SC Weekly – June 2025 – #1
~ a curated selection of discoveries ~
::: The Open :::
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoy this edition of SC Weekly (published on Sundays).
Please consider sharing with a friend who you think may enjoy this newsletter.
Thank you for reading and for your time.
With Gratitude,
~ Mark
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::: Personal Notes :::
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I want to take a moment to step back and acknowledge that Stay Curious has over 500 subscribers.
6.7% are paid subscribers.
Apparently, having between 5-10% paid subscribers is considered “good” on Substack so I suppose that means I’m doing something right.
If you are able to upgrade to a paid subscription, I certainly appreciate it. If not, perhaps you know a friend who would enjoy reading Stay Curious posts?
Thank you for being here, it’s appreciated.
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::: ONE ART :::
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Practices of Assembly: Compiling Your Poetry Manuscript ~ A Workshop with John Sibley Williams
We're fast approaching John Sibley Williams' manuscript workshop hosted by ONE ART
Spoiler alert:
This workshop comes with a massive 50+ page workbook (to be shared post-workshop) that will help you on your journey to assemble a poetry collection.
To register:
Contact me directly. Pay using any of the donation options on ONE ART's website.
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Sunday, June 8 — 2pm Eastern
Featured Poets: Barbara Crooker, Robbi Nester, Judy Kronenfeld, Cathleen Cohen
>>> Tickets Available <<< (Free! Donations appreciated.)
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Book Launch: Human Resources by Erin Murphy
ONE ART is hosting the launch of Erin Murphy’s new poetry collection— Human Resources.
Wednesday, June 18, at 7pm Eastern
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Altoona professor (Erin Murphy!) publishes book of documentary poems on labor and employment (Penn State)
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::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::
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There’s No Cheating in Poetry: A Craft Essay by Elizabeth Galoozis (Cleaver Magazine)
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‘How to Make a Living as a Writer’
“People kept suggesting jobs to me like this: Why don’t you just become a barista? A cashier? A secretary? Every time, it was a sharp reminder of how little they understood my physical limitations. I’m too disabled for that, I wanted to say.”
“I’d enjoyed the freelance writing I’d done, mostly penning articles about health and pop culture for Canadian outlets and the odd American one. It paid poorly and inconsistently.”
“Unfortunately, I was distracted by how fun the work sounded. Like many young women who grew up with the internet, I had lived through the days of reading whatever perverted and poorly written erotica I could find about my favourite fictional characters online.”
“Now, my days looked like this: I woke up at 6 a.m. and did Horse News; I hammered out whatever freelance writing assignment I was working on; I wrote erotica; I ended my workday around 5 p.m., tired and achy.”
“Part of me hoped to be fired, freed entirely from my contract. But no—these people were, unfortunately, sweet and thoughtful.”
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‘27 Literary Journals with Fast Response Times’ (Authors Publish)
Always a little bummed when ONE ART isn’t included on these lists.
That being said, this is a terrific list of lit mags that do respond quickly and I recommend (in general).
Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Rattle Poets Respond, The Shore, Star*Line, Third Wednesday, Pithead Chapel, trampset, The Penn Review, Wildness, Dishsoap Quarterly, Ink in Thirds
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There’s more to this, but:
“Books are around 350 pages because pamphlets are too hard to sell and books that are too long are hard to bind and manipulate.”
‘Just the right length’ (Seth Godin)
I was recently informed that to get words on a book spine, these days, you typically need about 80 pages. Apparently, it used to be 110 pages. Remember, you need sets of pages (aka. sections or signatures) for the binding process.
Why does this matter?
Because, historically, bookshops will not shelve books without a name and title on the spine. Turned sideways you don’t know what the book is… and that’s not only a problem for sales, but also for locating the book (at the library, for instance).
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‘Letting Go’ by Louisa Muniz (SWWIM)
In this poem, Muniz does a particularly good job of handling a poem that is attempted by many (myself included, on several occasions).
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Erica Verrillo:
76 Calls for Submissions in June 2025 - Paying markets
56 Writing Contests in June 2025 - No entry fees
47 Glorious Writing Conferences and Workshops in June 2025
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15 Things a Writer Should Never Do - Writer's Digest
Decent clickbait.
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Lots of reporting on this issue:
Fantasy and romance writers address AI controversies after readers discover prompts in published books (Fast Company)
This Latest AI Book Debacle Is A Disturbing Part Of A Growing Trend (ScreenRant)
Whoops! AI Prompt Published in Novel (BookRiot)
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"Just know, however, that if you ever get caught submitting AI, your name has a high probability of being forever black-listed with that publication and that editor. Speaking from experience."
Written By a Human or AI? (FundsforWriters)
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“[…] As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, a tipping point may be reached where people stop assuming everything is posted by a human and start thinking it’s from a bot. Even if humans still make up most of the internet, the default assumption will be that everything is AI until proven otherwise.”
How Do I Prove That I'm Human? (Plagiarism Today)
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The Most Beautiful Words in the English Language, According to Linguists
There are many lists like this.
Prompt idea: Try to incorporate as many of these words as possible into a single poem.
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Kid lingo.
Parents, Here's the 2025 Teen Slang You Need to Know
I knew kinda a lot of these… and I am not young… and so, this suggests the kids have newer lingo (likely coopted from AAVE) that may not yet be on the radar of “experts”.
Gen Z folks can speak, uh, basically another language if they wish. But Gen Z is not the youngest cohort anymore. Still, they’re the group that society is targeting because they’re the youngest generation with disposable income and we live in a consumer-capitalist hellscape (I mean, “society”…)
Anyone with Gen Alpha kids can probably confirm they are confused by a lot of intentionally coded language.
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::: Podcasts :::
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The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel
(Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov)
Great stuff — especially about high school, politicians being down to earth, DNC focus, 2026 midterms. Rahm is clearly a well-intentioned person.
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The Gray Area with Sean Illing: Machiavelli on how democracies die
Perhaps because I’m a bit twisted, this is my idea of a “fun” listen.
Listening to this is leisure for me.
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Žižek And So On: UNLOCKED - Immediacy w/ Anna Kornbluh
A little technical and gets in the weeds but partway through this gets good and addresses our reality and autofiction and why art still matters in devastating times.
No Doomerism allowed.
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::: Health & Wellness :::
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‘6 Habits Your Gut Is Begging You to Break, According to GI Docs’ (SELF)
I’m not a real doctor (or so they keep telling me) but the advice in this article all sounds, well, pretty sound to me.
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Study reveals decline in mental health among US mothers
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::: The Trump Regime :::
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A resource:
Brought to you by: MoveOn, Indivisible, and Working Families Power
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‘We Can’t Stay Passive Against ICE’ (HWFB)
“ICE has been operating in many cases like Trump’s own secret police.”
This article contains info and links about your personal rights.
More about your rights when it comes to ICE.
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"None of the losses we are experiencing along with them can be undone as easily as Trump flipped the crazy switch here. And to underline, it’s not about antisemitism. Trump is scapegoating Jews, just in a new way." (Joyce Vance)
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Poll: Democratic voters prefer "populism" over "abundance"
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Scott Galloway’s ‘No Mercy, No Malice’ is a terrific weekly newsletter (than you can also listen to as a podcast, if you wish).
The most recent newsletter on ‘Rich Kids’ is a terrific reminder about the state of the wealth transfer from poor to rich that is being promoted by Trump & Co.
With regards to the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill”— “We’re literally taking food from poor kids to give rich kids bigger trust funds.”
It’s also a general reminder about how generational wealth operates.
For example:
“Americans fear a tax that affects fewer than 1 in 1,000 estates while cheering cuts to programs they actually use.”
ICYMI: The update on the Wealth x Happiness curve is significant.
“When more carefully measured, happiness continued rising with income. However, there were dramatically diminishing returns. There were real gains to happiness in moving from $100,000 in income to $200,000, but to see that same gain again required another doubling of income, to $400,000. Extend the curve, and it flattens further.”
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Republican Senator Tells Constituents Worried About Medicaid Cuts: "You're Going to Die Anyways" (MeidasTouch News)
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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Worthless noise isn’t information (Seth Godin)
Very short read.
I try not to add to the noise.
For many, this has become more and more difficult in our what-have-you-done-for-me-lately content-focused world.
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Good news.
‘The world’s largest emitter just delivered some good climate news’ (Vox)
‘Analysis: Clean energy just put China’s CO2 emissions into reverse for first time’ (Carbon Brief)
It’s notable that China did this while maintaining economic growth. Other countries should take note.
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‘1 of every 8 clothing items bought in America comes from... Amazon.’ (Sherwood News)
#1 Amazon
#2 Walmart
#3 TJX (TJ Maxx etc.)
#4 Target
#5 Kohl’s
#6 Gap
#7 Nordstrom
#8 Ross
#9 Nike
#10 Dick’s
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‘Slightly radioactive soil from Fukushima will be used in the prime minister’s flower beds’ (Ground)
So… for a while I was trying to get into the idea that nuclear was going to play a key role in the shift to greener energy sources.
Recently, I’ve read multiple sources saying that the initial carbon footprint is very high in the construction process which, in turn, makes solar and wind far better options (but we knew that anyway).
Is building more nuclear facilities a good idea? Well, it sounds like some of these decisions will be made for us, on behalf of the Trump regime, in the near future.
Once constructed, it seems sensible to make good use of the facilities— while being extremely careful… for obvious reasons.
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A little dark humor.
Your 2024 Therapy Wrapped by Sasha Lubomirsky, Topher Lin, and Chan Lin
Stand the test of time.
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How Much Discrimination Do Americans Say Groups Face in the U.S.?
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Most LGBTQ adults in US don’t feel transgender people are accepted: Poll
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In-depth analysis:
The Experiences of LGBTQ Americans Today
About two-thirds of LGBTQ adults have participated in Pride Month events
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Substack, an alt, subscription based (vs. advertising based) model (Twitter/Facebook/etc.) is taking over.
We’re all here, right?
Substack is quickly becoming more accepted and integrated into the mainstream.
Ted Gioia writes about it.
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‘Hallucinations and human work’ (Seth Godin)
“It doesn’t really matter that AI doesn’t “know” what it’s doing. Most of the time, we don’t either.”
“Human work is any work an AI can’t do (yet.)”
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News of kindness and generosity.
A Florida professor's final gift to her students: Her life savings
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::: Google Search Trends :::
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Top trending “what to name my…”*
2025 so far, US
1. Horse
2. Plant
3. Sourdough starter
4. Baby
5. Bird
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Always full of interesting items to investigate.