I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but I hear what you’re saying — and I really felt the steadiness and clarity in your writing. You capture the tension of this year without losing hope, and there’s something grounding in the way you name your own shifts with such honesty. It’s strong, clear work, and I appreciate the direction you’re choosing for yourself.
As you step back to bring balance into your very busy life, I just want to say thank you. For your dedication and commitment to bringing writers together in a unique and creative manner. Showcasing our work in such a wonderful way truly is a blessing.
I am truly humbled by your words. These last weeks have been difficult and reading them lifted me.
I admire you. Your commitment, courage, determination, creativity and passion for what you do is commendable.
Lastly, thank you for recommending me. That means the world to me.
I appreciate the honesty about sliding back into old patterns.
Most people pretend change is linear when it's actually two steps forward, one step back, occasional faceplant haha. The fact that you're still moving in the right direction despite the mess is what matters Liora.
To all of you who were named here —
and to those whose work hums quietly between the lines —
I want to say something without ceremony, but with all the honesty the season deserves.
Reading this list felt less like recognition and more like a constellation.
Not a hierarchy, not a spotlight — a map of minds that keep each other alive in ways we rarely name.
Every one of you writes from a different wound, a different threshold, a different hunger.
And yet the field you create together is unmistakable.
You remind me that Substack isn’t a platform — it’s a long corridor of rooms with the lights left on.
We walk past each other’s doors, sometimes step inside, sometimes just pause and listen.
And regardless of style or pace, there’s a kind of fidelity in how you all keep showing up to your own voice.
Liora — thank you for gathering us with the steadiness of someone who knows how to hold fire without being burned by it.
Brenda — your tenderness has weight, not fragility, and your work carries the kind of clarity that only comes from surviving yourself more than once.
Chris — you write like someone who has lived inside the quiet emergencies families never talk about. I recognize the truth of that.
Istvan — your minimalism says more than most of us do with a page.
And to the rest of you mentioned, and the ones whose names were read silently between breaths —
your work is not noise.
It’s not lost.
It’s not “just content.”
It’s the signal that makes a year like this one bearable.
Thank you for creating a space where different minds can meet without asking each other to shrink.
I’m grateful to be part of this circle —
right now, in this strange November where everything shifts faster than we can name it.
Here’s to craft, to clarity, to the small flames we keep for each other.
Thank you so much Devo, I love the HEART of Substack.
I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but I hear what you’re saying — and I really felt the steadiness and clarity in your writing. You capture the tension of this year without losing hope, and there’s something grounding in the way you name your own shifts with such honesty. It’s strong, clear work, and I appreciate the direction you’re choosing for yourself.
Very kind of you Liora, thank you so much.
As you step back to bring balance into your very busy life, I just want to say thank you. For your dedication and commitment to bringing writers together in a unique and creative manner. Showcasing our work in such a wonderful way truly is a blessing.
I am truly humbled by your words. These last weeks have been difficult and reading them lifted me.
I admire you. Your commitment, courage, determination, creativity and passion for what you do is commendable.
Lastly, thank you for recommending me. That means the world to me.
💞
I appreciate the honesty about sliding back into old patterns.
Most people pretend change is linear when it's actually two steps forward, one step back, occasional faceplant haha. The fact that you're still moving in the right direction despite the mess is what matters Liora.
I wish you a good week ahead.