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. Submitted ten poems to Kingfisher and had two accepted.
3. Worked on revisions to my memoir.
4. Had a poem accepted by Frogpond.
5. Submitted three poems to Heterodox Haiku and had two accepted. It was a good month for haiku after a long dry spell!
6. Had a personal essay rejected by two journals and submitted it to another journal.
7. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.
8. Began the third semester of my MFA program.
Daniel Shank Cruz 
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