Writing Activity, December 2025

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.

It was a good month, highlighted by two Pushcart Prize nominations. The list is basically in chronological order.

1. Received and accepted an invitation to do a reading at a university during the Spring 2026 semester.

2. Had a poem published as The Haiku Foundation’s “Haiku of the Day” on 3 December. (Note that at the time of writing the poems for December have not yet been added to the 2025 archives, but they will be there soon.)

3. Received nominations for a Pushcart Prize, a Touchstone Award, the Contemporary Haibun Anthology, and the Red Moon Press anthology for my haibun “After the Election” that was published in #FemkuMag earlier this year.

4. Submitted twelve poems to Blithe Spirit and had two accepted.

5. Submitted four poems to American Review and had two accepted (and got paid for them!).

6. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.

7. Received a Pushcart Prize nomination for my poem “when did the magnolia blossoms disappear campus protests,” which was republished in confluence earlier this year after first appearing in Acorn.

8. Received my contributor’s copy of Roll with Advantage: Creative, Collaborative, and Critical Responses to Dungeons & Dragons, which includes a preface by me.

9. Had a poem accepted by Trash Panda Haiku.

10. Had a poem accepted by Frogpond.

11. Wrote and submitted two book reviews to Frogpond.

Writing Activity, November 2025

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.”

Writing Activity, October 2025

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, “subway the sweat travels down my back,” published in Acorn 55 (Fall 2025).

3. and 4. Had a poem, “dahlias in the post office window new collector’s stamps,” published in Modern Haiku 56, no. 3 (Autumn 2025). The issue also includes a positive review of a good possible year for an apocalypse: poems.

5. Had an essay, “I Look Good in Fish Scales,” published in Roll with Advantage: Creative, Collaborative, and Critical Responses to Dungeons & Dragons, edited by Suzanne Richardson and Edmond Y. Chang (Pittsburgh: Play Story Press, 2025), which is available as a free ebook.

6. Submitted five poems to Trash Panda Haiku.

7. Submitted fifteen poems to Modern Haiku.

Writing Activity, September 2025

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. Submitted eight poems to #FemkuMag and had three accepted.

3. Submitted twelve poems to Blithe Spirit and had two accepted.

4. Submitted a good possible year for an apocalypse to the Lammys.

5. Attended my first Haiku North America conference, which was held in San Francisco. I took part in three readings, got lots of compliments on a good possible year for an apocalypse and sold eleven copies of it, bought a bunch of books, and got to meet lots of wonderful fellow poets in person.

6. Had a poem, “funeral flight / still moved / by the insides of clouds,” published in the conference’s anthology Nowhere Else: Haiku and Senryu Celebrating Haiku North America 2025.

Books Acquired Recently: Haiku North America Edition

I just got back from attending my first Haiku North America conference! It was a great time meeting other haiku writers and celebrating the genre together. There was a sizeable bookfair at which I acquired the following ten volumes:

Antolin, Susan, Garry Gay, and Carolyn Hall, eds. The San Francisco Haiku Anthology, Volume Two. Walnut Creek, CA: Spare Poems Press, 2024.

Ball, Jerry, Garry Gay, and Tom Tico, eds. The San Francisco Haiku Anthology. Windsor, CA: Smythe-Waithe Press, 1992.

Brickley, Chuck. earthshine. Ormskirk, UK: Snapshot Press, 2017.

Castle, Aidan. driftwood atlas: poems. N.p.: Aidan Castle, 2025.

Hambrick, Jennifer. a silence or two. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2024.

Kacian, Jim, et al., eds. telling the bees: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2024. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2025.

Kelsey, Julie Bloss. After Curfew. Cleveland: Cuttlefish Books, 2023.

Lehmann, Kat. no matter how it ends a bluebird’s song: a haiku memoir. Studio City, CA: Rattle, 2025.

Savich, Agnes Eva. so many dandelions. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2025.

Welch, Michael Dylan, and Chuck Brickley, eds. Nowhere Else: Haiku and Senryu Celebrating Haiku North America 2025. Sammamish, WA: Press Here, 2025.

Writing Activity, August 2025

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. 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. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.

3. Submitted ten poems to Kingfisher and had two accepted.

4. Finished writing and submitted a poem to a forthcoming special journal issue on “apocalypse” that I received an invitation to take part in.

5. Had two poems published in Blithe Spirit 35, no. 3 (August 2025): “a friend’s hospital selfie the moon photobombs it” (thankfully the friend who inspired this poem is out of the hospital) and “sun shower the sidewalk’s patchwork drying.”

6. Submitted fifteen poems to Acorn and had one accepted.

7. Had two of the poems I submitted to Frogpond last month accepted.

8. Helped send acceptance and rejection emails in my role as Frogpond‘s haiku/senryu co-editor.

9. Had all three of the AWP 2026 panel proposals I was a part of rejected.

10. Found out which one of the four poems I submitted to the Haiku North America conference anthology will be included.

Books Acquired Recently

Toews, Miriam. A Truce That is Not Peace. New York: Bloomsbury, 2025.

Miriam Toews’s new memoir was just released in the U.S., and I ordered it immediately.

Yasuda, Kenneth. A Pepper-Pod: Classic Japanese Poems Together with Original Haiku. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947.

This book is a classic of early English-language haiku–the section of Yasuda’s own poems that follow his translations are some of the first haiku written in English–and I was able to find a first edition in pretty good shape for only $25.00.

Books Acquired Recently: Haiku Edition

The Haiku Society of America Twentieth Anniversary Book Committee. A Haiku Path: The Haiku Society of America 1968-1988. New York: Haiku Society of America, 1994.

I’ve heard about this anthology before and have been wanting to read it because of my interest in the history of haiku. I recently found a used copy online.

Hoffmann, Yoel, ed. Japanese Death Poems Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1986.

I’ve seen this book–still in print after 39 years!–in bookstores before and thought about buying it, and yesterday I saw it at the Barnes & Noble at Union Square and decided that it was time.

Writing Activity, July 2025

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. 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. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.

3. Read approximately 2,100 poems in my role as one of Frogpond‘s haiku/senryu co-editors.

4. Got invited to submit a piece to a forthcoming special journal issue on “apocalypse” and accepted the invitation.

5. Found out which one of my poems will be included in the 2025 Haiku Society of America’s members’ anthology.

6. Had one of the poems I submitted to Modern Haiku last month accepted.

7. Had a poem, “rain against the window the sound of society collapsing,” and a book review published in the Spring/Summer 2025 issue of Frogpond.

8. Submitted nine poems to Frogpond.

9. and 10. Had seven poems published as the “Femku Feature” in the Summer 2025 issue of #FemkuMag, along with a positive review of my book a good possible year for an apocalypse.

11. Had the paperback of my book Ethics for Apocalyptic Times come out.

12. Submitted five poems to The Haiku Foundation Haiku of the Day and had one accepted that will come out in the fall.

13. Wrote and submitted a book review of Roberta Beary’s Crazy Bitches, which is a fantastic collection of haibun.

Writing Activity, June 2025

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. 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. It was an especially good month.

1. Wrote a haiku or senryu on most mornings.

2. Had two poems published in the May issue of Blithe Spirit (which came out a little late; oddly, the forthcoming issues of Modern Haiku and Frogpond have also experienced delays).

3. Submitted twelve poems to Blithe Spirit and had two accepted.

4. Had my fourth book,  a good possible year for an apocalypse: poems, published by Red Moon Press!

5. Had seven poems accepted by #FemkuMag as the “Femku Feature” for the forthcoming issue 39.

6. Worked on and submitted two panel proposals for the 2026 Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference.

7. Had three previously unpublished and four previously published poems included in confluence 10, which commemorated a virtual reading by this year’s confluence fellows on 21 June that I took part in.

8. Had a poem published in a confluence of mythology: Haiku Canada Members’ Anthology 2025.

9. Had two poems published in seashores 14, which came out in April, but I didn’t hear about it until this month because apparently they neglected to send me an acceptance email, lol.

10. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.

11. Submitted fifteen poems to Modern Haiku.

12. Had my essay, “On Postcolonial Mennonite Writing: Theorizing a Queer Latinx Mennonite Life,” reprinted in In Search of a Mennonite Imagination: Key Texts in Mennonite Literary Criticism, edited by Robert Zacharias and published by Canadian Mennonite University Press. You can read the original essay here.