Hello, and welcome to navel gazing, a community where self-reflection is treasured.

My name’s River, and I’m a nonbinary, autistic writer (and former firefighter) currently pursuing my PhD in English and creative nonfiction. I am a first-generation high-school and college graduate.

You’ll find out more about me as you scroll down. First, Let me tell you about this newsletter.

navel gazing (fka assembling remnants) is a space for reflection and connection. In the past year I’ve written about saying goodbye to social media, calibrating narrative voice in memoir, my autism diagnosis, and Virginia Woolf’s “The Death of the Moth.”

This newsletter is fiercely personal, built on the premise that writing about our experiences is in itself a radical act.

Memoir and personal writing by queer folks, disabled folks, women, non-white writers, and trans folks has historically been coded as frivolous, self-centered, or superficial.

For many, many years, I didn’t consider myself to be a writer, primarily because I was taught that specific forms of writing, often by white, straight men, was the only good writing.

But my favorite writers (from all backgrounds) employ elements of memoir— along with a philosophical bent that can be read as confessional while defying the categorization of “confessional” by employing a radical acceptance of one’s experience; an embedded assertion that one’s experiences are worthy enough to be written about. Some examples? James Baldwin, Gloria Naylor, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joy Harjo, bell hooks, and Hua Hsu.

Our personal experiences are portals. When examined with courage, they can lead us into a profound understanding of the constructed world.

So many voices have been sidelined and silenced by the larger literary establishment with one particular phrase: navel gazing. The implication has been that writing too much about the self is somehow selfish. If one wants to be a Serious Writer, one must look beyond one’s own perspective. One must be objective.

This publication doesn’t believe in objectivity. No human being escapes their own subjectivity.

When you subscribe to this newsletter you become part of a welcoming community. Your voice matters here.

There is no paywall, except on the archives (for privacy reasons). You can access all of the archives by becoming a paid supporter, anytime.

Here’s what people are saying about navel gazing:

“I love River's newsletter for their compelling and beautiful writing about ecology, bodies, and finding a place in the world. I appreciate the insight into the writing process of a researched memoir and can't wait for the book!” -Rey

“Rivers newsletter is truly one of my favs!! I loved signing up for the paid version. Sometimes when i feel lonely, I come to binge read a few essays.” -Emily

“I've been a big fan of River’s newsletter for over two years now. Whether they are offering book proposal workshops or they write about their life and work, the newsletter is a source of inspiration and instruction. I'm especially grateful for their willingness to be vulnerable and authentic about their journey.” -Paul

“Thank you for your relentless kindness and desire for justice.” -Unmana

“River puts experiences that I have also had into words in a way that I didn’t know was possible.” -Caitlin

Paying Subscriber Benefits:

• Become part of a supportive, diverse, and curious community of writers and readers.

• Monthly personal essays.

• Writing classes and reading groups.

• Open commenting privileges on all articles.

• Musings on the craft of writing fiction and nonfiction as well as the experiences of revision, publication, and drafting processes.

• Genre-blurring and bending writing rabbit holes and mini-lessons.

• Explorations of digital and physical archives, examining the relationships between writers of the past and present, as well as the silences and echoes which always exist in the past, and future interpretations.

• Reading and writing notes for novels, poems, short stories, essays, and hybrid-genre work.

• Access to the archives and all posts, past and future.

• Curated lists, each thematically fine-tuned for specific experiences.

Becoming a paying subscriber also assures open access to nearly all of my writing for all subscribers, even those who can’t pay, and it allows me to comp subscriptions for those who aren’t financially able to subscribe.

Paid subscriptions are $7.95 a month or $59 a year.

All Access Memberships are sliding scale, between $60 and $98, and member can join in for classes, groups, and workshops as well as receive discounts and treats (like a letter from me).

Free subscribers can access occasional posts.

If you can’t currently afford a paid subscription, please email me and I will comp you one for free. No need to explain yourself; I’m happy to do it. I also offer discounted memberships.

Who writes navel gazing?

Me! My name is River Selby— I’m a graduate of the Syracuse University MFA program, where I received my MFA in fiction. There, I worked with George Saunders, Arthur Flowers, Dana Spiotta, Jenny Offill, Yiyun Li, Jonathan Dee, and Eleanor Henderson, amongst others.

I write fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Currently I am a PhD candidate in English literature and creative nonfiction

Like nearly everyone, I exist at the intersection of many identities. I am white, nonbinary, autistic, queer, fat, and I live with an autoimmune disorder. navel gazing is a safe and cultivated space, where people of all backgrounds are welcome.

My path to writing was a circuitous one, and I have a unique perspective (just like everyone else).

I spent my twenties working as a wildland firefighter. At 32 years-old, I put myself through college and received my BA in English and textual studies (also from Syracuse). I graduated summa cum laude, with honors, while working 30 hours a week as a restaurant server and nanny. In addition to English, I also studied Hindi and film criticism.

In academia I explore the realms of film, archival research, eco-criticism, diaspora studies, Indigenous histories, queer theory, nature writing, fiction, archives, and South Asian studies.

My work has been published in the Bellevue Literary Review, Boulevard, Allure, Vox, High Country News, Autostraddle, The New Ohio Review, Healthline, Bitch, The Unpublishable, and Vice, amongst others.

My first book, HOTSHOT, is forthcoming from Grove Press.

As someone whose path has been nonlinear, I am interested in the boundaries and borders the define our worlds; their geographical, ethnographic, physical, conceptual, legal, linguistic, historical, racial, and ecological.

I am interested especially in cultural conceptions of identity: the powerful stories which envelope us from the outside and internally, and how those relate to writing, publishing, and craft. What we carry with us, what is scattered and lost and kept, and what is fractured and splintered.

navel gazing is not a space limited to people with specific backgrounds and experiences. All are welcome here, no matter your background. I believe that everyone is composed of multiple intersecting identities— and everyone deserves to have their voice heard.

I spent a lot of my life thinking I wasn’t really a writer.

Sometimes, I still question the role of writer in our culture and world.

I am obsessed with dissolving the ways in which artistic, academic, and writerly spaces reject those who diverge from “traditional” ways of thinking, while only embracing experimentation if it exists within the confines of what’s already been deemed acceptable.

I am obsessed with dissolving the ways in which artistic, academic, and writerly spaces dismiss important work on the grounds that it isn’t literary, academic, or artistic enough.

I am obsessed with examining the credible and reliable as well as the unreliable and unproven.

I am obsessed with finding ways in which we, as people who make and create art and ourselves, can continuously free ourselves from the cultures which both inspire and constrain us.

Subscribe, and join the conversation!

Whoever you are, you’re welcome here.