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.
3. Had a personal essay that I submitted to a journal rejected, so I submitted it to another journal and am still waiting to hear back.
4. Received my 2021 royalties for Queering Mennonite Literature, $115.88.
5. Submitted five poems to the 2022 Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology and was notified which one was accepted (everyone who submits has something selected).
6. Had the poems I submitted to Frogpond last month rejected.
7. Had a scholarly essay I submitted to a journal rejected.
8. Had three poems published in The Unexpected Weight: The Haiku Society of America Mentorship Program Anthology 2021, edited by Jay Friedenberg (N.p.: Haiku Society of America, 2022), 110-11.
Daniel Shank Cruz 