HeyJaredReferential
Writers, artists, and other creatives chat about their work and artistic process
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 24, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 30, 2026
Latest issues
Emergency motion in Lizzie Borden v. Ryan Murphy (opens the original)
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I have some major beef with Ryan Murphy. In the last couples months, he’s come for two of my obsessions, old and new: The Shards and Lizzie Borden. I don’t know what’s happening on The Shards and I don’t think he does either. And everything I’ve heard about the Lizzie Borden show is truly unhinged.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0Z5z!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fim
Let’s go to Red Rocks, Hell’s Gate, the Target parking lot (opens the original)
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If you’ve ever had a story publish in a literary magazine, chances are that you’ve, at some point, asked, “Who the hell is actually going to read this?” While the thrust of this anxiety can be professional (i.e. will an agent or someone with power read this and change my life?), I’m here to say magazines publications absolutely do matter. Readers have rich relationships with literary journals and, through those, discover writers they don’t already know about. I first came across the writer Chris
The darkest material is what inspires me most (opens the original)
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To say Scott Heim has had a big summer is an understatement. The writer’s debut novel, Mysterious Skin, was reissued by Harper Perennial in July with a new afterword by the author, a not-to-be-missed accompaniment that asks the reader to confront their own complicity and impulse to project upon a text such as this. More recently, Gregg Araki’s film adaptation got a 4K restoration that introduced new audiences across the country to the cult film starring Joseph Gor
Talismans, bad colors, punishment cleaning (opens the original)
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If you’ve been following Referential for a while, you might know that I swoon for a graphic novel or memoir. So, I’m thrilled to be returning from Referential’s August break with a look inside of cartoonist, illustrator, and designer Emil Wilson’s studio. In his debut graphic novel, The Nightingales, Emil Wilson tells the story of a true piece of his family’s history that they rarely discussed: his father invited his coworker, who was sick with AIDS, and his two dogs to live with the family afte
Autofiction, Eve’s Bayou, my favorite journals (opens the original)
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Rabbit rabbit, I’m excited to be back after a month unplugged from the newsletter. The month off gave me valuable time to rest, get outside, and get back to writing. Within the first couple days of my vacation, I realized how deeply energized I was by reading again, which felt remarkable as it’s been a struggle for me for over a year. I also loved using the time to share work from writers I love. If you missed it, check out this essay from Lisa Hiton on Mary Oliver’s poem, “August,” and this one
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