One of my 2021 goals is to keep a list of my writing activity for each month (here’s last month’s). I do so partly as a form of encouragement for myself–to show that I am still able to do some writing despite the energy-sucking terrors of the pandemic (Which is still going on! Keep wearing masks!)–and partly as an archive that I can look back on in the future. As such, I will include negative happenings (e.g., receiving rejections), not just positive ones.
I think that it is important for me to share my list publicly as a queer disabled writer of color because mainstream discourse tries to either pretend voices such as mine do not exist or actively tries to suppress them. Whether one is part of a marginalized group or not, writing is an essential act of resistance in these terrible times, so I hope that my list offers encouragement to others.
The list is basically in chronological order.
1. Wrote a haiku or senryu on most mornings.
2. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies website.
3. Attended two meetings with my haiku mentorship group.
4. Emailed another round of acceptance emails for the Dungeons & Dragons anthology that I am co-editing, and had several meetings with my co-editor about it.
5. Submitted a review of Casey Plett’s new book of short stories, A Dream of a Woman, to the Journal of Mennonite Studies.
6. Had an AWP panel that I am on accepted for the 2022 conference, and registered for the conference.
Also relevant to this month’s list: every month I handwrite the list in a page in my journal, and then type it up at the beginning of the next month as I am doing today. Yesterday, the pen I use for the list ran out of ink. This upset me more than I expected it to. R.I.P., pen.
Daniel Shank Cruz 
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