Write or Die Magazine — where we help you make sense of the writing world!
Write or Die helps writers navigate the writing world with clear, trustworthy guidance from people who know it from the inside. Every week, respected writers, educators and publishing professionals share what they’ve learned about what every writer struggles to figure out: how to keep getting better, what’s actually happening in publishing, and how to build a career that lasts.
What you’ll find here
The Business of Being a Writer with Jane Friedman, every week. Career strategy and industry myth-busting across every publishing path.
How to Become a Better Writer with Erin Weiss, every other week. Which classes, workshops, MFAs, coaches and retreats are worth your time and money, from GrubStreet’s Senior Director of Education.
The State of Publishing Today with Caitlin Scarano, every month. Data-backed reporting on what’s happening in publishing right now, and what it means for you.
Free Sh!t for Writers with Anna Kot, twice a month, free. Free contests, events and resources, rounded up for you.
MFAs + More with Ciera Miller, every month, free. Career advancement in the literary world, courtesy of our partner universities.
You’ll also get open submission calls, live AMAs with writing and publishing professionals, and the complete Forever Workshop archive of educational workshops & essays.
Who is Write or Die Magazine for?
Writers at every stage, from the never-published to the much-published.
If you have a finished draft and no idea what to do with it, you’re in the right place.
If you’re submitting to literary magazines while holding down a day job and writing a novel, you’re in the right place.
If you have three books out and still can’t tell a good residency from a bad one, you’re in the right place.
If you’re building a writing career and want to make smarter decisions about it, you’re in the right place.
Free and paid tiers
Free subscribers get Free Sh!t for Writers, the MFA Newsletter, a free preview of every column, submission calls and live events. Paid members get every column in full, plus the complete archive.
More Membership Details
Everyone who subscribes to Write or Die Magazine gets plenty for free. Paid members get everything.
Free
Free Sh!t for Writers, every other Monday
The MFA Newsletter, every month
A free preview or free section of every paid column
Open submission calls
Live AMAs and events on Substack
Paid
Everything that’s free, plus:
The Business of Being a Writer with Jane Friedman, every Thursday
How to Become a Better Writer with Erin Weiss, every other Tuesday
The State of Publishing Today with Caitlin Scarano, on the last Sunday of each month
The complete archive, including every Forever Workshop essay
A discount on GrubStreet classes
Curate what you get in your inbox
Each column and newsletter is its own section, so you can switch off any you don’t want without unsubscribing. Go to your Substack settings, open Write or Die and choose which sections you’d like by email.
Masthead
Write or Die Magazine is a Chill Subs publication.
Team
Benjamin Davis — Publisher
Shannan Mann — Editorial Director
Kailey Dello Russo — Founding Editor
Kennedy Cole — Editorial Assistant
Anna Kot — Content & Community Manager
Tanue Lambina — Designer
Columnists
Jane Friedman — The Business of Being a Writer
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals. Her latest book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (University of Chicago Press), received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with numerous organizations to bring transparency to the business of publishing. Learn more at JaneFriedman.com.
Erin Weiss — How to Become a Better Writer
Erin Weiss is the Senior Director of Education at GrubStreet, the Boston-based literary arts center, where she designs hundreds of programs for writers each year. She holds an Ed.M. in Learning and Teaching from Harvard and, unfortunately for her own drafts but fortunately for you, spends way more time thinking about what makes for great writing education than she does actually writing.
Caitlin Scarano — The State of Publishing Today
Caitlin Scarano is a poet based in Bellingham, Washington. She holds a PhD in English (creative writing) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the author of two full-length poetry collections: Do Not Bring Him Water (Write Bloody, 2017) and The Necessity of Wildfire (Blair, 2022), selected by Ada Limón as the winner of the Wren Poetry Prize and winner of a 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award. She was a 2024-2025 Watershed Fellow with the Public Humanities Collaboratory in Oregon and a participant in the NSF’s Antarctic Artists & Writers Program. Caitlin does one-on-one writing coaching and editing, and teaches in and outside of academia, including through Writers.com. She also works in communications strategy across nonprofits and tech, turning research and data into storytelling. She lives with two dogs and spends most of her free time on the trails around Bellingham. Find her at caitlinscarano.com.
Anna Kot — Free Sh!t for Writers
Anna is the content & community manager at Chill Subs by day and a professional content creator by night, with a knack for humorous yet educational takes and over a decade of blogging, video-making, and photography experience. Social justice, veganism, and a desire to improve the future for humans, animals, and the planet are the driving forces behind her work.
Ciera Miller — MFAs + More
Ciera Miller earned her Master’s in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College. She was previously the Editor-in-Chief of Redivider and Marketing Associate at Ploughshares, who she now reads nonfiction for. She’s also a Prose Reader for The Adroit Journal. Her monologue “So Be Brave” was performed in GOOD TROUBLE (dir. Jayne Decker, 2020), and her essay, “Dear France,” won second place in The River’s Nostalgia Contest. She believes that coffee is the best of all the food groups, and the way to her heart is through a cold brew (regular cream, French Vanilla).
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