Good recovery writing used to be hard to find. You’d stumble across a blog post at 2 a.m., bookmark it, and never find it again. Or you’d join a Facebook group only to spend 40 minutes reading heated debates about the best La Croix flavor before quietly logging off.
Then Substack happened.
The newsletter platform has quietly become the unofficial home of some of the most honest, sharp, and occasionally hilarious writing about sober life on the internet. As of 2026, there are more than 200 newsletters dedicated to sobriety and recovery living on Substack alone. That’s a lot of inboxes getting very interesting, very fast.
We sorted through them. These 20 are worth every click.
The Big Names
You’ve probably heard of them. There’s a reason for that.
1. Love Story by Laura McKowen
Before she founded The Luckiest Club and wrote two bestselling books about sobriety, Laura McKowen was writing about recovery in a way that felt nothing like a pamphlet and everything like your most honest friend. Her Substack continues that tradition. She writes about addiction, relationships, book publishing, and what it actually looks like to build a life after the drinking stops. The prose is beautiful. The honesty is earned.
2. Ask A Sober Person by Samantha Perkins
Samantha is a bestselling author and TEDx speaker who writes about sober life the way your funniest, most clear-eyed friend talks at brunch. Her newsletter is monthly-ish, which means every issue hits. She’s not here to convince you sobriety is amazing. She’s here to tell you the truth about it. There’s a difference, and she knows it.
3. Gray Area Drinking by Jolene Park
Jolene Park coined the term “gray area drinking” and has spent years making space for people who don’t fit neatly into the “I hit rock bottom” recovery narrative. Her newsletter weaves together sobriety, functional medicine, aging, and spirituality in a way that doesn’t feel like a wellness lecture. She asks the questions most people won’t and answers them without judgment. If you know someone who’s sober-curious but not sure they “qualify,” send them here first.
4. Sobriety Rocks…& The Woo Works by Janey Lee Grace
Janey is the host of the Alcohol Free Life podcast, founder of The Sober Club, and the author of several books on holistic living. Her Substack is the newsletter version of that friend who’s been sober for years and still makes it look genuinely fun. She covers everything from alcohol-free events to spirituality to the practical stuff nobody else wants to talk about. Big following. Bigger heart. And fun fact! Janey is also one of our UK Sober Curator Contributors.
The Storytellers
Writers doing the real work in personal essay and memoir.
5. Bottomless to Sober by Jessica Dueñas
Jessica is an educator, certified life coach, and woman in recovery whose writing is the opposite of performative. She writes about motherhood, grief, identity, and breaking generational cycles with the kind of specificity that makes you feel like someone finally said the thing out loud. This is a storytelling space, not a highlight reel. That distinction matters more than it might sound.
6. The Manifest by Tom Gentry
Tom has been sober since 1996 and writes with the kind of hard-won clarity that only comes from decades of doing the work. A journalist by training, he covers sobriety, culture, relationships, emotional literacy, and men’s issues in a space that doesn’t talk down to men or up to them. This is a rare voice in this space. Worth your time.
7. On The Way Life Feels by Clover Stroud
Clover is a British confessional writer and the author of four memoirs, with a fifth in progress. She writes about sobriety alongside creativity, motherhood, grief, and sex with a radical openness that most writers are too careful to pull off. If you want your sobriety content to feel like literature rather than a listicle, this is your newsletter.
8. Active Voice by Lisa May Bennett
Lisa is the author of “My Unfurling: Emerging from the Grip of Anxiety, Self-Doubt, and Drinking” and writes personal essays that find the deeper meaning hiding inside everyday moments. She’s not chasing dramatic rock-bottom moments. She’s writing about the slow, steady, sometimes boring, sometimes beautiful work of staying sober and figuring out who you are without the drink. That’s a harder story to tell well. She tells it well.
Sober Living and Lifestyle
For the practical, the curious, and the newly alcohol-free.
9. Beyond Liquid Courage by Tawny Lara
Tawny is “The Sober Sexpert,” the author of “Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze,” and former co-host of the Recovery Rocks podcast. Her newsletter covers sober dating, relationships, entrepreneurship, the NA drink scene, and the kind of questions most sobriety content is too polished to ask. She also co-founded a vinegar-based botanical beverage, because of course she did. Over 2,000 subscribers and growing.
10. ClearLife by Cecily Mak
Cecily’s newsletter isn’t just about alcohol. It’s about all the things we use to dim ourselves: substances, behaviors, patterns, and habits we’ve outgrown but can’t quit. She’s the author of “Undimmed: The Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from Unwanted Habits” and writes about living clear with purpose and intention. If you’re six months sober and starting to realize alcohol was only part of the story, this is the newsletter for that moment.
11. Ask a Sober Lady by Katie MacBride
Katie is a health and medicine journalist who took her last drink in 2008 and now runs a substance use and recovery advice column on Substack. Her framing is smart: no one-size-fits-all answer, no judgment, no predetermined path. Just a journalist who’s been around long enough to know the questions matter as much as the answers. The advice column format keeps it readable and specific, which the internet desperately needs more of.
12. PERFECT HUNGER by Dr. Dana Leigh Lyons
Dana is a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a sober writer, and the creator of SoberStack, the most comprehensive directory of sobriety newsletters on Substack (203 and counting as of March 2026). Her own newsletter covers addiction, sobriety, and holistic wellness with nuance and warmth. She’s also the connector of this entire community. If you’re only going to follow one person to find 20 more, follow Dana.
Sober and Something Else
The ones doing sobriety with a twist you didn’t see coming.
13. Financial Sobriety by Greg Downs
Greg is writing a book called “12 Steps to Financial Sobriety” (out early 2027) and his thesis is one of the more interesting things in this space right now: money problems and addiction follow the same patterns. His newsletter is early-stage but the concept is sharp. Recovery as a framework for fixing your finances is a conversation that’s long overdue. Watch this one.
14. Back From the Dead by Tabitha Vidaurri
Sober since 2013, Tabitha is a health and wellness copywriter who also loves horror movies and has excellent taste in music. Her newsletter combines practical recovery content with thoughtful essays on the horror genre and very specific, very good mixtapes. It’s one of the most original things happening in sober content right now, and it reads like it was built by an actual person with actual opinions. Because it was. (Note: this account is not currently publishing. Last post was published in 2024.)
15. Becoming Unstuck by Leeroy Stagger
Leeroy is a singer-songwriter, record producer, trail runner, painter, and Buddhist in long-term recovery. His newsletter mixes music, photos from his life in Canada, and reflections on art and spirituality that don’t show up in your average recovery content calendar. If you’re a creative person who’s been sober long enough to want more than meetings and morning pages, this is the newsletter for that season.
16. Circle of Chairs by Caroline Beidler
Caroline has nearly 20 years in social work and ministry, is the author of “Downstairs Church: Finding Hope in the Grit of Addiction and Trauma Recovery,” and serves as Membership and Outreach Manager for the Association of Recovery in Higher Education. Her newsletter is a space for sharing recovery stories without judgment or shame. The credentials are real. The writing is human.
Community and Diverse Voices
The ones building something bigger than their own story.
17. In Media Rez by Alfred Walking Bull
Alfred is a writer, artist, and radio producer who covers recovery, Indigeneity, queer practices, abolition, and politics from the in-between spaces those intersections create. This newsletter offers a perspective that most sober content completely ignores. If your reading list looks like one kind of recovery story told 20 different ways, In Media Rez will reframe what you think you know.
18. Suitable Vessel for Magic by Kara Westerman
Kara is a journalist, oral historian, and leader of a writers’ collective who is serializing a double memoir about herself and her husband, a trans man she met in recovery who died in 2020 at the start of lockdown. The memoir is told from both points of view and traverses recovery, transformation, and grief in a format unlike anything else in this space. Devastating. Beautiful. Worth every word.
19. Sober App Substack
This community newsletter features essays and personal dispatches from writers at every stage of recovery, from newly sober to decades in. It’s managed by Dr. Dana Leigh Lyons and reads like the best parts of a recovery meeting: honest, diverse, occasionally funny, and full of people genuinely trying. It’s free, regularly updated, and a good first stop if you’re still looking for your people.
20. Exploring Sobriety by Benya Clark
exploringsobriety.substack.com
Benya has been writing about sobriety since 2018, which makes him one of the longer-running voices in this space. He quit drinking in 2016 and has spent the years since putting words to what long-term sobriety actually feels like after the dramatic early chapters are over. No rock-bottom stories. No pink cloud moments. Just a thoughtful person thinking out loud about the ordinary, ongoing work of staying sober. That’s harder to write than it sounds.
Twenty newsletters. Twenty completely different answers to the question of what sober life looks like.
That’s the thing about this list. There’s no single story here. No one path, no one voice, no one version of what getting and staying sober is supposed to mean. There’s a British confessional memoirist and a Buddhist singer-songwriter and a horror movie fan with excellent taste in music and a guy writing about your finances like they’re a step program. They’re all here. They all belong.
Sobriety writing isn’t one thing anymore. And neither are we.
Your next favorite newsletter is probably already in this list. Speaking of stellar newsletters, if you aren’t soberescribed to The Sober Sip, our weekly newsletter, you are probably suffering from severe sober fomo and you can fix that right now by subscribing here.
PLAY IT AGAIN! Sober Musicians Who Prove Recovery Rocks | Updated 2026
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What is a sobriety Substack?
A sobriety Substack is a newsletter hosted on Substack that focuses on sobriety, recovery, alcohol-free living, addiction, sober curiosity, or life after drinking. Some are personal essays, some are advice columns, and others blend recovery with topics like relationships, wellness, creativity, spirituality, or money.
Why are sobriety newsletters becoming popular?
Sobriety newsletters are becoming popular because readers want honest, personal, and nuanced recovery writing that feels more human than clinical. Substack gives sober writers a direct way to reach readers without relying on social media algorithms or traditional publishing.
What are some of the best sobriety Substacks to follow?
This list includes newsletters such as Love Story by Laura McKowen, Ask A Sober Person by Samantha Perkins, Gray Area Drinking by Jolene Park, Bottomless to Sober by Jessica Dueñas, Beyond Liquid Courage by Tawny Lara, and PERFECT HUNGER by Dr. Dana Leigh Lyons.
Are these newsletters only for people in recovery?
No. Many sobriety and recovery Substacks are helpful for people in recovery, sober-curious readers, people taking a break from alcohol, family members, writers, therapists, wellness professionals, and anyone interested in honest conversations about alcohol-free life.
What makes recovery writing on Substack different?
Recovery writing on Substack often feels more personal, literary, funny, experimental, or niche than traditional recovery content. Writers can explore sober life through memoir, culture, sex and dating, spirituality, financial habits, grief, creativity, and community.
Are there sobriety newsletters for sober-curious readers?
Yes. Newsletters like Gray Area Drinking, Ask a Sober Lady, and ClearLife can be especially useful for sober-curious readers or people questioning their relationship with alcohol without necessarily identifying with a rock-bottom recovery story.
Are these newsletters free?
Many Substack newsletters offer free subscriptions, while some also include paid tiers with additional essays, community features, or bonus content. Each newsletter sets its own subscription model.
Who is SoberStack?
SoberStack is a directory of sobriety newsletters on Substack created by Dr. Dana Leigh Lyons. According to the article, it includes more than 200 sobriety and recovery newsletters as of 2026.
How should I choose which sobriety newsletter to follow?
Start with the voice or topic that feels most relevant to your current season. You might want memoir, practical sober-living advice, holistic wellness, men’s recovery writing, LGBTQ+ and Indigenous perspectives, sober dating, creativity, or long-term recovery reflections.
What is the main takeaway from this article?
The main takeaway is that sobriety writing is no longer one thing. These 20 newsletters show how many different voices, identities, stories, and versions of sober life are now finding readers directly through Substack.
