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 our times, and partly as an archive that I can look back on in the future. As such, I 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 genderqueer bisexual 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 an oppressed group or not, writing is an essential act of resistance in these terrible times (WHICH ARE ESPECIALLY TERRIBLE IN THE U.S.A. RIGHT NOW–make no mistake, the current “presidential” administration is a fascist one), 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. Had a poem published in the Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology 2025.
3. Judged a senryu contest for an organization that I am not yet at liberty to name.
4. Read about 1,500 poems in my role as a haiku/senryu co-editor for Frogpond.
5. Had one of the poems I submitted to Modern Haiku last month accepted.
6. Submitted eight poems to Frogpond.
7. Had a poem published in the 2025 British Haiku Society members’ anthology.
8. Had two poems published in Blithe Spirit 35, no. 4, including “evening train the sun disappearing into the Hudson.”
9. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.
10. Submitted a poetry manuscript to a publisher’s open call.
11. Filed a claim in an AI lawsuit settlement because my first book, Queering Mennonite Literature, was fed into an AI system without my permission.
12. Attended the Haiku Society of America virtual conference.
13. Had two poems and a book review published in Frogpond 48, no. 3, including “newly-painted crosswalk pigeon prints.”
14. Had three poems published in #FemkuMag 40, including “thinking about revolution their new lingerie.”
Daniel Shank Cruz 