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‘Writers who don’t obsessively polish their writing must be made to walk the plank. Why are they in this game? They’re lazy, and we’re intolerant of laziness. Literature is like the military: shape up or get out.’ — Rob Doyle
We’ve published articles on prose style by the anglophone world’s greatest stylists in contemporary literary fiction, horror fiction, fantasy, literary criticism, science and history writing, and many other fields, and we have interview-essays coming up by many more of the greatest talents in modern writing.
The problem Auraist aims to solve
A good number of books enthused about by mainstream reviewers and nominated for major literary prizes contain prose that at best isn’t very impressive, and at worst could conceivably have been written by AI. Books like this shouldn’t receive nominations for important prizes or appear on prestigious year-end lists and the like, we believe, no matter how accomplished or original their ideas, stories, or characters.
But some lists and reviews feature books clearly written by a human, and occasionally beautifully so. Auraist will identify these books, both fiction and non-fiction, literary fiction and genre fiction, and publish extracts from them to give you an idea of their quality of writing. We’ll also interview authors of these books not on the usual subjects of biography and theme and inspiration, but on what it takes to produce the very best sentences.
Auraist’s main purpose, then: to cherrypick from prize shortlists, end-of-year lists, and major reviews the most stylishly, most humanly written books, and in doing so to help support those who write them. If you’ve found yourself giving up on highly praised books because they’re unimpressively written, then Auraist is for you.
The criteria for our picks are here.
Submitting and pitching work to Auraist
If we publish your work, we’ll invite you to answer our questions on prose style. Your answers will be considered for inclusion in the published collection of these pieces by many of the world’s best writers.
You can find full information about submitting here.
The Demon Inside David Lynch: TV Drama’s Worst Fiasco
Admirers of Lynch’s final major work may find this series upsetting. It was written before his death.
The series is here. Its blurb:
‘On a surface level Twin Peaks: The Return is the world’s worst-ever TV drama, but when you explore it in some depth, see what its showrunner was really up to, that’s when it gets supernaturally bad.’ So argues nightguard and wrestler Andy Uath, who’s had troubles in his time with bitterness, research chemicals, and the hyperdimensional entities he believes shaped the world and, worse, Twin Peaks: The Return.
In the genre-blurring tradition of Maggie Nelson, Geoff Dyer, and Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire, The Demon Inside David Lynch is a critical novel of verve and urgency about fanaticism, generational hatred, rampant cheesiness, and our post-truth state, whoever’s responsible for it.
So thanks for joining us. If you like what’s happening here, you’re welcome to get involved to whatever extent you wish.
Paid subscribers can:
Access the full archive of picks and masterclasses (free subscribers can only read posts for a week after publication)
Receive exclusive masterclasses on prose style from the highest-profile writers
Submit books and short stories for review alongside major recent releases in the genre of their choice
Pitch us ideas for articles on prose style
Comment on posts
Most of all, we hope you’ll help support the writing and writers we’ve picked by buying the books themselves.
Sean McNulty
Auraist. Writing with Style.
Requests to republish our interviews and picks should be sent to auraist@substack.com. The fully illustrated epub of The Demon Inside David Lynch: TV Drama’s Worst Fiasco is available on request at the same email address.
