Pause --> Book

I am so grateful to you, my readers, for supporting me while I’ve been writing Lullabies & Alarms, setting down many of my best tips & tricks for creative writing and poetry. Now it’s time for me to take a step back and begin assembling the material properly into a book on the craft of poetry!

Writing a book was, in fact, why I started this Substack in November 2021—my idea was to write chapters (or more accurately, bits and pieces of chapters) of that book, while being supported financially a little each month from my paying subscribers. It has worked out—I have managed, even amid the tumult of life, to put together an amazing amount of material.

Now comes the next step: I’m going to put it all in some kind of order, expand on it, fill in the many still-remaining gaps, revise it, and publish it (the jury’s still out on whether I publish it myself or work with a Canadian nonfiction press).

To clear my schedule fully, I will not be posting here for a while. As such, I’ve paused all paid subscriptions to Lullabies and Alarms. I’ve also put myself on hiatus from teaching through the end of 2026. (I’ve been teaching poetry virtually nonstop since 2018, through various in-person and online venues). I will be turning down most large-scale editing gigs as well this year.

Every single dollar I’ve received here has—and will continue to—sustain me as I undertake this big project, and try to see it through to the finish line. Every single kind word of support has equally buoyed me. Thank you all so much for spending time with me over the past 4+ years.

This Substack took what would have otherwise been a retirement project—something to attempt 20–30 years from now—and made it into something I could achieve incrementally, even while struggling with personal grief and anxiety, moving countries, and continually doing the freelance hustle to scrape together a living.

I could not have done this, and could not continue to do this, without my subscribers—each one of you. Thank you.

I’ll post again when I’ve got some news on the book!

~ Elisabeth