Essay Club: April'25

Loop #7

Below you’ll find links, meeting times, streaks, and who’s working on what. This page will be pinned in all our calendar events. I’ve tagged everyone who filled out our Google Form, but consider subscribing to the “Essay Club” section in your account settings to ensure you get these each month.

Meeting times:

Live feedback exchanges:

Look out for calendar invites. I recommended you bring a draft for live feedback (these events work as a good forcing function). But I can also (a) pair up people for discussion, and (b) create a focused writing room. Make sure you join the calls before :10 after!

• Friday, 4/4 at 3pm ET;

• Tuesday, 4/8 at 8pm ET;

• Friday, 4/11 at 3pm ET;

• Friday, 4/18 at 3pm ET;

• Tuesday, 4/22 at 8pm ET;

• Friday, 4/25 at 3pm ET (shifted from 12p ET to 3pm ET).

Structured writing gyms:

We also have writing gyms on Mondays at 5pm ET. We’re going to experiment with a different format: instead of 1 hour of focused writing time, there will be exercises and breakout rooms to help you make progress on a draft or idea.

• Monday, 4/14 at 5pm ET;

• Monday, 4/21 at 5pm ET;

• Monday, 4/28 at 5pm ET.

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Published in March ‘25:

This is where I’ll keep a running list of who published last loop. You’ll see a number next to each name which denotes a streak. You get +1.00 for reaching the goal you set out on time, +0.75 if you’re late, and +0.50 for publishing anything (with a public URL). If you miss a month, your counter resets to 0. If you publish your last month’s goal late, DM me and I can update below.

Streaks:

• Becky Isjwara (6.0): I quit corporate. Then I freaked out.;

• Lily (4.0): I am a victim and I’m saving myself;

• Jeff Giesea (4.0): Agency is the new superpower;

• Rachel Parker (4.0): The shadow of a salesman;

• Coco Liu (4.0): A space dedicated to the meeting of strangers;

• Camilo Moreno-Salamanca (3.5): Abundance — A Book Report;

• Anuradha Pandey (3.5): Women, Power, and the Collapse of Reason;

• Maksim (3.5): The Creatively Challenged Person’s Guide to AI Art;

• Karena de Souza (3.5): Has Harry Potter shaped a generation?;

• Matthew Beebe (3.5): Culture shock;

• Nat Lee (3.5): The empty seats are worth $40,000;

• Gairik Sachdeva (3.5): My STAT Essay — Volatile is the new normal for the biotech workforce;

• Rose (3.0): Why my English doesn’t sound French;

• Aayush Naik (3.0): Wasteland #2: The Jade Demon;

• David Kiferbaum (3.0): I Love Steely Dan;

• Matt Cyr (2.5): An Emotional Ending?;

• Ines Lee (2.0): i’m sorry, mother(s);

• Claire Butler (1.0): 10 things I learned from 10 years at Figma;

• Sam Woods (1.0): The New Discernment: Sensing Reality When AI Can Fake Everything;

• Erin Nolan (1.0): Reflection Calendars Reveal What Words Can’t in Your Journal;

• Charlie Becker (1.0): To Discard, To Preserve, To Bury, To Build | Friday Footnotes #2;

• A.C. Siegel (0.5): Why my career is like E. coli;

• Dolores Lucero (0.5): 3 and a Half Minutes of Reprieve;

• Rob Tourtelot (0.5): The Things We Lose;

Our publishing score: 60% (24 of 40 published / up from 58%).
Our weighted score: 55% (22 of 40 / up from 48%).

Everything below this point is locked for the members of Essay Club.