Leaving this here, for myself & anyone else who might be getting drunk on success. It can be taken away as quickly as it's given & as someone who has fallen to some pretty spectacular lows in my writing career (which I've been grinding away at for 20, yes TWENTY years) ... It takes TIME. And consistency. And fucking up. And learning from fuck ups how to fuck up LESS. You are not a brand, you're a writer. You're not an iconoclast, you're a writer. You're not infallible ... YOU'RE A WRITER. You will win some big ones & lose some big ones too. Neither the successes nor the failures are what define you ... it's all the boring work of just "being a writer" that you do in between the peaks & valleys that defines who you are, & what kind of writer you are. If you're not lifting up all boats, what good is your tide? If you're not sharing the successes of your peers in addition to your own, do you really understand community? Which of your peers successes have you uplifted this week? If you're not reading the issues of the magazines you're submitting to (and reading the issues that DON'T feature your work), are you doing this for the right reasons, or just for the glory of seeing your own name in print? I've had a good week, but I was also reminded of my human fragility when I passed out after performing at #touretteswithoutregrets. This week, a lot of good things happened for me. But they ALSO happened for a lot of other writers too! So with that in mind, here's some of my top picks for the week: Hannah Cohen, "Auxiliatrix" in Gravel, "Marble and Blood" in Tinderbox. New issue of Dream Pop, but especially "Stigma Belly" by Sarah Lilius. "This Love Will Destroy You" by Cathy Ulrich in new Occulum. "It Was Library Quiet" by Jen Stein in Glass Poetry Journal (whole issue is stellar, but this is my fave piece) "Out In the Night, I Found Myself Falling" by Chloe Clark in Third Point Press. (at Bay Area, San Francisco)
