Home from the awards, listening to Modest Mouse

My brain’s the burger/my heart’s the coal

I’m on the train on my way home from London, where I attended the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards.

Pellicle, the magazine I’m deputy editor of, had 10 contributors win awards. This is unbelievable. This is fantastic. This is what we wanted from the magazine — not to win awards as such, but to publish work that resonated and felt worthwhile. Without being intimidating or worthy. We want to publish writing that sets the land around the drinks writing industry alight. I’m hugely thrilled that our writers have been given the accolades they deserve for being insightful, skillful, and entertaining.

I also won an award of which I’m really proud. I was presented with the silver award for short form writing, which means this newsletter is now award-winning.

I use this newsletter as writing practice, and as a place to share ideas I’ve not fully formed yet. It’s a space where I can write without the restrictions of a house style, and with only the strictness of my own editorial eye. I have been writing this newsletter for around 6 years now, maybe more, first as a Tinylettrler and then as a Substack because I liked the CMS better. I enjoy having it. Unlike writing for magazines, it’s a platform where I have to have complete conviction in what I’m saying because nobody else is involved. It’s just me and the send button. There’s a thrill every week that exactly what I wrote will reach hundreds of people. That’s why I keep doing it.

Thank you for reading The Gulp, and for supporting my writing in all the many ways you do so. It’s rare for a person to love what they do, but I do. And I couldn’t write if people didn’t read.

xox