May 2022 has been a month of devastating news, from the near-certain overturn of Roe v. Wade to the continued war in the Ukraine to the horrifying murder of children and teachers in Uvalde, Texas. Yet our WWS members continue to persevere, sending out and publishing their amazing creative work in fantastic markets; reminding us that creativity matters, that it uplifts us even during the most uncertain of times.
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 May!
Congratulations to Elizabeth Galoozis, whose three poems–“Law of the Letter,” “My Wife Falls Asleep to Friends and It Streams All Night,” and “Quabbin Reservoir”–appeared in Air/Light magazine. Here is an excerpt from “Law of the Letter:”
Asking questions got me yelled at.
Better, I learned, not to know the secret but to know it existed,
catch the sound of whispers but not their shapes.
Don’t be shitty, Dad said to me when I thought I’d make a joke instead.
Eggshells hid under the carpet. I thought it was funny.
And an excerpt from “My Wife Falls Asleep to Friends and It Streams All Night:”
And I’m left awake
to decide when to mute the timeline:
maybe, the one
where they swap apartments
of radically different shape and quality
in the same building,
or the one
where everyone has a good laugh
about how silly Phoebe is
to follow her mother’s advice
when the woman killed herself, lol.
And, finally, an excerpt from “Quabbin Reservoir:”
The perimeter is paved
for people like us
to drive through
and take pictures.
Wide, deep water
submerging four dissolved towns:
dismantled libraries,
vacated graves,
rooms where couples slept together.
WWS members had great success this month publishing their work in the Made in L.A. Anthology, Vol. 4. Congratulations to those members:
- Kate Motoike, whose short story “Two Trunks” appeared in the anthology;
- Rachael Warecki, whose short story “The Long Drop” appeared in the anthology;
- Hazel Kight Witham, whose short story “Where We Make Home” appeared in the anthology; and
- Tisha Reichle-Aguilera, whose short story “Burnt Tortilla Sugar” appeared in the anthology.
A shout out to Amy Shimshon-Santo, whose essay “We Have Always Been Fabulous,” cowritten with Genevieve Kaplan, appeared in the multimedia anthology New Voices in Art Management, which she and Genevieve also co-edited.
Culture and the arts bring joy, wonder, and exaltation to our lives. Creative expression illuminates the experience of being human. Thoughtful stewardship of culture and the arts can enhance society by strengthening our connections to each other and to the land. This arts management book was born during a radical break accelerated by a global pandemic and widespread repudiation of white supremacist patriarchy. What exactly is the business of no-business-as-usual? The ethical challenge for arts management is more complex than simply asking how to get things done. We must also ask: who gets to do things, where, and with what resources? Our task is to decolonize arts management.
Kudos to Nina Clements, whose poem “Ode to Bupropion” appeared in Spirit Lake Review.
Oh, bupropion, you culprit
of small disasters, little shames.
The woman with the shaking
hands
should not pour the wine
or empty the can of crushed
tomatoes into the hot pot of oil and
onions—
Congratulations to Lisa Eve Cheby, whose poem “an estranged sister watches a movie in a cemetery as her sister shelters from a hurricane” appeared in Santa Ana River Review.
i.
Palm trees stand at attention against
the haze-filtered sky perfectly blackened in purple.
On a screen I hold in the palm of my hands, I watch the palms
in my sister’s city bow humbly to Irma’s force.
I nurse a glass of wine as she savors the last of melting coffee ice cream.
I, between two stone-cold mausoleums in Hollywood Forever.
My sister hidden from the boarded windows in her hall.
Congrats also to Kate Maruyama, whose review of The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas appeared in Cultural Daily.
I love a good Gothic novel, its mystery, its lovelorn pining, a house that haunts either supernaturally or through memory. The Hacienda brings the form in full when Beatriz, a new wife to a wealthy landlord, travels to a home she had no choice but to join. When her father died, her family was left destitute, and her only hope was to marry up. As a mestizo woman with family who had one foot in the aristocracy, the other in Mexico, the daughter of a General, she is lucky to marry Rodolfo who owns a village, an agave farm with a steady income, and the eponymous hacienda itself.
Kudos to Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, whose personal essay “How a Flower Sees Itself” appeared in About Place Journal.
“You could come over and I can make you dinner. Tomorrow? My sister is in Greece till Friday. I can make you a meal and share a bottle of wine,” John texted late Wednesday night.
After an on-and-off eight-month relationship, we were currently off but in talks to meet. We agreed a daytime hang without alcohol could be a healthy step to friendship. I suggested a hike Friday afternoon, but he had a work event. He countered with dinner Thursday night. To an outsider, this text might have seemed sweet, but I knew dinner was code for, “Come over while my sister is out of town so we can fuck.”
A shout out to Danielle Mitchell, whose poems “On the Island Where I’m From” and “I have Poison in My Cheeks Don’t Kiss Me” appeared in Faultline Literary Journal.
Congrats to Liz Harmer, whose article “A World Filled With Demons: Satanic Panic in The X Files’ ‘Die Hand Die Verletzt'” appeared in Tor.com.
The X-Files feels formative to me, in the same way Star Trek: the Next Generation does, in the way that TV still could in those pre-streaming days. Shows just came on—you didn’t choose them; they were bestowed upon you. But even though The X-Files was often unfurling in the background of my neighbourhood and in my own house, “Die Hand Die Verletzt,” a standalone episode from season 2, is the only episode I can remember with any specificity.
Congrats also to Jenise Miller, whose review “Navigating the In-Between: A Review of Luivette Resto’s ‘Living on Islands Not Found on Maps’” appeared in LibroMobile.
If you’re seeking a place not found on a map, you need someone who has been there to show you. In “Living on Islands Not Found on Maps,” mother, poet, and teacher Luivette Resto is an adept guide, leading us with vulnerability to places of personal truth. The collection navigates the multiple ways legends arise in our personal story: through people we remember, in our family and beyond, because of their indelible actions; through family folklore that walks the line of history and mythology; and through symbols, like on a map, that give meaning to our journey.
In addition, Jenise’s poem “The Glass Cabinet” appeared in Taller Electric Marronage.
My mother placed minor objects on glass
And elevated them, brought them together with her hands
and gave them new meaning. She arranged the display
with what she had, found, or could afford — wine glasses
sparkling high from the top shelf, family
photos placed close on the lower shelf, ceramic
elephants faced away from the front door, marching in
good luck. She paid attention to detail, shape,
orientation, and color, decided, considered what to add
and include, where to place it, what looked or felt good,
decided, in the moment and over time, what old pieces to
move forward, what to leave behind. If work took her
time, home was one place she reclaimed it. When not
submitting to the demands of children or lover or job,
she curated parts of life that pleased only her.
And kudos to Melissa Chadburn, whose debut novel A Tiny Upward Shove was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Says Lauren Groff of Melissa and her novel,
“A Tiny Upward Shove is gloriously voiced, the kind of addictive and headlong novel that makes reading into a wild bronco ride. Melissa Chadburn has it, the spark; her first novel is strange and tender and not to be missed.”
Congratulations, sisters! #alwaysbewriting #alwaysbesubmitting