Intro
This is Time's Corner, an occasional newsletter by Christian Leithart. I’m co-founder of Little Word and editor of Good Work magazine. By day, I teach, and by night, I edit this newsletter.
Robin Sloan—author, blogger, and seller of fine olive oil—sends out a newsletter every 29 1/2 days. I’m not going to be that precise, but you can expect to hear from me once a month for the time being. As you will see, there’s quite a lot going on.
Updates
Writing
I wrote an op-ed for 1819 News about communal singing. Lord willing, I’ll be writing more for them in the future.
Little Word
Our next book is here! How to Worship is a kid’s guide to the Sunday liturgy.
Written by Brian Moats, it’s a very abridged version of Jeff Meyers’ book The Lord’s Service, a biblical explanation of a certain kind of liturgical worship that’s one of the many distinctive elements of the denomination my church belongs to, the CREC. Brian has designed How to Worship has a guide book for young saints who’ve noticed the particulars of the liturgy and are curious about it.
Samuel Dickison did a great job with the old-school illustrations, too.
The book will make its debut at the Trinity Conference in Birmingham this weekend. After that, it will be for sale on our website.
Good Work
The designer is currently putting the finishing touches on the fourth issue of Good Work. To all those subscribers out there, thank you for your patience. The theme of this issue is “Make Do and Mend” or “Things that Improve with Time,” a topic that deserves far more than 32 pages. Still, the articles and poems from Alastair Roberts, Brendan O’Donnell, Brittany Hurd, Lindsey Tollefson, Aaron Belz, Samuel Dickison, and Donald Owens are perfect examples of writing that will not suffer by being a little late. The best thing about Good Work, being print, is that we can’t keep up with the times. We have to focus on what lasts. That makes us the rare publication that can afford to wait a year or more between issues.
That said, I would love to send Good Work out more regularly. To that end, I’m starting a crowdfunding campaign to finance eight more issues to be released over the next 24 months. You’ll be hearing more about this anon.
Of Knights and Pilgrims
What’s this? Another project? Don’t you sleep, Christian? Don’t you have a wife and kids? Where do you find the time for this stuff?
Well, when you have a colleague who loves The Faerie Queene as much as you do and who is a veritable fountain of knowledge when it comes to medieval and early modern English literature, you make time to talk to him. And, while you’re talking, you might as well set up a recorder and a couple of microphones. It just sort of happened, really.
All that to say, yes, I’ve started a podcast. It’s an introduction to and commentary on one of my favorite books ever. I do hope you listen, but whether you do or not, we’ll keep having the conversations because we like the topic so darn much. What more can you ask from a podcast?
If you do listen and like what you hear, toss a coin our way and sponsor a future episode via my Ko-fi page. It’s mucho easy. (You can also sign up for a paid subscription to this Substack. All the donations go to the same place.)
Dispatch from Broken Bow
I’ll content myself with a photo I took of our neighbor’s house last Tuesday at 4:00am.
Links
This is how to write an eBay listing. I want that camera now.
A pair of researchers analyze ChatGPT and conclude that it is, in fact, b***s***
I love this paragraph from Receipt from the Bookshop. I’m quoting it from Daniel Benneworth-Gray’s newsletter because the original is paywalled:
Next customer is apologetically buying a picture book for an adult and I’m probably terrifyingly enthusiastic about what a great gift this will be. Do you know what happens when you gift an adult a picture book on Christmas Day? They read it, right away! And do you know what happens when you read a picture book as an adult? Your mood almost instantly, vastly, improves because there’s a brief window of time in which you are being cared for so completely - stimulated by beautiful images and colour, engaged by a thoughtful text, perhaps you’re being momentarily transported to a younger version of yourself who remembers reading books like this or perhaps you’re just enjoying being given a gift that feels like a real treat. Books always make gifts, but I think there’s something deeply special about gifting someone a few moments to be young again. “My husband won’t know why I’ve bought him this,” the customer said, but he will. When he’s read it, he will absolutely know.
Upcoming
Little Word will have a book table at the upcoming Trinity Conference this weekend.
My next play, The Wizard of Oz, opens February 27. I didn’t write this one, but you should still come see it.
Up To
Reading: An collection of essays by Dana Goia called Poetry as Enchantment
Watching: Severance Season 2. So far, so meh.
Listening: A Tale of Two Cities on audio. Say what you will about Dickens, you can’t deny he was having fun. A favorite description: “When they took a young man into Tellson's [Bank], they hid him somewhere till he was old. They kept him in a dark place, like a cheese, until he had the full Tellson flavour and blue-mould upon him. Then only was he permitted to be seen, spectacularly poring over large books, and casting his breeches and gaiters into the general weight of the establishment.”
About
I’m Christian Leithart, a writer and teacher living in Birmingham, Alabama. I’m not active on social media, but you can read my blog here. Use the button below to share this issue of Time’s Corner, if you so desire. Thanks much for reading.