The WWS members included in this post published their work in amazing places during January 2024. I’ve included an excerpt from published pieces (if available), along with 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 2024!
Congratulations to Ronna Magy, whose poem “Who Said It Got Easier As Women Get Old” appeared in The Fruit Slice.
A cotton housedress of a woman
ace bandages circle
grandmother’s legs.
Safety pins clasp
frayed corset beneath.
Afternoons she
smells of flour
green apple pies.
I want to ask grandma
what it’s like
getting old.
Congrats also to Citlaly Penelope Mendoza, whose poem poem “Pale Blue Peace” appeared in The Letters Home Collection. In addition, Citlaly’s poem “Blood” appeared in Midsummer Magazine.
Blood doesn’t coarse through my body
It oozes out of me and fills people’s cup
I drain myself empty
For others to see through me
I overfill until my love spills over
But no one seems to notice
My heart lives for others
Kudos to Valerie Anne Burns, whose essay “Jumping a Train” appeared in Grande Dame Literary.
Dad told a story where I imagined the blackest sky with millions of stars surrounding and cradling his bedroom. It left an indelible impression. When he was a young boy during the Depression and living on a farm in Indiana, he would lie in bed at night listening to the distant train whistles calling him. He would dream of leaving his home and hopping on that train to embark on fascinating world adventures where he’d meet unique people on his travels. Dad was a history nut and very curious about cultures.
A shout out to Preeti Kaur Rajpal, whose poem “the excision” appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal.
Congratulations to Natalie Warther, whose flash fiction “Chicken” appeared in Smokelong Quarterly.
On the farm we had 20 of them, each as big as a rat terrier. Our yard wasn’t ours—it was theirs—and in it they hunted bugs, running wide legged and severing worm heads with their beaks.
“Chicken” is the wrong word to describe someone who is scared.
In addition, Natalie’s flash fiction “Bye Bye Baby” appeared in Wigleaf.
My husband and I went to bed in 2019 and woke up in 2017.
The first sign was the absence of our ten-week-old baby, the second was that our phones and TVs were smaller, the third was the shape of our bodies: less potato-like than when we’d gone to bed.
Congrats also to Lisbeth Coiman, whose book review of Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo appeared in LibroMobile.
To read Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is to revisit the ghosts of the Gettysburg battle site and expose the roots of the crimes committed against people of color in today’s America. The book is split into three parts: Part I talks to the victims, Part II talks to the criminals, and Part III is a self-reflection by the poet.
In this stunning collection, Bermejo promotes social change by inviting the reader to get involved in the creation of meaning by offering her fine work as a puzzle of interlocking pieces.
Kudos to Erica W. Jamieson, whose essay “After Our Parents’ Divorce, Mom Gave Us a New Beginning” appeared on the video journal The Braid.