It's just about April

And so it's time again for the Aurelie 30

Hey there, Aurelie 30 collaborators! Some of you are new to the substack, and some of you are here from past years. Welcome to all, of course. This is just a quick note to remind you that we will be doing the Aurelie 30 again this year in April. And April starts TOMORROW!

So first off, here’s the updated for 2026 Collaborative Google Doc. The doc and this here Substack are where we’ll be in touch with you.

I don’t know about you, but every March a LOT of my attention is devoted to other people’s work, largely through the March Sadness 90s tournament of essays about music we run all month. That just concluded this morning, which means my attention turns to generating new work for myself, and hopefully getting as many of you as possible to come along with me!

---

The other thing I’ve been working on at the moment (probably with a few of you involved) is the Significant Objects 2026 project, in which writers buy objects for less than $5, write stories (or essays or poems) about them, and we sell them on ebay (publishing the stories AS the ebay listings). Here’s the public website if you want to read along or share or bid, and here are the links to all the live listings. We do have room for more folks if you want to write one. Be in touch in that case!

---

But the plan this month is all about Starting Something New Every Day This Month. You can play along on the collaborative gdoc (recommended for accountability / community) if you want. I’ll send out probably around one email a week, usually with an optional assignment, if you’d like to run it. If you have ideas for assignments you want to share, you may also throw them on the (Optional) Assignments tab of the gdoc.

Really this is a very free form writing project. The only rule is Start Something Every Day in April. Write that down on the tab with your name on it so you can show you’re working. Even if it’s just a title or a stanza or a first paragraph or whatever that’s fine. Feel free to comment on other folks’ titles if you want too (optional). Can you do a couple on one day to get ahead? Sure! Can you catch up if you miss one? Totally.

We’ll talk a little bit about some of Aurelie Sheehan’s work as we go too, since she’s the namesake for this project. And she wrote a lot about objects, so I’ve been thinking a lot about her Histories (the shorter form she figured out with her collections Jewelry Box and Once Into the Night), so I’ll probably reprint a few of those.

You may also notice that this substack is coming from Tucson Essay Club, the new lit org that I started up last summer that’s been putting on events all year. Especially if you’re local to Tucson, consider joining us?

I’ll email again tomorrow and then around once a week. But get readdddddyyyyyy to rrrrrrumblllllle!

Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. We begin the work.

Ander