I have been trying to write this email for a long time. I’m usually not this stuck. I think it’s that I have so many different things to say. Some are deep/dark and others are happy and they don’t want to exist in the same email with each other.
So because it is National Poetry Month, I am going to talk poetry news.
I will have a poem forthcoming in the journal, The Hunger, which I am just so excited about because it’s a beautiful journal that I feel an aesthetic kinship with. Also, you should read Krista Cox’s poem from the first issue, “On the Occasion of a Bombing, I Just Can’t Bring Myself to Endorse Murder.”
Here’s an excerpt:
I have enemies. Men have burgled years
from my life and kept their pristine
bodies and I could wield a world against them, I could
monster them in my mind…
Also, I will have a poem soon to be out in DIALOGIST. The poem, “Out of the Chamber,” keeps being relevant and that breaks my heart.
Even better, (if you haven’t heard about this by now, this is big) my first chapbook, “Split Map,” will be published this year. The manuscript won the Dare to Speak chapbook contest and will be published by Minerva Rising Press. What I love about this little book is that it has my heart in it and it was molded and supported by wonderful poets and mentors. Solid poet love there.
Lizzie and my chapbook
I am excited for the next few months, because besides the fact that we’re actually getting sun and warmth here, I will be revising these poems and selecting cover art and doing all these wonderful first-time-for-me things. It will be so amazing to place a real, live book next to all my stapled zines.
Lastly, there was some ugly shit on Twitter this week with a very specific white poet harassing poets of color. I’m not going to rehash it here because she is junk. Instead, I want to highlight the courage of Topaz Winters, the editor of Half Mystic Journal, because she removed work by this woman, once her vitriol online was pointed out to them. And then, she stood by the decision as the trolls came out to harass her about free speech. Support her and her journal.
With that, we’re careening towards May, when we’ll wake up the earth and see The Breeders. I hope that we’re all finding new ways to be light.
xoxo,
Becca