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 (which were especially horrible this month: Nex Benedict should still be alive, and I hope Aaron Bushnell’s martyrdom is not in vain), and partly as an archive that I can look back on in the future. As such, I will 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. Had one of the poems I submitted to Acorn last month accepted for the next issue.

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

5. Attended the Association of Writers & Writing Programs annual conference and presented as part of a panel called “Beyond Belief: Queer Religious (and Post-Religious) Poetry.”

6. Had a poem, “summer shower the move to hospice,” published in Modern Haiku 55, no. 1 (Winter-Spring 2024): 19.

7. Had some conversations with an editor about a chapbook of haiku and senryu that I’m working on with a friend.

8. Submitted my novella to a contest.

9. Submitted my memoir to two presses.

10. Peer-reviewed a manuscript in one of my fields.

11. Worked on an essay about Diane di Prima’s poetry.

I’ve been focusing more on writing haiku and senryu lately. As a part of that focus, I want to start reading more books of haiku rather than just haiku journals.

Boyer, David M. Overpacked for the Afterlife. N.p.: David M. Boyer, 2023.

I read a review of this book in the latest issue of Frogpond. The book sounds intriguing, so I decided to buy it.

George, Barry. Sirens and Rain. Lexington, KY: Accents Publishing, 2020.

I’ve had this book of city haiku on my list to buy for a while.

van den Heuvel, Cor. The Haiku Anthology. New York: Anchor Books, 1974.

I have the most recent edition (the third) of this germinal anthology, but I’ve been wanting to learn more lately about the history of the haiku community in the U.S., so I decided to look for a copy of the first edition. I was able to find one in good condition for under ten dollars.

My previous post listed all of the books I bought at AWP last week. There were a few publishers who are usually there that I wanted to visit who did not attend the book fair this year. Thus, after I got home I ordered three books that I had been hoping to buy in person.

Hamilton, Diana. God Was Right. Brooklyn: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2018.

Pollack, Rachel. The Beatrix Gates Plus…. Oakland: PM Press, 2019.

Possanza, Amelia. Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir in Archives. New York: Catapult, 2023.

I just returned from this year’s Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference. As usual, I bought plenty of books at the book fair.

Akbar, Kaveh. Martyr! New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2024.

Alabanza, Travis. None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary. New York: Feminist Press, 2023.

Brownlow, Exodus Oktavia. I’m Afraid That I Know Too Much About Myself Now, To Go Back to Who I Knew Before, and Oh Lord, Who Will I Be After I’ve Known All That I Can? Essays. Washingtonville, NY: ELJ Editions, 2023.

—. Look at All the Little Hurts of These Newly-Broken Lives and the Bittersweet, Sweet, and Bitter Loves. N.p.: Ethel Zine, 2023.

Fitzpatrick, Cat. Special Occasions: Poems. Brooklyn: LittlePuss Press, n.d.

Fruchter, Temim. City of Laughter. New York: Grove Press, 2024.

Goodwin, Matthew David. Latinx Rising: An Anthology of Latinx Science Fiction and Fantasy. Columbus, OH: Mad Creek Books, 2020.

Kapil, Bhanu. Incubation: A Space for Monsters. 2006. Berkeley, CA: Kelsey Street Press, 2023.

Mitchell, Larry. The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions. 1977. New York: Nightboat Books, 2019.

Mockler, Kathryn. Anecdotes. Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2023.

Taormino, Tristan. A Part of the Heart Can’t Be Eaten: A Memoir. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023.

Wahl, Erin Renee. Cactus Botanical. N.p.: Rinky Dink Press, 2024.

Wiman, Christian, ed. Joy: 100 Poems. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017.

Zhou, Emily, et al. LittlePuss! Literary! Collation! Number 1. Brooklyn: LittlePuss Press, Fall/Winter 2023.

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 (which were especially terrible this month), and partly as an archive that I can look back on in the future. As such, I will 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. and 4. Updated my website to include an Interviews page because I had an interview about my new book published in Sacred Matters Magazine, and I now feel that I’ve done enough interviews that it makes sense to make them more visible as a subgenre of my work.

5. Attended the Modern Language Association’s annual convention and chaired a panel on Samuel R. Delany’s work.

6. Had my memoir manuscript rejected by a publisher.

7. Submitted twelve poems to Acorn.

8. Submitted five poems to a queer love poem anthology.

9. Began writing my presentation for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs’ annual conference, which is next week.

di Prima, Diane. Haiku. Illustrated by George Herms. 1967. South Pasadena, CA: X Artists’ Books, 2019.

I love di Prima’s work and I love haiku, so of course I would eventually buy this book! It was originally printed in an edition of 100 unbound copies in 1967, so I’m glad it’s currently available in a more accessible format.

—. Revolutionary Letters. 50th Anniversary Edition. San Francisco: City Lights, 2021.

I recently read di Prima’s The Poetry Deal, which includes several “Revolutionary Letters,” and I enjoyed them enough that I decided to buy the full collection.

Tiessen, Hildi Froese. On Mennonite/s Writing: Selected Essays. Edited by Robert Zacharias. Winnipeg: Canadian Mennonite University Press, 2023.

Hildi Froese Tiessen is perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of Mennonite literary criticism, so I am very glad that this volume of selected essays now exists.

Ward, James. Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case. 2014. London: Profile Books, 2015.

I’ve always enjoyed stationery, and I have become obsessed with fountain pens over the past year, so I have been looking for books to read about the subject. There are surprisingly few considering the overlap between the analog cultures of book people and pen people. I recently heard about Ward’s book, and it sounded interesting, so I decided to buy a copy.

Baêta, Sabrina. Impressions. N.p.: Sabrina Baêta, 2020.

This is a book by one of my colleagues that I recently found out about and look forward to reading.

Munroe, Randall. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. 2014. London: John Murray, 2022.

I received this book as a gift.

I attended the 2024 Modern Language Association annual convention in Philadelphia this past week. As usual, I bought a number of texts at the book fair:

Awkward-Rich, Cameron. The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022.

Castillo, Ana. Doña Cleanwell Leaves Home. New York: HarperVia, 2023.

Chen, Mel Y., Alison Kafer, Eunjung Kim, and Julie Avril Minich, eds. Crip Genealogies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023.

Choi, Franny. The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On: Poems. New York: Ecco, 2022.

Gornick, Vivian, ed. The Best American Essays 2023. New York: Mariner Books, 2023.

Heti, Sheila. Pure Colour. 2022. New York: Picador, 2023.

Hilderbrand, Lucas. The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023.

Rodríguez, Juana María. Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023.

Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Edited by Michael Bérubé. New York: W.W. Norton, 2021.

Singh, Julietta. No Archive Will Restore You. N.p.: Punctum Books, 2018.

The influential avant-garde publisher Hanuman Editions has just been re-started, and their first books are a boxed set reprinting some of their classics. I saw it advertised on Twitter and pre-ordered it immediately because it includes difficult-to-find books by three queer authors I love, John Ashbery, Dodie Bellamy, and Eileen Myles. My set arrived yesterday. It is numbered 57/300.

Ashbery, John. The Ice Storm. 1987. London: Hanuman Editions, 2023.

Beckman, Max. On My Painting. 1988. London: Hanuman Editions, 2023.

Bellamy, Dodie. Feminine Hijinx. 1990. London: Hanuman Editions, 2023.

Daumal, René. The Lie of the Truth. 1989. London: Hanuman Editions, 2023.

Mueller, Cookie. Garden of Ashes. 1990. London: Hanuman Editions, 2023.

Myles, Eileen. Bread and Water: Stories. 1987. London: Hanuman Editions, 2023.

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 (which were especially terrible this month), and partly as an archive that I can look back on in the future. As such, I will 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. Had the eight poems I sent to Frogpond last month rejected.

4. Had my poem “sunrise / on the escalator / a delivery bike,” which was published in the October issue of Kingfisher, nominated for a 2023 Haiku Foundation Touchstone Award.

5. Had my novella manuscript rejected by a press.

6. Recorded a podcast interview with New Books Network about my new book.

7. Submitted a commissioned essay on Maxwell Kennel’s Ontologies of Violence: Deconstruction, Pacifism, and Displacement to a journal.