Sauntering through the boulevards and alleyways of the liteary landscape.
"Those of us who experienced the earlier days of the internet seem to be fondest of the small moments when we made a surprise connection or learned something about ourselves—usually in the small, often volunteer-managed digital communities that fostered strong interpersonal connections, both online and off." - Avery Dame-Griff in What Was the Internet? (2026, August 6). Boston Review.
The Literary Flâneur is an old-school blog born of a lifetime of curiosity-driven wanderings and exploration.
You'll find no ads here, no analytics, no search engine optimization, no monetization schemes, no algorithms, and no manipulative clickbait. I have no interest in being an influencer or otherwise trying to entice people to spend time on (anti)social media. This site is for those who find their way here through word of mouth, or from the same serendipity that leads me to the magic I find as I wander the world of literature, visual and physical arts, language and life.
What you'll find here
I publish field notes, musings, snippets from what I'm reading, photos of things I enounter, and the occasional interview or overheard gems from my wanderings in the world, where my only compass is my curiosity (okay, and my taste buds).
Who is the Literary Flâneur
My name is Iris and I love both exploring and creating art, prose, poetry and more — as well as bringing people together in conversation and community around these things. I'm a grad student and I work in higher education. Some of my earliest memories as a child involve reading (and being read to), writing, singing, and word play. I've always loved learning about other places, cultures, traditions, and myths, as well as learning other human languages beyond my native English.
I used to have a blog where I would share my findings and musings with those who happened across it, but then I let the growing ubiquity of algorithmic (anti)social media draw me into that swamp. Rather than posting on my own blog and photography website, I — like most of my friends, family, and colleagues — put far too much of my time, attention, and creative output into the toxic properties of big tech, helping to enrich the broligarchs behind them.
The Literary Flâneur is my little contribution toward a broader revolution that involves going smaller, slower, and open source with my tech choices, and removing the algorithms and broligarchs as much as possible from what I create and where I spend my time.
