Six Months of Swords and Sandwiches
What's working, what's not, and what you want to read in the months ahead
Edited by David Swanson
Dear readers! (Swordsmen? Sand-Witchers?) Because this week marks half a year of this newsletter being in existence, I thought I’d hit pause for a moment and both reflect on the work so far, and to ask for your feedback. I really value the lively, funny and adroit community in the comments, and wanted to elicit your feedback more explicitly.
Over the past six months I’ve covered child abuse, war, neo-Nazism, school board extremism, and lots and lots of sandwiches—from the existential horror of bologna salad to the simple joy of a banh mi. I’ve also published more than half of a gay Jewish novella set in nineteenth-century Ukraine for paid subscribers. It’s an eclectic mix! Sometimes chilling, sometimes poignant, always sincere and strange, which is more or less the guarantee.
I’d like to open the floor to y’all to let me know in the comments or in replies what you’re feeling about this accumulation of obsessions in your inbox. Is there a topic you’d love to see me to cover? A story you can’t stop thinking about? A sensible adjustment you’d like to suggest—what you’d want to see more of, or less? Before I progress into the next six months, I’d love to take this moment to hear about what moves you, what’s working, what could use improvement. You’re the strop to this steel, the whetstone to the blade, the mustard to my sandwich, and without you this publication would not be: after all, what’s a writer without her readers?
I love your newsletter. It is one of the only emails I look forward to in my inbox. Among the list of why I read: your exhaustive link citations (in which I always learn something); your peppering of literary allusions; your appreciation of history and your ability to provide context to current affairs; your naked and honest vulnerability of your literal and metaphysical journeys in the world; and your lyrical prose and attention to detail. Moreover, I am thankful for your bravery and sacrifice in covering the onslaught of rising fascism from both a global and hyper local perspective. But above all, I am entirely delighted to read your sandwich columns. They are a vessel to learn about culture and history, and at times it feels like I'm getting access to a personal diary of culinary musings. A breakfast sandwich column that details deliberating depression? That's something I can relate to.
Ok, I admit that some of the topics are more interesting to me than others, but that doesn't mean I want you to focus on specific ones. What is so wonderful and compelling about your work is how much thought and heart and soul you bring to each piece. I'm guessing that that passion lands on particular topics at particular times for you, maybe somewhat out of your conscious control. So I say just write what you're feeling about, whatever the topic, and the quality will stay very high. As a reader, I'd rather follow along with a burning light on its own path, rather than try to shine it in some other direction just because I think that might be more interesting.