The first month of 2022 is just about in the taillights, and it’s been a quite a slog on so many levels: the omicron spike continued to rise for most of the month throughout the country, though it now seems to be hitting its peak. Plus, travel, work, school, health care, and so many other aspects of everyday life have continued to be disrupted. Even so, WWS members continue to send out their work and publish in amazing places.
I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available) or a blurb if the publication is a book, and a link (if available) to where the pieces can be purchased and/or read in their entirety.
Please join me in celebrating our members who published in January!
Congratulations to Erica Jamieson, whose story “Emends,” was performed by Braid Theatre’s StoryNosh productions.
Congrats to Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, whose essay “In Search of Touch” appeared in The Offing.
“Go ahead,” he says. “I made them for you.”
A stack of white stickers cut from an 8.5×11 sheet of office labels fills my hands. I play with the corner of one to release its sticky side. Looking down to my fingers, I read the words printed in black Courier New. “You are beautiful,” it says up to me.
And to Thea Pueschel, kudos for publishing her short story “Apples and Bagels” in Perhappened Magazine.
I closed the door to the avocado green refrigerator, the metal alkaline bottle of water I grabbed grazing the photo of me and Apple kissing at the top of the Empire State Building. The magnetic frame shook. Next to it, a stupid plastic California Roll Sushi magnet held a white matte velvet card stock invitation. It was smooth to the touch, bracketed, five by seven inches, black and gray calligraphy.
Thea’s story “Tacky on the Dance Floor” also appeared in Bonemilk Collection – Volume 1 published by Gutslut Press.
Congrats also to Elline Lipkin, whose poem “Paperwhite” appeared in SWWIM.
Knobby onion,
crisped edges
a thin scrim
around circles
that cinch
the center seed
Matroushka’d
deep within.
Kudos to Nina Clements, whose poem “Singing Bowl Massage” appeared in Vox Populi.
She places the bowls
on your body—
the heart and belly,
deep breaths
rise and fall.
You are on the table
but also floating
in the center
of a lake. Vibrations
at your core.
The table begins to shake.
A shout out to Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, whose short story “We Are Stealth” appeared in Five South.
We squeeze in the rear-facing seat of the maroon station wagon. The town disappears and the desert takes over. For half an hour, we sing along to Spanish songs, fill in words we don’t know with ideas of our own until we cross the border into Algodones. We wait with windows down while Tias buy meds, get glasses, see the dentist. We chant clap, “Down by the banks, there’s some hanky panky” five ways until hands sting from too fast, too hard. We get sweet treats from street carts. Mango for Elisa. Tamarindo for Delia. Joanna and me both get piña. Maribel decides to be daring and tries coco for the first time. We pass them around and try all the flavors.
Congratulations to Iris De Anda, who had a poem in Reimagine America (an anthology for the future). Here is a description of the anthology:
America is at a crossroads. The people have spoken and have rejected overt fascism, yet there is no going back to normal, to a world of failed policies that has pushed us to the very brink, one that continues to struggle through a global pandemic, with widespread poverty and an ever looming climate emergency. There is no time to wait to reshape our future and reimagine what America and this world around us can be.
Congrats to Romaine Washington, whose poem “Pandemic in the Fourth Dimension” appeared in the print version of Spectrum 30.
A shout out to Mary Camarillo, whose poem “Newport Beach Pastoral” appeared in Citric Acid.
After Professor Alvarez
Dunnells sailed into a bay
of blue pacific on a golden day.
Called it New because he could,
claimed it his, believed he should.
McFadden shipped out beets and grain,
gave the wharf and streets his name.
Early settlers, profiteers,
proud of being pioneers.