Scratch — as in cash, scrape, sketch, cat — is a weekly newsletter about how your favorite writers are surviving. (Or not.)
You can read it by subscribing here.
Scratch is created, written, and owned by Latria Graham, Rahawa Haile, Manjula Martin, and Maggie Mertens — a collective of self-employed writers who've worked across genres in books, digital and print media, literary journals, academia, and probably a few other now-defunct formats we're forgetting. Each of us makes our living primarily from writing. And we are each of us surviving. But we have a few questions.
Scratch is:
- an email (aka a newsletter), once a week
- partially free to read, but if you give us money you can read all of it
- distributed and hosted on Ghost, because we don't like Nazis
- a promise of radical transparency and no bullshit
- actual writing by real people that may or may not take such varying forms as: interviews with writers and other industry pros; essays; group chats; topical deep-dives, reading roundups, rejection letter show-and-tells... basically, whatever we want, but all centered on Scratch’s driving inquiry into writers and survival
Scratch is not:
- Ten Tips to Succeed in Publishing; Five Ways to Get a Book Deal; How to Do Writing; etc.
- a job board, sorry
- a self-pity party, nor a good place to start a flame war in the comments. (Do people still say “flame war”?) Righteous anger on behalf of the working class is, however, always welcome.
- merely a newsletter? stay tuned….
You can read more about the origins of this project, why we’re doing it, and what to expect, here.
Major thanks to Alena Robinson for illustrating our perfect notepad logo, and to Ryan Singel of Outpost for helping us get set up.
The writers who make Scratch are:
LATRIA GRAHAM
@: latriagraham.com
BASED IN: Spartanburg, SC
BOOK: Uneven Ground: A Memoir of a Family, a Land, and a Culture in Peril (forthcoming from Mariner, 2027).
FANCIEST BYLINE: “In Charleston, Leaving Nostalgia Behind” (Condé Nast Traveler, US and UK print editions). Any time I get to rep my home state/home region on a national or international stage, it's a good day.
FAVORITE BYLINE: The Dark Knight Unmasked
IF I WASN’T A WORKING WRITER™ I’D PROBABLY BE A: Museum curator. Although realistically I’d probably end up a long-distance trucker or postal worker.
SECRET PAST LIFE/OCCUPATION: Recipe developer, personalized dog bandana salesperson.
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED vs. BESTSELLING? My sole goal is to never go out of print. Dassit.
MFA vs NYC? I've done both. Both were bad. I got some dear friends out of the experience (Maggie, my New York Society Library crew), but...no. A bit of NYC Lore: I lived 5 blocks from Rahawa and didn’t know it (or her!).
LONGEST I’VE EVER WAITED TO BE PAID: I still have a Teen Vogue invoice from 2016 out there, for $50 for the essay "Why I Won't Hide My Cutting Scars Anymore.”
LIKES: Lilies + rhododendron, South Carolina peaches, big bodies of water, swamps/marshy places without cell service or wifi, a well curated stationery kit.
DISLIKES: Email, online learning management systems, the financial unpredictability of freelance work, proteins served with bones in them (looking at you, every piece of fancy fish or wild game that's ever been served to me)
DREAM AUTHOR INTERVIEW: I don't have one. My literary credo is "no gods, no martyrs."
FAVORITE SONG ABOUT $: This is my energy. Always.
RAHAWA HAILE
@: rahawahaile.com
BASED IN: Oakland, CA
BOOK: In Open Country: A Memoir (forthcoming from Little, Brown, 2027)
FANCIEST BYLINE: This print feature in Outside (RIP) that truly launched my writing career in 2017.
FAVORITE BYLINE: Probably this online piece in Pacific Standard (major RIP) that allowed me to write about homes known and unknown for the first time.
IF I WASN’T A WORKING WRITER™ I’D PROBABLY BE: Something equally lucrative, I’m sure. “Librarian” or “small music venue owner.”
SECRET PAST LIFE/OCCUPATION: Bollywood film projectionist in Manhattan.
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED vs. BESTSELLING? At this point, I’ll take “well-edited without being defanged.”
MFA vs NYC? NYC, now and forever.
LIKES: Short story collections, the outdoors, the global decline of US soft power.
DISLIKES: Email, campus novels, panettone.
DREAM AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Mavis Staples
MANJULA MARTIN
@: manjulamartin.com
BASED IN: unincorporated Sonoma County, CA
BOOK/S: The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History (Pantheon Books, 2024), Fruit Trees for Every Garden (Ten Speed Press, 2019), Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living (Simon & Schuster, 2017)
FANCIEST BYLINE: The New Yorker (dot com)
FAVORITE BYLINE: You never forget your first
IF I WASN’T A WORKING WRITER™ I’D PROBABLY BE A: Bookseller. Cliche but true!
SECRET PAST LIFE/OCCUPATION: Actor (I know, I know)
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED vs. BESTSELLING? Can’t a girl have it all?
MFA vs NYC? Hahahaha
LONGEST I’VE EVER WAITED TO BE PAID: You know, it’s funny, once I started Who Pays Writers?, my invoices always got paid on time
LIKES: flowers
DISLIKES: Zoom
DREAM AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Flower-related: Jamaica Kincaid. Scratch-related: Sally Rooney.
MAGGIE MERTENS
@: maggiemertens.com
BASED IN: Seattle, WA
BOOK: Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women (Algonquin Books, 2023)
FANCIEST BYLINE: My only print magazine cover story
FAVORITE BYLINE: The one that started a years-long obsession
IF I WASN’T A WORKING WRITER™ I’D PROBABLY BE A: Doctor. I know. Weird.
SECRET PAST LIFE/OCCUPATION: Selling turkeys at Whole Foods
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED vs. BESTSELLING? Honestly, I’d be happy with either. Currently, I’m neither.
MFA vs NYC? I did BOTH. MFA at The New School, baby. (I have many feelings about this whole discussion, but mostly I’m glad I did this because it's how I met Latria!)
LONGEST I’VE EVER WAITED TO BE PAID: …still waiting for someone to pay me for all the domestic labor and childcare I do as a parent. Eight years and counting.
AUDIO OR EBOOK? I’ve only recently started audiobooks (while running) and will never look back. But my real preference is print, always.
LIKES: Crosswords. Water views. Temperate climates. Endorphins.
DISLIKES: Smartphones. “Discourse.” Most men’s sports.
DREAM AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Elena Ferrante
The Fine Print
LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Scratch is not a law firm, tax preparation service, accounting firm, or financial service provider. We do not give financial, legal, or career advice; we are not responsible for our audience’s financial, legal, or career decisions. You do you.
MORAL DISCLAIMER: Scratch does not use and does not endorse the use of AI, bots, or other slop generators. Using software that has those "tools" built in somewhere is often unavoidable (e.g., MS Word), but we never write or generate work or research using it, and we do not endorse or abide those who do so.
REMINDER: “Don’t talk to Chat. Mourn the dead blogs. Fight for the living.” —Lydia Kiesling