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 Latinx writer 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. Continued my MFA coursework and had a short story workshopped.
4. Finished the second round of copyedits for my forthcoming book Ethics for Apocalyptic Times: Theapoetics, Autotheory, and Mennonite Literature.
5. Had a short personal essay published in healthline zine.
6. Submitted fifteen poems to Modern Haiku and had one accepted for the next issue.
7. Submitted eight poems to Frogpond.
8. Attended AWP‘s annual conference (and bought a lot of books).
9. Had a short story rejected by a journal.
10. Organized a panel on Samuel R. Delany for the Modern Language Association’s 2024 convention.
11. Received the cover image for my forthcoming book:
Daniel Shank Cruz 
One thought on “Writing Activity, March 2023”