Scrittura’s Reading Culture

The Art of Respectful Engagement

J.D. Harms
Scrittura
Published in
7 min readNov 21, 2021

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Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

When I took over Scrittura from the talented Shaan Sood almost two years ago, I had a vision: I wanted Scrittura to be a place where I wanted to read what was published. The kind of work I want to engage with is writing with strong images. I love it when I read a piece and get a sense that the writer is really grappling with or feeling their chosen subject. I want to read quality work, not just drafts that are blown out in a couple minutes and sent to me the same day. I began by taking time to edit pieces, trying to make the quality stand-out from that other sort of writing that I don’t want to read.

Today, this is still very much the vision I have for Scrittura, and my editorial team (past and present) have all resonated with this vision. In addition, though, I want Scrittura to be a place where you want to read. You’re all aware that Medium is flooded with weak pieces of poetry. Recent changes on Medium (and some older ones), haven’t really served the poets well, nor are they helping readers (new and current) discover our work. This is unfortunate, not least because, last I checked, there’s more than 100,000 people who write with the “Poetry” tag regularly/semi-regularly. That’s a lot of poetry!

At Scrittura, we believe we can actively work towards creating a positive, mutually engaged…

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J.D. Harms
Scrittura

Former hairstylist, perpetual philosophy student, swallowed by poetry, writing, ideas