Happy Birthday

Get my Summer Reading Zine to celebrate

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Yesterday, this Substack turned one. She's starting to walk and can say several words. I'm a proud parent!

When I started my newsletter, I gave it approximately 5 minutes of thought. I began with the handle Andrea Is Writing, and my Substack was dedicated to poetry. After a few months, I realized that focus was too narrow, so I expanded to Literary Merit, a place where I talk about books, creativity, libraries, and still share the occasional poem. 

The Substack community has been so lovely and supportive. (Thanks to my friend Mary from Pocketful of Prose for sharing about her Substack journey and inspiring me.) I wanted to do something to celebrate this birthday, so I made you a summer reading zine packed full of book recommendations across ten categories. The best part is that it costs $0. Please let me know if you have any problems with it.

In other news, I added a few new links to my homepage, including a page for all of my book lists and a list of all the poetry I’ve shared. I also created a Bookshop.org list where you can shop all the books I’ve recommended. (I get a small cut of any of those purchases, and you choose an indie bookstore to benefit, too.) Finally, I also added a link for Buy Me a Coffee, which allows you to support my work if you’re so inclined.

Thanks for celebrating this birthday with me! I hope you enjoy the zine. I would love it if you would:

• share my newsletter

• share the zine

• or share a favorite post

I’d love to see this community continue to grow. Thank you for being here!