, let’s say, your alma mater college. What do you want to tell your 22-year-old self that, possibly, your own commencement speaker didn’t exactly address the first time around? Submissions due June 15 with “Commencement” in subject line.

2.Submit a piece by a friend of yours — someone you think is an incredibly talented writer who may not have gotten the exposure they deserve. Try to keep these submissions to under ~3000 words but the pieces can be anything at all. This prompt is inspired by Courtney Sender’s Gatekeeping piece. Submissions due June 22 with “Friend” in the subject line.

3.Shit on a writer week. Since we’ve already paid off our karmic debts with our ‘underestimated writer’ series, let’s flip the script and argue why some well-known writer — living or dead — is criminally overestimated. While you can be very honest, ad hominem attacks will go unrewarded. Criticize the work not the person. Submissions due June 29 with “Overestimated” in the subject line.

4.Character identification week. You may well at some point in your life have had the experience of overly identifying with a fictional character in something you read or watched. Tell that story! — about how you thought you were Captain Nemo or Maid Marian or whatever it was. Submissions due July 6 with “Overidentification” in the subject line.

All pieces should be sent to republic.of.letters.substack@gmail.com. All selected pieces receive $50 plus possible additional bonuses. There is no hard word count, but 1200-1500 words is a good target.

Thank you for supporting this endeavor. It really is a pleasure to work on this — as it is to publish your pieces and to collect your donations.

-The Editor