Patti Smith, Substack, News, Music News

Patti Smith Joins Substack & Releases Newsletter

Patti Smith announced on Instagram she has created a subscription-based newsletter for fans on Substack. Called The reader is my notebook, weekly updates will contain original photos, essays on books and movies, and more.

There is also a paid subscription option that gives access to The Melting, a serial Smith wrote while in quarantine that she’s described as a “journal of [her] private pandemic.”

Smith explained her motivation for the project in an intro letter.

“Now, in the time of the pandemic, isolated from family, friends, and fellow workers, we are reinventing our processes. Through Substack I plan to form an inter-connective body of work for a responsive community. Each week I will post my weekly ruminations, shards of poetry, music, and musings on whatever subject finds its way from thought to pen, news of the mind, pieces of this world, free to all.”


The singer-songwriter has been writing in hidden stacks of notebooks since she was 12 years old. Besides being a pioneer in the punk rock world, Smith is known for her literary merits. Her memoir Just Kids is a New York Times Bestseller, and last year, she was awarded the 2020 PEN Literary Service Award.

Patti Smith has joined Substack just as many prominent writers have left the platform due to its support offered to a number of controversial figures. Smith has yet to comment about the controversy.

If you would like to subscribe to Patti Smith's newsletter, click here.


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Article Image: Patti Smith at the 2019 Lowlands Festival. (benhoudiji via DepositPhotos.)

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About Kathryn Milewski

  • New Jersey