Why subscribe?
The intangibles is geared toward writers and readers of creative nonfiction and memoir and anyone who currently has a writing practice or wishes to have one.
You might subscribe because you too are navigating this writing life and would like some company and some big questions to chew on. Or because you’re realizing that writing is never just about writing; it’s always teaching us about ourselves. Or because you want to learn how to tell the truth about yourself and about the world. Or because you love to read great essays and memoirs and want to be in community with others who feel the same way.
One of the goals of this publication is to make the writing life more transparent, collaborative and community-oriented.
What can subscribers expect?
All subscribers will get access to my personal essays, essays on the writing life, and craft essays focused on creative nonfiction. The majority of my publication is free — and I depend on my generous paid subscribers to keep it accessible and available to all.
Paid subscribers receive a monthly writing prompt and writing exercise or reading recommendation targeted for creative nonfiction/memoir writers and readers, as well as the joy of knowing they are supporting an independent self-employed writer who is carving out her unique space in the literary landscape.
About me
I am an essayist who is currently working on a memoir. I hold an MFA in creative nonfiction from The New School in New York City. You can find my essays in River Teeth’s Beautiful Things, Brevity blog, Pithead Chapel, Under the Gum Tree and elsewhere.
I teach creative writing independently in person and on Zoom to adult writers of creative nonfiction and memoir (with a few fiction writers thrown in every now and then). I believe that sharing writing is a very vulnerable process, so I work hard to design workshops that better support writers.
I still love teaching, but in 2025 something has shifted — I am feeling more pulled toward my writing, so I will not be offering as many new workshops or classes for the remainder of 2025.
Some kind words
“ My beloved writing teacher of many years Allison Kirkland pens a newsletter that will resonate with any of us who sit down to write, whether as part of our jobs, part of our self-care, or some combination of both. It’s especially important to me that Allison brings us back, again and again, to how our bodies are a crucial part of our writing process, whether we recognize them as such or not. And, our writing improves (both in artistry and in impact) when we recognize and nurture the way our embodied experience informs our writing practice.” — Liddy Grantland
Join us!
Let’s push back against the narrative that writers are lone wolves and that writing happens magically in isolation. Instead let’s talk about our wins and our frustrations, our first drafts and final drafts, and what we’re learning about what it means to be a writer.
Attn: Disabled Writers
I was born with a limb difference. Because I am intimately aware of the barriers in the writing community that often silence the disabled community, I offer one year paid subscriptions to writers who consider themselves part of the disability community.
[Logo illustration by Morgan Riker]
