A reader, sometime mid-morning. Photo by a friend.
A single essay, six hundred to two thousand words, delivered to your inbox at seven in the morning, Lisbon time. One thousand, eight hundred and forty readers as of this morning. No ads, no sponsorships, no trackers.
First essay arrives Wednesday. Unsubscribe anytime, with one click.
A reader, sometime mid-morning. Photo by a friend.
— An essay every other Wednesday, on something small I have been turning over in my hands for two weeks. Sometimes a piece of reading; sometimes a conversation; sometimes a paragraph about a window.
— A short P.S. at the bottom of each: one thing I read this week, one thing I would re-read, one thing I am giving up on.
— A monthly "letters back" issue, when there is one, in which I share an exchange with a reader, with their permission.
— Nothing else. No referral programs, no upsells, no second newsletter I will try to talk you into. I will not — and I have been asked this — start a podcast.
I will not put it behind a paywall. I am not against paywalls; this one just isn't going to have one. If you would like to give me money, the small book is for sale in twelve languages, and I am, very slowly, working on a second.
I will not track you. The list runs on a small Buttondown setup with the analytics turned off. If you open this email, I will not know. If you ignore it, I will, eventually, gently remove you after a year of silence — not before.
I will not use your email for anything other than this. There is no second list to be exported to. I do not "do partnerships."
"Reading Margot is the closest I have come to having a long-form pen-pal in a decade. I print the long ones."
— Helena F., Glasgow, reader since 2019"I am a slow person. I have always read slowly. Margot's newsletter does not, ever, make me feel as though I am behind."
— Idris O., Lagos, reader since 2022"I subscribed in the middle of a bad year. The Wednesday essay became, without me planning it, the small ritual that pulled me through April."
— Anya R., Berlin, reader since 2023"It is the only newsletter I read on the day it arrives. I have, on three separate occasions, replied with two pages."
— Beatriz M., Porto, reader since 2020