Since January 2021, I’ve been keeping 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. Completed the first semester of my MFA coursework.
4. Submitted an entry to Weird Laburnum‘s Modern Kigo competition.
5. Had the ten poems I submitted to Frogpond last month rejected.
6. Wrote and recorded my presentation for the March 2022 AWP conference.
7. Wrote and submitted a paragraph about my experience in the Haiku Society of America’s mentorship program for the forthcoming mentorship program anthology.
8. Wrote a review for the 2022 issue of Mennonite Life.
Daniel Shank Cruz 
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