Writing Activity, May 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. There are fewer items than most months, but the second one is a biggie 🙂

1. Wrote a haiku or senryu on most mornings.

2. Corrected proofs for my forthcoming book, a good possible year for an apocalypse: poems.

3. Submitted five poems to Mayfly, and had them all rejected.

4. Submitted nine poems to #FemkuMag.

5. Received and responded to edits on my Dungeons & Dragons personal essay for a forthcoming anthology.

6. Brainstormed some possible panels with friends for the 2026 AWP conference.

Books Acquired Recently

Beachy, Kirsten Eve. Martyrs and Chickens: Confessions of a Granola Mennonite. Telford, PA: DreamSeeker Books, 2025.

There has been a significant wave of Mennonite memoirs over the past few years, with Beachy’s being the latest entry.

Glenn, Joshua, and Carol Hayes, eds. Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007.

I love writing that examines the emotional weight of objects, and I recently heard about this book that one of my favorite writers, Paul Lukas, has an essay in, so I decided to buy it. I found a used copy at a good price–it seemed appropriate to buy a used copy based on the subject matter even though new copies are still available.

Books Acquired Recently

Carl-Klassen, Abigail. Village Mechanics. McAllen, TX: FlowerSong Press, 2025.

I blurbed this excellent collection of poems from one of the most important Mennonite poets writing today. My copy recently arrived in the mail.

Lopez, Robert. Dispatches from Puerto Nowhere: An American Story of Assimilation and Erasure. Columbus, OH: Two Dollar Radio, 2023.

I heard about this book because I saw an advertisement for a reading that Lopez gave near me recently. (I was hoping to go but was unable to make it.) From what I’ve read about the book, his story sounds close to mine in terms of relating to his boricua heritage while living in the U.S., so I look forward to reading it.

Writing Activity, April 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. Submitted three poems to the 2025 Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology.

3. Had a poem, “freezing night / a streetlight / dying,” published in Acorn 54 (Spring 2025).

4. Had a poem I submitted last month accepted by Frogpond.

5. Had my haiku collection manuscript accepted by a publisher!

6. Had four co-written poems published in confluence‘s “Community” special issue of collaborative pieces.

Writing Activity, March 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. Began working on my first issue as a haiku/senryu co-editor for Frogpond.

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

4. Submitted fifteen poems to Modern Haiku and had one accepted.

5. Wrote and submitted a book review to a journal.

6. Had a poem, “Thinking About the Book of Esther, October 2023: A Senryu Sequence,” published in Drawing Near: A Devotional Journey with Art, Poetry, and Reflection, edited by Eileen Kinch and John D. Roth, which is an anthology published as part of the global celebrations of Anabaptism’s five hundredth anniversary this year.

7. Submitted a haiku collection book proposal to a publisher.

8. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibiographies.

9. Had my memoir manuscript rejected by a publisher.

10. Submitted nine poems to Frogpond.

11. Had my essay “Commentary from Fellows: Vandana Parashar” published in confluence 8.

Books Acquired Recently: Poetry Edition

Akbar, Kaveh, ed. The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine. 2022. London: Penguin Books, 2023.

I enjoy Akbar’s own work, and I am very interested in the intersection of literature and religion, and I am obsessed with Penguin paperbacks, so when I came across this book while browsing at the Strand recently, of course I decided to buy it immediately.

Banwarth, Francine. Bare Necessities: Selected Haiku. Taylorville, IL: Brooks Books, 2024.

In recent years, Brooks Books has been publishing a number of Selected Poems volumes for haiku poets that have had long writing careers. This is an important archiving effort that I appreciate on a personal level because it helps me get a better sense of the genre’s history. I bought Banwarth’s book as part of my ongoing attempt to learn this history.

Writing Activity, February 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.

Writing-wise, this month was fantastic! It’s felt really good to have my work with haiku and related forms continue to bear fruit. The list is basically in chronological order.

1. Wrote a haiku or senryu on most mornings.

2. Submitted four poems to the 2025 Haiku North America conference anthology. The conference will take place in September.

3. Submitted ten poems to Kingfisher and had them all rejected.

4. Found out which one of the five poems I had submitted to the 2025 Haiku Canada Members’ Anthology will be included.

5. Submitted three poems to the 2025 British Haiku Society Members’ Anthology and found out which one will be included.

6. Had my issue of confluence published.

7. Worked on and submitted some collaborative pieces to confluence with two other fellows for a forthcoming issue of collaborations.

8. Had a poem, “cleansing his memory a leaf bounces off the smoke,” published in Frogpond 48, no. 1 (Winter 2025).

9. Had a solid review of It Breaks Your Heart: Haiku and Senryu on the 2023 New York Mets published in the aforementioned Frogpond issue.

10. Had two poems, “heartbreak / not wanting to acknowledge / the multiverse,” and “Cold Moon / the tundra / of my depression,” published in Blithe Spirit 35, no. 1 (February 2025).

11. Had a poem, “trick or treat the children without coats this year,” published in Modern Haiku 56, no. 1 (Winter-Spring 2025).

Books Acquired Recently

Amelina, Victoria. Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2025.

I recently heard about this book from a colleague at work. It is a diary about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russians killed Amelina in 2023.

Nin, Anaïs. Incest: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1932-1934. Orlando: Harvest, 1993.

I just finished the first volume of Nin’s unexpurgated diaries, which was interesting enough that I decided to order the second volume.

Shiki, Masaoka. Selected Poems. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

Shiki is one of the most important figures in the history of haiku because of how his literary criticism reinvigorated the genre at the beginning of the twentieth century. I have only read his poems here and there in anthologies and articles about his work, but after recently reading the section on him in Harold G. Henderson’s An Introduction to Haiku I decided it was time to study him more deeply.

Books Acquired Recently: Haiku Edition

Fabre, Gilles, ed. and trans. Early Morning Firefly: An Adaptation of the Japanese Saijiki. Dublin: Fishing Cat Press, 8 November 2024.

There are very few English-language saijiki (compendiums of haiku season words), so when I recently heard about this one I decided to buy it. Following the Japanese publishing custom, it has an exact date of publication rather than just a year of publication.

Henderson, Harold G. An Introduction to Haiku: An Anthology of Poems and Poets from Bashō to Shiki. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1958.

This is one of the first books about haiku ever published in the United States, and it had a huge influence on the English-language haiku community. I decided to buy it to read for historical purposes. Although it remains in print in paperback, I was able to find a hardcover copy of the original edition in good condition for a reasonable price, and bought it instead.

Padden, Lorraine A. Upwelling: Haiku, Senryu, Tanka and Haibun. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2022.

Padden recently had an issue of confluence dedicated to her work, and it is fantastic, so I decided to buy her book.

Writing Activity, January 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.

Writing-wise, this month was up and down, but encouraging overall. The list is basically in chronological order.

1. Wrote a haiku or senryu on most mornings.

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

3. Submitted five poems to whiptail and had them all rejected.

4. Applied to (this began last month) and was named one of Frogpond‘s haiku and senryu editors.

5. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.

6. Had an interview about my book Ethics for Apocalyptic Times published in the Journal of Mennonite Writing. (This interview actually came out at the end of December, but I did not hear that it was out until early January.)

7. Submitted eight poems to seashores.

8. Had my novella manuscript rejected by a publisher.