John Pistelli

Author Archive

  • April 11, 2025
    When I began offering a series of literature courses for paid subscribers to my Substack last year, I chose, more out of whim than careful calculation, to name the initiative The...
  • April 8, 2025
    The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. —Walt Whitman (1855) Perhaps what this country needs is a great poem. —Herbert Hoover (1932) Why did...
  • March 13, 2025
    Initially, you self-published Major Arcana in a serialized way on your Substack. Tell me about that decision and experience.  It didn't start out high-mindedly; I was...
  • January 29, 2025
    The time has come for Bruce Wagner.
  • January 22, 2025
    Is literature the same as writing? The historian would say “yes.” Out of the song cycles and ritual performances of an oral culture, the discriminated...