Hark all ye merry peoples of

!

Given the warm patronage received to and by the previous chart, showing the known waters and terra firmas of the Social Media Archipelago, and the dawning of a new-look Substack app, I thought it may be useful to draw a new map for your perusement and amusement. This here chart showeth, in full resolution, the terra novalis of our own merry lande - Substackus Notum itself.

I give to you: The Isle of Substack.

(this is all your own fault for encouraging me)

Reading west to east, we shall start with the Hills of Politics and Culture. A difficult terrain to cross, with many scary beasties and fraught dangers, but to the willing and able traveller, a noble and worthwhile endeavour. Great minds such as

and

Nolan Yuma

navigate the dangers here well.

Just to the south we have the Bog of Beefs. A curious place, here we see generational feuds fought out among the swamps and marshes. Feuds such as that between

and

Alex Dobrenko`

, or

Mike Sowden

and

Laura Kennedy

, or

Mike Sowden

and…thinking about it, there may be a common denominator here. (However, I forever remain Team Sowden ✊🏻)

Then we have the Oases of Curiosities, where we can find such treasures as the work of

,

Amie Pearce

, or

Candace Rose Rardon

.

Deep in the desert dunes we find a lone Cave of Trolls - fortunately very sparsely populated for now (long may it remain so) though one or two may have crept in, perhaps coming over from Twitterland before the shipwreck of broken links destroyed the sea route.

The southern reaches of this young islet are dominated by the growing metropolis that is Notes City. Home to great conversations, good faith debate, and supportive encouragement, it is a new and vibrant settlement. Called home by both the Substack HQ team and the famous University of Substack - with esteemed lecturers such as

and

Russell Nohelty

, there’s enough here to interest you for many a moon.

Flowing down the River of Literature we have the fine pens of

,

Sherman Alexie

, and

Henry Oliver

, and among the Beach of Art and Music we have the myriad talents of writers like

Nishant Jain

,

Ted Gioia

, and

George Bothamley

.

Among the Big 5 of the Savannah of Photography, we can find

,

Neil Milton

,

Andrew Eberlin

, and

perfectlight

. To their east we have Academia Ville, populated by a new form of academic like the great

Erik Hoel

or

Adam Mastroianni

. Just above them is the Bay of Fiction, known for the sunny delights of @S.E. Reid,

Brian Reindel 👾⚔️

, and

Zoe Carada

.

But the most magical corner of this charming atoll, is, I’ve found, the Forest of Unsung Publications. While the various treasures and curiosities found among these mirky woods may not yet have garnered checkmarks or huge numbers, there is gold to be found here. The difficulty lies in finding your way. Given its wild and uncharted pathways, here are but a few names I could suggest you start with:

,

June Girvin

,

Priya Iyer

,

Bob Marcus

,

Feasts and Fables

, and

Julie Gabrielli

. I would list so many more if I had the word-count.

This is, of course, just a smattering of the inhabitants of the bustling Substack ecosystem, so I apologise to all those I cannot name. But we all have one thing in common. We look up to Mt. Hope, reminiscent of the heady days of the early internet, when we dreamed that a united web would bring us closer together.

We hope this terra novalis, only recently surfacing out of the murky depths of the wider interwebs, is the harkening of a new internet, one of long-form conversation, great art, and some really fucking good writing.