Favorite Articles Issue 5 – The Republic of Letters
July 22, 2025
The Republic of Letters
This week I want to share five of my favorite articles from The Republic of Letters. Sam Kahn’s Substack is home to some of the best new literary debates, discussions, and essays to be found online in 2025. This Favorite Articles issue was prompted by my recent publication of “Beware Paul Theroux!” I’m excited to share my own recent success, but more importantly, I want to share the success of the other authors’ published before me. Unfortunately, I’m not always able to find work that I adore in the publications where my essays are accepted. That being said, I always try to hunt down at least one memorable piece that I think readers of my work might also enjoy. For instance, I shared Hannah Walhout’s amazing essay, “Year of The Egg,” when I was published in The Inquisitive Eater and Kimberly Hoff’s “The Language of Belonging” as well as Leslie Carol Roberts “Night Farmers” when I was first published in Panorama Journal. When I’m able to find work that I love, I’m excited to share it here. After all, who doesn’t like feeling as though they’ve made a discovery? In this light, this Favorite Articles issue was easy to make because I love most of what The Republic of Letters publishes. In fact, well before I became a contributor, I was a huge fan of the publication. Likewise, I think you’ll love the essays linked below.
Maximalism
Vincenzo Barney’s defense of Maximalism, “A Pulchritudinous and Yet Pugnacious ‘Defense’ of Purple Prose,” is fantastic. His argument that the elaborate use of language has been unfairly maligned explains why so much contemporary writing is as one-dimensional as it appears. If you’ve ever had the feeling that modern literature was written in a sensory deprivation tank stuffed into the basement of a eerily quiet psychiatric ward, you might find Vincenzo’s defense of ornamentation a revolutionary idea worth learning to apply to your own writing.
https://therepublicofletters.substack.com/p/a-pulchritudinous-and-yet-pugnacious
Worldbuilding
If you’ve spent more than a minute online reading writing forums. you’re probably intimately familiar with the concept of worldbuilding. You probably also know that it’s among the best methods of procrastination for sci-fi and fantasy writer” still learning how to tell a story. Lillian Wang Selonick’s essay, “Worldbuilding,” provides a fantastic history of the term and shows how the concept has impacted the literary landscape, for better or worse.
https://therepublicofletters.substack.com/p/worldbuilding
MFA in Three Parts
An Intriguing MFA Student
Micah Cash’s “Chasing Kim L.” recounts a semester in a writing workshop. Micah focuses on Kim, a student who brought intrigue into an otherwise staid and ordinary, possibly boring classroom. In this character-driven portrait, Kim gives voice to the line “Isn’t pretension required… if we’re trying to create works of art?” Read on to find the answer.
https://therepublicofletters.substack.com/p/chasing-kim-l
MFA Stay Away
Autumn Widdoes’ “An MFA Nightmare” presents the writing workshop as social experiment. And in the experiment described, the loonies take complete control and throw decorum and sensibility out the window. I’ve been in classes with these types. You probably have to. And if you haven’t, count yourself lucky or consider the possibility that you were the nightmare engulfing your writing workshop.
https://therepublicofletters.substack.com/p/an-mfa-nightmare
A Great Place to Learn to Write
Brett Puryear’s “If You Persistently Fulminate Against MFA Programs, There Is A Good Chance You Are Insane” focuses on the value of learning to master the craft of writing. The craft of writing, he argues, is difficult to master, and “getting published is extremely difficult because writing and rewriting is extremely difficult.” His argument is decidedly sane. He takes the centrist’s position on the value of an MFA., providing the case that MFA programs can help students improve their craft, but he justly concludes that “reading widely is the best teacher of all.” So read his article and all the others in this issue.
https://therepublicofletters.substack.com/p/if-you-persistently-fulminate-against