As we near the end of Spring and the midpoint of 2021, our WWS members continue to thrive in the publishing world. May was an especially productive publication month for our members. I’ve included in this publication roundup an excerpt from the published pieces (if available) of members who published this month and a link (if available) to where the pieces can be purchased and/or read in their entirety.
Congratulations to all those in WWS who published work during the month of May!
Congratulations to S. Pearl Sharp, whose work is featured as part of “WE RISE: Creating Our Next L.A.,” a series of outdoor art installations in five Los Angeles neighborhoods open from May 7th – June 6th. Click here for more information and a map of all the installations.
S. Pearl’s work also was featured in the Love Letters in Light project, produced by artist and curator Leila Hamidi in partnership with WE RISE and the LA County Library.
Congratulations are also in order for Lituo Huang, whose short story “Color TV & Radio” appeared in The McNeese Review.
Congrats also to Stephanie Yu, whose short story “When the Sound of Bleating Calls You Home” appeared in Phoebe.
The goat baby was exactly as described: half goat, half baby. Born in the dead of night under a new moon. The labor, as it had been foretold, had been difficult. The vessel split open, bearing the goat baby forward on a river of blood and messy human detritus. The doulas had done their work to the best of their abilities, snipping the cord and sterilizing the wound. Unfortunately for the vessel, attention immediately turned to the newborn.
In addition, Stephanie’s short story “A Matter of Survival” appeared in Hobart.
You are six and your brother is four. The sun is so bright compared to the lush New Jersey canopy you are accustomed to. It makes the world appear technicolor and elongated. You go through “It’s a Small World” and something about the unease of Florida burrows deep inside you then. The mechanical theater makes you feel hollow and alone. Not a human soul around aside from your brother screaming “wǒ yào huí jiā!” over and over, as the water surrounds you, easing the mechanical boat off its mechanical track.
Kudos to Elizabeth Galoozis, who published two poems in Aurora Journal. The first is “Cancer Moon, Cancer Rising.”
the
fat sheet of sea
between each wave
has always been a church
for my body.
the place
where I grasp its matter.
The second is “Plum Island.”
We sit, shedding salt and sand,
in the breezy dusk
between gravel parking lot
and piled traps
for a creature to be boiled alive.
In addition, Elizabeth’s poem “Pass Me the Ladder” appeared in Call Me [Progress].
Can I help you?
I’m sorry
the man in charge
is unavailable.
He is always unavailable
in some form or another.
Finally, Elizabeth’s poem “47” appeared in Three Moon Magazine.
I only vaguely comprehended,
at the time, how young that was
to die. Now, though,
it knocks me sideways. It lodges
in my brain like
a stuck crumb in a back tooth,
flaring with pain whenever
it finds me or I find it.
And to Valerie Burns, congratulations for publishing the essay “Your Bed” in HerStry.
I wanted to slide into that Restoration Hardware bedding in your four-poster bed and never leave. My head would’ve sunk into that big pillow as I closed my eyes, waiting for you to crawl in beside me. I possessed a strong desire to have you hold me for twenty-four hours or forever. I’m that young girl again, longing for an emptiness to be filled. But with your long arms and legs wrapped around me, your head nuzzled in my neck, my heart could grow big as the sea. For long hours, we’d lay entwined in each other’s arms. You’d gently seal those gaping wounds of trauma with your masculine style. I’d feel safe, maybe safer than I’ve felt in years.
Congrats also to Toni Ann Johnson, whose novella Homegoing was published by Accents Publishing. Says Stuart Dybek of Homegoing,
Toni Ann Johnson has in Homegoing harnessed the unique power and grace of the novella. There’s not a wasted word in this cinematically told, immediately engaging story, and yet the form affords her the length to develop characters whose deeply felt humanity makes them memorable.
Kudos to Lucy Roriguez-Hanley, whose flash essay “Your Body is a Battleground” appeared in The Latinx Project.
“Do you want to know the gender?” Dr. B, my OBGYN asked over the phone.
I was certain I was carrying a boy.
The results of the noninvasive prenatal test were supposed to take two weeks to process. I had not had a bout of anticipatory anxiety; dreading the worst-case scenario of the genetic probabilities that came with a geriatric pregnancy. Less than a week later, I got the call from Dr. B while I watched The Hunting Ground, a documentary about the rape epidemic on college campuses in the United States. I rubbed my belly comforted by the thought that it was going to be easier to raise a feminist son than a daughter who would not get raped.
Kudos also to Amy Shimshon-Santo, who performed her poetry as part of “Versos y Besos with Las Colibrí,” presented by Metro Art x the Autry.
Congratulations also to Carla Sameth, who published three poems in Call Me [Progress]. The first poem is “Unspooled.”
Sometimes I feel as if I’m undone
a big spool of yarn
rolling down a steep hill and out into the street,
down the garbage-gathered drain.
Carla’s second poem in Call Me is “Love Letter to a Burning World.”
Love Letter to a Burning World
(fire seasons, summer 2020, California)
Praise the dark that covers us with ashes
and with a son’s tears
reminds us why we cherish the not-burning,
the baby cry of awake, not heartbreak.
Carla’s third poem published by Call Me is “When You Left for Portland.”
I did not know what it might feel like
when you were ready to go out on your own
I don’t mean to the recovery house,
or that Place in Torrance or Koreatown with the boys from The House
or your place in Silverlake where we climbed the stairways
and they left out free lemons for the taking
if you weren’t afraid of coronavirus.
Three cheers for Dorothy Randall Gray, whose poem “Hummingbird III” appeared in Lucy Writers.
a ruby throat
guarding treasured secrets
the hovering the hankering
the flutter of wings
the there and not there
a sometimes landing
a heart almost
too big for being
And to Lisbeth Coiman, a heartfelt congrats for publishing her poem “Why the Nightingale Sings” in Cobra Milk.
At the top of an ebony tree in the forest of our shared pains
A nightingale sings a lament
for our brown selves thrown against each other
in the novel virus spreading vortex
of dog cages
In addition, Lisbeth’s review of the anthology “A Teenager’s Guide to Feminism” appeared in The Cintron Review.
Pear Shape Press’ debut book, ATeenager’s Guide to Feminism, is a multi-genre anthology written for and by young women. It includes poetry, letters, essays, and short stories carefully curated by Stephanie Anderson, Christina Brown, and Megan Mimiaga, and it’s written to empower young women and non-binary females in all aspects of being a woman. This anthology not only delights the reader with beautiful writing in all genres, but it also delivers its promise to hold teenagers’ hands on their path to feminism.
Kudos to Natalie Warther, whose flash story “Roleplay” appeared in HAD.
We did Teacher / Student. We did Flight Attendant / Pilot. We did Butcher / Customer. We did Butcher / Butcher. We did Butcher Pretends Customer is Other Butcher.
Salami Surprise. Whip Cream Dream. Ice Cube Cowgirl Finds Her Magic Bean.
In addition, Natalie’s microflash “Moth” appeared in Body.
I was reborn as a moth and knew instantly that I didn’t have much time.
Kudos also to Karin Aurino, whose short story “The Good Son” appeared in Sou’wester.
Three cheers for Ruby Hansen Murray, whose poem “The Way the Stars Fell,” a collaboration with Lúcia Leão, appeared in South Florida Poetry Journal.
The way
the stars
fell
corresponded
not
to a pattern of events
in the spring sky
not
to a capture by eyes
green, eyes, green eyes, green.
Congrats to Maylin Tu, whose personal essay “I Was Afraid to Cut My Hair” appeared in the zine Till I Gain Control Again.
In addition, Maylin’s article “But You Don’t Look Asian: On Being Entitled to Pain” appeared in Tasteful Rude.
FUCK YOUR MIXED-RACE FEELINGS / FUCK YOUR MIXED-ASIAN FEELINGS
I joined a Clubhouse room the day after the shootings in Atlanta. Of the 36 of us, we all had one thing in common, apart from our grief: We identified as part Asian.
As each person approached the mic, they called out a fraction. There were half-Asians. There were quarter-Asians. I think at least one person was an eighth.
There was not a whole Asian in sight.
Let’s hear it for Margo McCall, whose short story “Parked on a Dark Street” appeared in Dash Literary Journal.
Kudos to Tanya Ward Goodman, whose essay “Love Letter to Pamela Weir-Quiton” appeared in Variable West.
Over these last months, my inability to know or control the future turned inward, and became a relentless creative self-inventory. Ideas: unrealized. Projects: unfinished. The harder I worked, the less progress I made. My words, like a fistful of feathers, lost all sense of lightness and grace.
The artist Pamela Weir-Quiton offers a gentle alternative: instead of countering disorientation, lean into it.
In addition, Tanya’s article “With Airline Confrontations on the Rise, a Guide to Best Practices for Bystanders” appeared in The Washington Post.
The world is starting to reopen, but recent Federal Aviation Administration reports of an uptick in unruly airline passengers may have you rethinking travel plans. You’re not alone. I have always enjoyed the way the dimming of the cabin lights creates a safe and comfortable space for everyone to sleep. Will I still feel this way on my next flight? To counter these worries I reached out to a few professionals for suggestions, understanding that it may take some work to be good company to more people than I’ve seen in months.