My favorite blogger right now
My favorite blogger right now is Henrik Karlsson. His blog is called Escaping Flatland.
Why is Escaping Flatland my favorite? I have a handful of reasons.
He is unusual and different from most other people I follow or see online. He's a Swedish guy that moved out of his home country with his wife and two kids so that they could homeschool their kids.
He's been a programmer, poet, musician, teacher, employee at an art gallery, and now full-time Substack blogger/essayist. He co-writes his blog with his wife, which is charming. He and his family live on a farm on one of the Danish islands in the Baltic Sea.
They take writing very seriously. Henrik has described writing in a few different podcasts as a "craft;" he has meticulously studied the works, letters, and private diaries of many past artists, writers, and thinkers in order to improve his own skill.
They don't write about current events or what's going on in the world. Blogging about politics or the news is relatively straightforward. I don't want to call it easy—no writing is easy—but it's a well-trodden, understood, formulaic path.
The Karlssons, on the other hand, write about timeless things through the lens of deep reflection and personal experience. The blog description is "essays about relationships, agency, and life on a small island in the Baltic Sea." Their writing style is a blend of essay, philosophy, poetry, history, and art.
As you might guess with this style, they don't publish nearly as often as the typical blogger would. Instead of multiple times a week, something new appears on Escaping Flatland maybe once or twice a month. Henrik has mentioned that he could go much lower output than that if necessary to ensure the highest quality.
Whenever I see something new from Escaping Flatland in my email inbox, I read it ASAP. The brand has established itself in my mind: this writing is high-quality. If Henrik has hit "publish," it's good.
There's so much more I could say, and maybe I'll write more in-depth posts in the future on particular essays. Three of my favorite posts are linked below, but you could and should read every single post on the blog. They're all so good.