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. Pandemic depression weighed heavily on me this month, so I got less done than usual.
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. “Attended” the Modern Language Association annual convention virtually. I attended some panels on life writing that were helpful for thinking about my own work.
3. Reviewed copyedits for a forthcoming book chapter on Mennonite literature.
4. Reviewed copyedits for my poems in the forthcoming Haiku Society of America mentorship anthology.
5. Reviewed copyedits for a book review coming out in the 2022 issue of the Journal of Mennonite Studies.
6. Submitted an essay that I wrote last semester to one of my school’s English Department annual essay contests.
Daniel Shank Cruz 
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