Rahawa Haile

For any writers or avid readers who missed this yesterday 👇🏾

The Scratch collective exists because we believe art matters, that artists matter, and that those who would have us believe otherwise—believe in "content" alone—are worth fighting head-on. My thanks to everyone who spread the word or shared kind ones of their own. Much more to come. talkscratch.com

The New Scratch How is anyone who writes making any money right now?

“We are living through a moment where the labor of writers is being exploited to create rapacious technologies that make everything stupider, exponentially hasten the demise of the planet’s ecosystems, and prop up fascists and dictators worldwide.”

Enter SCRATCH www.talkscratch.com/the-new-scra...

The meme of Jason Momoa ("Me") creeping up on Henry Cavill ("Bluesky writers discussing group blogs a few days ago").

This is an incredible team and project and I have never subscribed to anything so fast. Remember a few days ago when everyone was like "support independent media"?? Now is your chance to support and read really thoughtful writing about how culture workers live & make things in this economy.

Scratch A weekly newsletter of interviews, essays, and real conversations about how writers are surviving. Launching March 2026.

Today in good news: Scratch is back!

@manjula.bsky.social's project to map out how writers make a living was a vital resource from 2012-2018. Today it relaunches, now a joint project with Manjula, @rahawahaile.bsky.social, @maggiemertens.bsky.social & @latriagraham.bsky.social.

Subscribe!

Thank you, Joshua! (Answering your question in a future newsletter, but briefly: I am often very tired.)

I appreciate you saying so!

Thank you, Alex!

Scratch A weekly newsletter of interviews, essays, and real conversations about how writers are surviving. Launching March 2026.

As a worker-owned literary collective, we've drawn inspiration from @theflytrapmedia.com, @aftermath.site, @hearingthingsco.bsky.social, @404media.co and other independent publications (*cough* @coyotemedia.org). We hope you'll join us! www.talkscratch.com

The New Scratch How is anyone who writes making any money right now?

Writers of Bsky: Scratch is back! This time as a weekly newsletter/blog about how writers are surviving ~these times~, run by me, @manjula.bsky.social, @maggiemertens.bsky.social, and @latriagraham.bsky.social. You can read more about why/what that means in our announcement post below.

This was great, Julia.

When @soleilho.com invited me to join COYOTE, I asked whether writers would be free to call a genocide a genocide. This article we published by them today does so and then some. It's an outstanding work of cultural reporting that I hope you find time to read. www.coyotemedia.org/pass-the-ric...

I nearly went with 🗣️FADE INTO GOO, but I know the limits of @emmaruthless.bsky.social’s editorial patience.

New from me, at @vqr.bsky.social: a few years ago two people contacted me about a TEDx talk I once gave, “The Art of Haunting.”

When I replied I’d never given a TEDx talk, things just got weirder.

On AI, ghosts, what it means to tell a story, and what Italo Calvino saw coming 60 years ago. Enjoy!

🗣️MELT YOUR LIFE INTO PIECES: Today at COYOTE we're talking death, aquamation, and what it means to dissolve into nothingness. ✍️: @nuala.bsky.social 📸: @amir.photo www.coyotemedia.org/east-bay-wat...

Really looking forward to reading this.

The Battle For Professional Volleyball Has Officially Begun | Defector Megan Courtney-Lush was ready to retire. She played four years of college volleyball at Penn State and then went on to play professionally in Puerto Rico, Poland, Turkey, and Italy. After 10 years, sh...

So the NYT finally covered the women’s pro volleyball situation (which I wrote about last year) and one of the players they interviewed just did a TikTok about how mad they are about their words being taken out of context. Read my story instead: defector.com/the-battle-f...

on top of everything else, the amount of time & energy small publications need to spend on this kind of stuff now really seems unsustainable

I am verklempt!

Yes! I loved this piece and talked about it at length with the other writers at COYOTE, both as small publishers and as freelance writers ourselves.

Hi folks. We're dropping our paywall on this story about the scourge of AI pitches for the day, so give it a read and share widely. www.coyotemedia.org/how-coyote-a...

Black Music in the California Voice 1960-1980 zine

Idris Ackamoor in the California Voice 1978

Chain Reaction in the California Voice 1971

Sisters of the Ghetto in the California Voice 1971

Black History Month zine available @oaklibrary.bsky.social Magazines & Newspapers Room. The California Voice was a Black newspaper in Oakland that ran from 1919 to 20??. I went through 20 years of microfilm to find the coolest (mostly) local Black music coverage and ads in the paper. Dig it.

Every organization I work with, including The Flytrap, has noticed this every time we put out an open call for pitches and it gets picked up in an opportunities newsletter, just a deluge of AI slop we have to wade through.

If you're a book creator and people in your life don't understand why book bans are such a sore point for you then by god show them this film. It really gets people fired up.

And the rest of the piece, too!

Area Teachers Tired of Bullshit San Francisco educators continue their historic strike, and parents and kids are on the picket lines alongside them. But don’t worry, Daniel Lurie is making Instagram videos.

when @coyotemedia.org lets me write headlines www.coyotemedia.org/area-teacher...

Area Teachers Tired of Bullshit San Francisco educators continue their historic strike, and parents and kids are on the picket lines alongside them. But don’t worry, Daniel Lurie is making Instagram videos.

Headline says it all. A short strike diary by @emmaruthless.bsky.social on the community rallies taking place in support of San Francisco's striking teachers.

A+ sign from the SFUSD community rally.