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. Became a creative nonfiction and criticism co-editor for Solar literary journal. Submissions are open for these genres as well as poetry and fiction!
3. As part of the organizing committee, did some social media posting about the Mennonite/s Writing conference happening at the end of September.
4. Had a lyric poem rejected from a journal.
5. Submitted ten haiku/senryu to Frogpond.
6. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.
7. Had a personal essay rejected from a journal and submitted it to two other journals.
8. Worked on revisions to a personal essay that is coming out in an edited collection next year.
9. Worked on revisions to a scholarly book manuscript.
Daniel Shank Cruz 
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