Get vibes

The Pamplet is a space for letters on art, mind, feels, tech takes, the weirdness of science, semi-ridiculous self-help, and varieties of mystical experience. I love writing about dreams because they’re an experience we share—as well as a giant, juicy question mark: We all dream, yet no one can definitively say why or even how. I’m here to romp around these and other edge-case experiences, and to bit-by-bit expand the frontier of what’s sayable.

Did you misspell The Pamplet?

May I let you in on a lil secret… I make a lot of typos (which is not a secret) but the name of this publication isn’t one of them.

I’m fascinated by the history of pamphlets… and weird internet subcultures. In obscure internet slang, “to pamp” means “to pump,” as in, to enthusiastically pump up the value of something. When I come across topics, dreamers, thinkers, and writers I love, I’m naturally super-enthused—and it makes me even more happy to pass the energy on. And that is the short story of how this internet-aware, enthusiastic pamphlet got named The Pamplet.

Who writes this?

Hey, I’m Kristin Posehn. My last name is pronounced ‘Po-sane.’ By day, I’m a writer for founders and startups. My short stories have been published in The White Review, Conjunctions, and other journals. My first book, Reclamation, is a novella about an artwork. But my favorite thing to write is emails to you.

I'm also an artist. I have a PhD in Sculpture from the Winchester School of Art, UK, and have taught at Oxford and Duke. I’ve also been stopped and cited twice by the police while making art. And once, I accidentally got myself locked inside Machu Picchu for the night.

I typically spend around 20-40 hours on an essay. That’s just how long it takes to read a book or three, dive through a dozen research papers, handwrite ridiculous amounts of notes, and/or cook up the final draft of an unusual take for you. The novelist Nathaniel West once said, “Easy reading is hard writing,” and that dude had a point.

If you’d like to see more of this psychoactive writing get made, becoming a paid subscriber makes a big difference. With support, I’m able to write more essays, take bigger research risks, and get the juiciest ideas done.

Thanks for stopping by today. I would be honored to delight you and your inbox on a regular-but-surprising basis.

Warmly, Kristin