About the author · Notes on what I am trying to do

Hanh D. Brown, in progress.

Hanh D. Brown · A journal in essays Writer · Reader · Slow podcaster
Author portrait · 4:5
A note, briefly

I write about
the work itself.

I am a writer who has spent more years than I expected learning that the writing I admire most is the writing willing to be wrong out loud. Most of what I publish here is an attempt to do that, and most of it fails in some small way that I find out about after the fact.

Hanh D. Brown writes on AI, aging, and the decisions in between. Twenty years building systems for life-stage choices, now writing the publication with time to ask why.

I grew up between two languages and a great deal of silence. I came to essays the way some people come to therapy, which is to say I needed somewhere to put the sentences I could not say to anyone in particular. I am still using essays for that, and I expect I always will.

I write about craft, voice, family, and the small private negotiations that shape a life nobody warned us about. I publish irregularly because the pieces are finished when they are finished, and not before. I host a slow podcast called In Conversation, where I talk to people whose work I admire, mostly about the work itself.

If any of that sounds useful to you, you are very welcome here.

Hanh June 2026 · Issue 14
Working principles

What I am trying to do.

01

Honest over agreeable

Most published writing fails the test for the same reason most first drafts fail it: the writer was protecting herself instead of telling the truth. I would rather be wrong out loud than careful in private.

02

Useful over impressive

Impressive writing wants to be admired. Useful writing wants to be borrowed. I aim for the second, and forgive myself when I drift toward the first.

03

Slow over frequent

I publish when the essay is finished and not before. The newsletter goes out irregularly, the podcast lands once a month, and that pace is the point. Speed is a way of avoiding decisions.

04

Specific over general

The general feeling moves no one. The specific moment moves everyone. Most of the work of revision, for me, is replacing abstractions with the actual sentence I was avoiding.

The work is the only argument. Everything else is marketing.
From Essay № 08 · On writing like you mean it

What I'm working on.

Updated May 2026
  • 01
    A book of essays, working title undecided

    Roughly 60,000 words, twelve linked essays on craft and voice. Drafting since spring 2025. Out, if I am lucky, in 2027.

    In progress · 60%
  • 02
    A long essay on inheriting a name

    Started as Issue 8's long read and has refused to end. I keep adding to it. It may want to be the book's opening chapter.

    In progress · ongoing
  • 03
    In Conversation, Episode 10

    Recording in May. The guest is a poet I have admired since 2018. I am terrified, in the best way.

    Recording · May 2026
  • 04
    A reading project on essayists who lived twice

    Writers who reinvented their voice mid-career. Joan Didion. Annie Ernaux. Vivian Gornick. Notes accumulating in a folder titled almost.

    Reading · slow
Spirit guides

Writers I keep on the desk.

Essayists
  • Bluets Maggie Nelson
  • The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit
  • The White Album Joan Didion
  • The Years Annie Ernaux
  • Fierce Attachments Vivian Gornick
Novelists
  • The Friend Sigrid Nunez
  • Outline Rachel Cusk
  • Severance Ling Ma
  • Pachinko Min Jin Lee
  • A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki
On craft & AI
  • The Writing Life Annie Dillard
  • Bird by Bird Anne Lamott
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman
  • Human Compatible Stuart Russell
  • Co-Intelligence Ethan Mollick
Get in touch

If you have something to say.

I read every email. I do not always respond quickly, but I always respond eventually.

Write to me