After I finished my MFA a year ago, my book buying dropped off pretty significantly (partly because I was buying fountain pens instead), but it has really picked up again over the past few months. I already know that I am going to surpass my book-buying budget for June even though the month is only half over, haha.

Abi-Karam, Andrea, and Kay Gabriel, eds. We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics. New York: Nightboat Books, 2020.

Gabriel, Kay. A Queen in Bucks County. New York: Nightboat Books, 2022.

I was assigned We Want It All‘s introduction in the Poetics of Resistance workshop I’m currently taking, and as soon as I read it I knew that I had to buy the full book. As I was reading about the anthology on Nightboat’s website, the description of A Queen in Bucks County caught my eye, so I decided to buy it, too.

van den Heuvel, Cor, ed. The Haiku Anthology: Haiku and Senryu in English. Revised Edition. 1986. New York: Touchstone, 1991.

When I first got into haiku, I read the third (i.e., the most recent) edition of this anthology. Recently, I bought the first edition because I thought it would be interesting to see what the field was like when it was published in 1974. This exercise was even more fascinating than I had hoped, so I decided to go ahead and complete my set and buy the second edition.

Higginson, William J., and Penny Harter. The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Teach, and Appreciate Haiku. 25th Anniversary Edition. New York: Kodansha USA, 2013.

I’ve had this classic on my to-buy list for a while, and finally decided to acquire it.

Pearce, Jacqueline, ed. Last Train Home: An Anthology of Contemporary Haiku, Tanka, and Rengay. Vancouver: Pondhawk Press, 2021.

Because commuting on the PATH train and subway is a significant part of my working life, I end up writing a lot of train-related haiku. I was therefore quite excited to find out about this anthology of train-related poems via a review in an old issue of Blithe Spirit, and ordered the book shortly thereafter.

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.

I had a week-and-a-half off from work at the end of the month, which helped me to get more accomplished than some months. 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 eight poems to #FemkuMag and had three accepted.

4. Submitted my novella to a contest.

5. Had my novella rejected by a different contest.

6. Had my memoir rejected by a publisher.

7. Received my author’s copies of It Breaks Your Heart: Haiku and Senryu on the 2023 New York Mets. The book has a very limited print run, but you can read the ebook for free here.

8. Had an essay I submitted to a journal rejected for their print issue, but they asked me to submit a condensed version for consideration for their website (which I haven’t had time to do yet).

9. Peer-reviewed an article for a journal in one of my areas.

10. Began taking an online poetry workshop, Poetics of Resistance, and had my first piece workshopped.

11. Completed another round of revisions on my memoir.

12. Had four poems published in an anthology, Petals of Haiku.

Bauerly, Donna. Raymond Roseliep: Man of Art Who Loves the Rose. Winchester, VA: The Haiku Foundation, 2015.

I’ve been reading more about the history of haiku lately, and as part of that research decided to acquire this book, which comes in return for a donation of $30.00 or more to The Haiku Foundation.

Tablada, José Juan. The Experimental Poetry of José Juan Tablada: A Collection in Spanish and English. Translated by A. Scott Britton. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016.

Tablada’s book Un Dia was the first collection of haiku publicly (i.e., not self-) published outside of Japan, in 1911. So I acquired this volume, which includes Un Dia and two more of his collections, as part of my haiku history investigations.

Killian, Kevin. Fascination: Memoirs: Bedrooms Have Windows, Bachelors Get Lonely, Triangles in the Sand. Edited by Andrew Durbin. South Pasadena, CA: Semiotext(e), 2018.

I love Killian’s wife Dodie Bellamy’s writing, and have been slowly getting into his work as a result. I recently found out about this collection of his memoirs and decided to order it.

Knippen, James, and Daniel Shank Cruz. It Breaks Your Heart: Haiku and Senryu on the 2023 New York Mets. Alpharetta, GA: Redheaded Press, 2024.

My author’s copies of this book just arrived! It is a very limited print run, but you can read the ebook for free here.

Tea, Michelle. Rent Girl. Illustrated by Laurenn McCubbin. San Francisco: Last Gasp, 2004.

I’ve been wanting to read this memoir for a while, and have been looking for a copy in bookstores for years, but finally decided to break down and order it online.

Hart, Summer J. Boomhouse. Olympia, WA: The 3rd Thing, 2023.

Moody, Trey. Autoblivion. St. Paul: Conduit Books & Ephemera, 2023.

A friend gave me these two collections of poetry as a gift.

Samatar, Sofia. The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain. New York: Tor, 2024.

Samatar is one of my favorite writers, so I bought her new novel as soon as it was released.

Tea, Michelle, ed. Sluts Anthology. Pasadena, CA: Dopamine Books, 2024.

Tea is another one of my favorite writers, and this anthology includes a number of writers whose work I enjoy.

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. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.

3. Applied to and was successful in having an entry for myself created in the Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Registry.

4. Submitted five poems to the Haiku Society of America’s 2024 members’ anthology and had one chosen. This item is one of the top highlights of the month because the editor chose a poem that I really like that I’ve been trying to get published for about four years. I am thrilled that it will have a home!

5. Had one of the poems I submitted to Frogpond last month accepted.

6. Wrote and submitted an essay proposal about the Star tarot card to The Rebis.

7. Had three haiku accepted for an anthology.

8. Had a poem, “in season watermelon emojis,” published in Acorn 52 (Spring 2024): 16. Free Palestine!

9. Had five poems I submitted to an anthology rejected.

I was at Poets House for an event yesterday, and they have several shelves of books for sale for $5.00 each, so I bought a couple.

Louÿs, Pierre. The Songs of Bilitis. Translated by Alvah C. Bessie. Illustrated by Willy Pogany. 1926. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1988.

The word “Bilitis” on this book’s spine caught my eye because of the Daughters of Bilitis, the lesbian advocacy group founded in the 1950s. It turns out they were named after this book, which is supposedly a long-lost manuscript of lesbian erotica.

MacDonald, Tanis. Mobile: Poems. Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2019.

I’ve never read any of MacDonald’s poetry, but I am quite familiar with her commentary on one of my favorite poets, Di Brandt, so I figured that this was a good chance to get introduced to MacDonald’s creative work.

Baker, Nicholson. Finding a Likeness: How I Got Somewhat Better at Art. New York: Penguin Press, 2024.

Baker is one of my favorite authors, so I bought this book as soon as it came out earlier this week.

Burgess, Charlie Claire. Radical Tarot: Queer the Cards, Liberate Your Practice, and Create the Future. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2023.

My favorite tarot writer, Cassandra Snow, wrote the Foreword for this book, so I’ve been thinking about buying it for a while, and some events that happened this week showed me that it was time.

Wetmore, Sara. Searching for Your Song. N.p.: Sara Wetmore, 2023.

The author is a former student of mine, so I bought the print version of this book as soon as it was released.

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.

It was an especially good, especially haiku-focused month. The list is basically in chronological order.

1. Wrote a haiku or senryu on most mornings.

2. Updated the Mennonite/s Writing Bibliographies.

3. Finished writing an essay on Diane di Prima’s haiku and submitted it to a journal.

4. Submitted five poems to the 2024 British Haiku Society members’ anthology and had one chosen.

5. Submitted eight poems to Frogpond.

6. Submitted fifteen poems to The Heron’s Nest and had them all rejected.

7. Submitted ten poems to Blithe Spirit and had two accepted.

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

9. Attended the Haiku Social Club’s Zoom meeting for the first time in several years.

10. Had a positive review of my book Ethics for Apocalyptic Times published in the Ancillary Review of Books.

11. Had my memoir manuscript rejected by a publisher.

12. Had a book that James Knippen and I wrote together, It Breaks Your Heart: Haiku and Senryu on the 2023 New York Mets, published by Redheaded Press.