My Stack of Subs

💌 Recommending newsletters with heart, not agendas.

👋 Ciao, I’m Giulia Blocal, your street art insider. This is just a playful listicle to keep the Substack algorithm entertained while I work on the next episode of Beyond the Walls, my long-running newsletter on street art, graffiti, off-the-beaten-path travel, and a bit of my life in between.

The idea for this listicle actually came from

Anne Thomas

, who kindly included me in her own roundup of favorite Substacks. I even stole her title 😬 so credit goes to her for both the inspiration and the name.

Make sure to check out her Substack too, and let’s jump right in.

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At the moment of writing this, I’m subscribed to 97 newsletters. 😅 And yes, I actually read them all. Most of them arrive monthly or biweekly, which makes it manageable, and anyway I’d much rather spend my time here than on any other social media.

If you’ve been following my journey for a while, you already know that newsletters have always been my favorite medium, both as a reader and as a writer. I launched mine back in 2014, and when Substack came along I quickly moved here. I was among the early adopters, back when the platform had barely any features (not even the app!). The only reason I joined was simple: it was free, unlike Mailchimp, which was charging me because I already had several thousand subscribers.

Of course, I can see the “enshittification” creeping in, as more influencers flock to the platform and the homepage gets worse by the week (and don’t get me started on the gamification of paid subscriptions 🌸). Precisely for that reason, today I want to share with you the Substacks I truly enjoy, the ones that still feel genuine, not the ones chasing virality.

So if you’re looking for fresh voices to follow, here are my favorite Substacks!

💌 Two quick disclaimers before we dive in:

1. I’ll be describing these newsletters in just a few keywords. Authors, please don’t feel underestimated if I say “so little” about your project, these words are meant as a teaser, not a full review. I encourage everyone to check out the fuller descriptions each author provides.

2. I’m not including newsletters that feel more like magazines, or round-ups—wonderful as many of them are—because for me a newsletter means the personal voice of a single author. I’m also not including those I’ve only recently subscribed to, since I’m not yet familiar enough with them to recommend.

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…that’s it, enough of me rambling about newsletters (I could go on forever).

Let’s dive into the ones I think you would love 😉

Newsletters that feel like diaries (my favorite kind of reading)

• Ana Creates Meaning by

  Ana V. Martins
  - creativity and life;

• All The King’s Men by

  Cici Sullivan
  - love and relationships;

• It’ll Be Fun, They Said by

  Jess Pan
  - life of an introvert;

• Receipt from the Bookshop by

  Katie Clapham
  - warm, fun dispatches from an indie bookshop by the sea;

• Jules is Out of Office by

  Jules Torti
  - life of a travel writer;

• Slowly but Surely by

  Stefania Genisio
  - books and creative life;

• Pretend I Never Sent You This by

  Kat Schneider
  - short, illustrated stories from everyday life;

• Frequent Cryers Club by

  Erin Shetron
  - listicles exploring feelings.

Newsletters rooted in a place:

• The Marrakech Diaries by

  Emilias Marrakech Diaries
  - the fast transformation and reshaping going on in Marrakech (as in many other cities);

• Coffee and Rakija by

  David Pejčinović-Bailey MBE
  - life in Bosnia and Herzegovina;

• Wooden City by

  Isaac Rangaswami
  - from London;

• It’s Not Just You by

  Susanna Schrobsdorff
  - from Paris;

• Bifa in Lisbon by

  Susie Garrett
  - from Lisbon;

• Letters from Rome by

  Michelle Ciani
  - from Rome;

• The New Roman Times by

  Laura Itzkowitz
  - about Rome and Italy;

• Gillian Knows Best by

  Gillian Longworth McGuire
  - about Venice and Italy;

Newsletters about street art & graffiti:

• Art: Social Dysfunction Celebrated as Ritual by

  Guy Denning
  - personal reflections by a seasoned street artist, lately in vlog form (or, as Guy would say, the “old man walking around with a phone on a stick” format).

• Jeffrey Ian Ross’ Blog by

  Jeffrey Ian Ross
  - mini-essays by a renowned author in the graffiti and street art field (he also writes about criminology and correction);

• GO From the 413 by

  GO from the 413
  - documenting graffiti and street art from Western Mass and beyond;

• Legacy Station by

  LEGACY STATION
  - memories of an old school graffiti writer from New York City (KEL1ST).

Art Newsletters:

• LaMonica curator’s Substack by

  LaMonica Curator
  - she juggles so many art series and publishes so frequently that I honestly don’t know how to “classify” her work, I can only recommend subscribing;

• The Gallery Companion by

  Dr Victoria Powell
  - modern and contemporary art;

• Rogue Art Historian by

  Rogue Art Historian
  - art history;

• The Drip by

  Elspeth Michaels
  - hip hop and art history;

• The Great Women Artists by

  Katy Hessel
  - on, well, women artists (the great ones!)

Newsletters I’ll group under “inspirational” (the catch-all category)

• Culture Study by

  Anne Helen Petersen
  - essays on culture;

• Softly Said by

  Nia M.
  - journaling prompts;

• The Daily Grog by

  Skylar Renslow
  - photography and travel;

• Simply Divina by

  judy witts francini
  - food (recipes) and Tuscany;

• Contadina by

  Sarah May Grunwald
  - a natural wine lover living in the Roman countryside (contadina means farmer in Italian);

• La Tana by

  Tana Schwarz
  - on sustainable food;

• Trying in Public by

  Lexi Merritt
  - on the creative hustle.

Newsletters in Italian:

• Disagismi Urbani by

  disagian
  - street art and graffiti;

• Il Substack di Pollywantsacracker by

  pollywantsacracker
  - she was the very first blogger I started reading, ages ago. She writes about her life with such brilliance that, over the years, her blog has been turned into both a book and a TV series;

• Both Story Hacking and Koselig by

  Mafe de Baggis
  - one about the craft of writing, the other about everyday life and sources of inspiration;

• Posta Creativa by

  Valentina Aversano
  - creativity and writing;

• Piatto Unico Se Gradito by

  Massimoduetocchi
  - personal journal;

• Vola Mio Mini Pippony by

  Giorgia Fumo
  - life of a stand-up comedian;

• Pain de Route by

  Eleonora Sacco
  - traveling off the grid;

• Heavy Meta by

  Lorenzo Fantoni
  - journalism and communication.

That’s all folks!

My aim with this listicle was to help you discover your next favorite newsletter. Let me know if I’ve succeeded, I’d love to hear which ones you end up binge-reading 😊

Talk soon,

Giulia

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