2019 roundup

Filled with gratitude for all the editors and readers who’ve supported my work in 2019. My longer project-in-progress THE LUNATICS’ BALL has been frustratingly slow to take shape, but I’ve made a lot of progress, with a lot of invaluable feedback from three writing groups—the Leporines in San Francisco, the online Quills (a very international group), and my tiny online flash group with Kathryn Kulpa and Eden Royce. The support from all three groups has meant a lot.
 
Scroll down on my flash, nonfiction, and fiction pages on this site for links to my 2019 online publications.
 
My flash nonfiction in 2019 (in some bucket list journals):
Little Fiction/Big Truths
The Sunlight Press
The Collagist
Sweet: A Literary Confection
The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts
​Cleaver
Rhythm & Bones
Sonora Review (forthcoming)
 
My flash fiction (also in some journals I love and have long aspired to):
Pithead Chapel
CRAFT
Juked
Ghost Parachute
Queen Mob’s Teahouse
Lunate
Ellipsis
Connotation Press
Fictive Dream
Cabinet of Heed
minnesota review
 
I never publish a lot of fiction, and I only published one story this year, but I was thrilled to have my work solicited:
Caustic Frolic
 
My creative nonfiction publications have slowed, and are mostly shorter this year, but I’m proud of what I produced (and bowled over by an acceptance at one of these bucket list journals in particular):
F(r)iction
The Nasiona
Ghost Proposal
Rappahannock Review
Passages North (forthcoming)
Fourth Genre (forthcoming)
 
I’m a nonfiction writer at heart. This year I was blessed with a Notable Essay listing in BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS, and a nonfiction flash featured in CREATIVE NONFICTION SUNDAY SHORT READS. I won a flash essay contest and had two Pushcart nominations and a Best of the Net nomination for flash nonfiction. I also had two Pushcart nominations for flash fiction, and a Best Microfiction nomination for a flash microfiction. Several editors solicited work from me on the basis of my previous publications. I was interviewed three times and featured on a podcast. I did two readings and was the keynote speaker at an area writing conference.

I went to a lot of Bay Area readings. I supported book launches by friends. I bought a lot of books. I read a lot of work by fine writers and publicized them on twitter. I participated in the judging of the Black River Chapbook Competition at Black Lawrence Press again. I taught creative nonfiction workshops, a graduate seminar on memoir, and a flash workshop at Cal State East Bay; I hope I encouraged my students to be better writers.
 
In June I will teach my last class as a professor at California State University, East Bay. My resolution for 2020 is to keep writing, not slack off when I suddenly have more free time. Not let my frustrations with THE LUNATICS’ BALL keep me from making progress. Not let rejections (there have been so many this year) discourage me. Follow the advice of Samuel Beckett: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Creator:Rasica Credit:Getty Images/iStockphoto