Why Subscribe?
Hello, this is Elif! I started this Substack in June 2023, as I was winding down from promoting my second novel, getting started on the third, and having melancholy thoughts about how many years it would be until I might once again experience the material reality and time-bound existence of actual living readers.
At first, I thought of the newsletter as a way to keep in touch with people between big projects. But over the first months, the connection I found here came to feel so sanity-inducing that I decided to turn it into a regular publication, focusing on writing, life, time, and writing about time. Also reading and rereading.
One post about Proust and Chat GPT was reprinted in The Guardian!
In early 2024, I wrote a series of posts about imperialism and “the novel” prompted by a trip to Lviv—kind of a sequel to a New Yorker piece I published last year, about rereading Russian literature in light of the Ukraine war.
As of October 2025, I am trying a new thing where I record videos answering questions from paid subscribers via Chat. I am hoping to get better at using both videos and Chat and maybe at exporting videos to a podcast.
Also as of October 2025, I am an affiliate at Bookshop.org, so if you buy any books via bookshop.org links from The Elif Life, not only do I get a small percentage, but you are also supporting independent bookstores, and declining to support Jeff Bezos’s superyacht. Here is a link where you can buy books that I wrote, or contributed to, or think about.
I am constantly rethinking what I can do here—particularly as reader support enables me to be more ambitious and think bigger. For now, here is what you get at the different subscription tiers.
Free subscribers:
Part of each post, for four months
Paid subscribers:
Full access to all posts/ archives
Paid subscriber Chat
Ability to ask me questions
Ability to comment on posts
Founding Members will additionally receive:
Periodic photo mini-essays
Monthly Chat
My profound gratitude (seriously, thank you!)
Thanks for reading!
