The notes app on the R train

A newsletter about Acacia Magazine in New York, a book review, and introducing RBD's social editor, Asad Chishti

Writer’s Notebook #3: Become a paid subscriber to support my reporting and to keep reading! You’ll find an note I wrote for Acacia Magazine, a review of Temple Folk, and more.

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Acacia Magazine’s Issue 04 is out in the world now!

I. the notes app on the r train

I am in New York for work. I expect I won’t feel at home when I return but I feel something here I don’t feel in my other homes, Michigan and Chicago. I don’t romanticize it as the greatest city in the world. In fact, I was deeply shut-in for those grindy first three years in Brooklyn.

It’s as if I load a different spiritual processing system. My gait and speed shift. I’m pleasantly exhausted by the end of the day. I’m aware of blocks ahead of me and behind. Contrary to stereotype, I find New York to be one of the friendliest places in America, provided you know how to speak its social code, to process its signals, and to embrace immanence in the city.

Acacia Magazine, the literary and cultural mag I’ve edited since its inception in 2023, held a launch party for issue 04 this past Tuesday. Our peers - Lux, Hammer and Hope, Jewish Currents - also launched alongside us. The event, at Public Records, sold out.

According to a group of select peers in New York, there’s a bit of a Scene at these events. I can’t say if this is true, but if it is, then I find it deeply funny. I do most of this work on Zoom and I can testify that the editors are beautiful, bookish nerds with giant hearts.