My Raymond Carver Cult

I love you maniacs

I have this artistic fantasy/urge of going into people's homes. I think a lot about this Raymond Carver story I had to read in college where this person house sits for a neighbor, but also tries on their clothes, and sleeps in their bed, and get's really into it, you know?

I'm not a journalist, and the type of writing that I like to do about people is sort of like that Carver story. I like to hang out with them for a very long time, to get in their head and sometimes in their home. I think sometimes, that this is a product of my time as Miss Teen USA, where I'd travel alone a lot, being delivered to a host family or a chaperone in a new state every so often.

Today I interviewed a woman in her apartment in Little Italy. We ran into each other on the sidewalk a few weeks ago and I asked if she'd ever been written about. I met her son's manager at a speakeasy I used to hang out at, last summer. I love these sort of deep cut, irl people and profiles, the type you can't get from a corporation trying to get their product out or an influencer looking for more channels to "amplify their message."

But hey, I'm not above a brand deal, because a girls gotta eat!

I've been doing a lot of coding alone in a room and business development lately and it's rewarding in its own, left-brain sort of way, but It's also isolating and exhausting. I am a tried and true workaholic. It is the Kansan in me, on both sides, but I love it. And I love writing, but not just any type of writing.

I, hypocritically, really don't enjoy reading about Internet culture. I love reading about the physical Internet, like the fiber optic cables and search rank algorithms, but in terms of Internet content that is posted online, I prefer my stories about and by people who are honest, interested in other people, who are not themselves, and people who go outside.

I reopened submissions because I need more writers. Not journalists or people looking for a quick byline or a step up in the world, but people who believe in the power of writing something down as an act of witnessing it and creating in the world.

I want people who already get Hot Literati.

Hot Literati Academy and Intro to Hot Literati are not just a business development play. It's a way of seeing the world and a way of me synthesizing information that made me more interested and risk tolerant, and disseminating it to other people.

As far as submissions go, I want pieces from writers who have taken Intro to Hot Literati.

And this is not a gatekeep-y thing or quick stab at a pretty buck. This is a way to make sure you're understanding the lens before you contribute. It's a way of seeing the world that has helped me fall deeper in love with it.

I especially want pieces from people with long attention spans. People who have read classics and don't enjoy scrolling short form content. There is a reason I only post from my computer.

If you've taken Intro to Hot Literati submit your pitches!!!

Then go outside, talk to someone, and find your own deep cut sort of person to write about. Hang out with them (within reason hahaha be safe).

I think I write as a way of falling in love with other people. And when you write about somebody else, which you should a lot, I think, you want to do it justice.

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Already taken it? Submit your pitch