Happy new year! As many writers do this time of year, I’m looking back at the work I’ve had published this past year–poems, interviews, and my debut poetry collection–both for practical and personal reasons.
Practical, since award nomination seasons start soon. As hesitant as I am to announce my own achievements, I’m always happy to read others’ year in review posts, since I know I’ve missed poems and stories by writers whose work I admire. There’s only so much time in a day to read, right? Plus, I’ve nominated for awards poems and books I’ve first encountered via year-in-review posts.
And personal, to remind myself where I am in the longer arc of my work as a writer. I’m trying to clarify longer term goals, and I’ve found year-in-review posts helpful in determining where to go from here.
So what have I had published this year?
New poems, which are from a chapbook manuscript I’m now sending out to publishers. More from this collection are forthcoming in 2020:
- “First Generation: The Undertaker Contemplates the Sanctified Ground on Which No One Can Stand,” “First Generation: The Mathematician Deletes a Message to His Daughter On Earth,” and “Middle Generations: The Generation Ship’s Counselor Annotates a Journal Article with Quotes from The Time Machine,” Slippage Lit, Issue Three, December 2019
- “First Generation: The Counselor Prepares Her Retirement Speech,” Liquid Imagination, Issue 42, August 2019.
- “First Generation: The Miner Writes Home to His Grandmother Regarding His Upcoming Wedding,” Abyss & Apex, Issue 71: 3rd Quarter 2019
Interviews with poets over at Luna Station Quarterly included Q&As with Jessica Rae Bergamino, Deborah L. Davitt, and Shannon Connor Winward. I also had the opportunity to interview Bogi Takács for an article published by Interstellar Flight Magazine.
2019 also saw the debut of Short Waves / Short Poems, a program I curated and hosted. More information about the program is at the show’s website. More episodes for 2020 are in the works.
And, most dauntingly, my first book, Small Waiting Objects, a collection of near-future science fiction poems, was published by CW Books.
As with most years, there were goals I didn’t meet: I drafted but did not revise a novella, and I’m just now coming back to the novel I’d started last year around this time. Both are priorities for 2020, so I’m hoping to have news about both in January 2021. I also have the broad arc of what will be my next full-length poetry manuscript, a collection that will require extensive research. Which can be both a productive activity and a procrastination hazard all at once. More on goals for next year soon.
So that was 2019 for me. How did 2019 go for you? What are you looking forward to in 2020?