Books Acquired Recently

Costa, Emily. Until It Feels Right. Orlando: Autofocus Books, 2022.

I recently heard about this set of diary entries about having OCD during the early part of the pandemic (something I also experienced), and ordered it right away because of its subject matter and my new interest in reading diaries.

Moore, Carley. Heart Less: Poems. Brooklyn: Indolent Books, 2024. Two copies.

Moore is one of my favorite writers, and this is her first full-length poetry collection. Indolent Books did a crowd-funding campaign for this book, which I contributed to as soon as I heard about it. They decided to produce the book with two different covers, so I bought both. They arrived yesterday. I was wondering how I would choose which copy to read, and it turns out that Moore inscribed them both but that the inscriptions are not the same (it is nice that she personalized them rather than just sending the same inscription to each backer), so I’m going to read the copy with the inscription that means the most to me.

vermette, katherena. Real Ones. Toronto: Hamish Hamilton, 2024.

I’ve loved the work by vermette that I’ve read previously, so when I heard she had a new novel out I bought it immediately.

Books Acquired Recently

Higginson, William J. Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1996.

I’ve had my eye on this haiku classic for a long time, and recently found a used copy online for a good price, so I decided to buy it.

Kaufmann, Britt. Midlife Calculus. Winston-Salem, NC: Press 53, 2024.

I blurbed this poetry collection, and my blurber’s copy came in the mail earlier this week.

Writing Activity, August 2024

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, 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. Submitted ten poems to Haiku Canada Review.

4. Had a negative review of Ethics for Apocalyptic Times published in Mennonite Life.

5. Had the eight poems I submitted to Frogpond in July rejected.

6. Had two poems published in Blithe Spirit 34, no. 3 (August 2024): “trekking north ant crawling on my cast” and “day moon the drone of a lawnmower.”

7. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.

8. Had my fellowship application to confluence accepted. They will published an issue of twenty-five of my poems alongside commentary on the poems by two or three other fellows. The issue is scheduled for February 2025.

9. Was asked for and granted my permission to have my 2017 essay, “On Postcolonial Mennonite Writing,” included in a forthcoming anthology of Mennonite literary criticism.

10. Found out that my novella manuscript was not accepted by a contest I submitted it to several months ago.

Books Acquired Recently: Octavia Butler Edition

Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower. 1993. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2016.

—. Parable of the Talents. 1998. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2016.

I’ve loved all of the Octavia Butler books that I have read, and I’ve been thinking about reading her novel Parable of the Sower for a while now. I was reading a book of interviews by her earlier this week, and some things she said about the novel made me decide that now is the time to read it. I was able to find a discounted hardcover box set of it and its sequel, Parable of the Talents, online.

Books Acquired Recently

Haring, Keith. Journals. 1996. New York: Penguin Books, 2010.

I recently decided that I should start reading other writers’ journals because somehow I’ve hardly read any. Haring’s name randomly came up a few times in various contexts over the past week, so I decided that I would read his journal first.

Huddleston, Edward Cody, ed. Hauling the Tide: Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology 2024. N.p.: Haiku Society of America, 2024.

This year’s version of the HSA’s annual anthology came in the mail a few days ago.

Silliman, Ron. The Age of Huts (compleat). Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.

I have been looking for Silliman’s book The Chinese Notebook (which is included in this compendium edition) in bookshops since I first read part of it in an anthology in 2005. I figured at some point I would come across a used copy somewhere, but in nearly two decades it hasn’t happened, so I decided to finally go ahead and order the book online. I found out that it is part of a larger sequence, so I bought the “compleat” volume–a used copy, which is what felt right–instead. I must say that even though I value L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry (obviously I would not have bought this book if I didn’t), I have always loved that the last name of one if its founders looks like the words “silly” and “man” put together.

Books Acquired Recently

Samatar, Sofia. Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2024.

Samatar’s third book this year (one of them co-written with Kate Zambreno) came out yesterday. I pre-ordered it and look forward to begin reading it later today!

Wark, McKenzie. Life Story. London: Hanuman Editions, 2024.

I loved Wark’s book Raving, so when I saw that she was coming out with this new memoir I pre-ordered it immediately. It arrived a few days ago. I’ve already read it, and it was fantastic!

Books Acquired Recently: Haiku Edition, Once Again

Luckring, Eve. The Tender Between. Princeton, NJ: Ornithopter Press, 2018.

I recently read some of Luckring’s haiku in an anthology and really enjoyed them, so I decided to buy her book.

Shirane, Haruo. Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashō. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.

I found out about this book via an article I read about a month ago, and decided to buy it because I love Bashō’s work.

Writing Activity, July 2024

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, 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. Helped to distribute the Call for Proposals for the next Mennonite/s Writing Conference (for which I am once again on the planning committee).

3. Submitted sixteen poems to Modern Haiku and had two accepted.

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

5. Submitted eight poems to Frogpond.

6. Had my memoir manuscript rejected by a publisher.

7. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.

8. Submitted my memoir manuscript to another publisher.

Books Acquired Recently: Haiku Edition

Gilbert, Richard. The Disjunctive Dragonfly: A New Approach to English-Language Haiku. Updated ed. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2016.

I recently had this book recommended to me by someone who is also interested in writing nontraditional haiku.

Rotella, Alexis. Milkweed: Selected Haiku & Senryu. Taylorville, IL: Brooks Books, 2024.

Rotella has been one of my favorite haiku poets since I got into the genre, so I was quite excited to hear about the publication of this collection.

Writing Activity, June 2024

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, 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 Blithe Spirit and had two accepted.

3. Submitted a micro-chapbook of poems to a press.

4. Continued taking an online poetry workshop, Poetics of Resistance, and had my second piece workshopped.

5. Had a poem, “daffodils / opening / the drawer of old maps,” published in Frogpond 47, no. 2 (Spring-Summer 2024): 9.

6. Had a poem, “twilight / the glow / of her text,” published in Modern Haiku 55, no. 2 (Summer 2024): 22.

7. Submitted a fellowship application to a journal.

8. Worked on some revisions to my memoir manuscript.

9. Had an essay on Diane di Prima’s haiku that I submitted to a journal several months ago accepted for publication in their fall issue.