This is one I'd honestly forgotten. Grateful to Will Woolfitt for letting me know that he's teaching "My Saints" from DUENDE in his fiction-writing class at Lee University this semester. He's also taught various nonfiction flash of mine in the past. I'm a big admirer of his poetry, stories, and essays, which makes it even more of an honor.

I love "Flash Fiction February," when FICTIVE DREAM publishes a new flash every day. FICTIVE DREAM editor Laura Black has been curating the event for eight years, I think, and this is the seventh year when I've been lucky enough to participate. It's like a grand party. I also love the art by Claudia McGill. I have several of her illustrations that I want to frame, but can't decide on which ones. In fact I couldn't decide on what art to include here, so I'll include six!

THE LAB: EXPERIMENTS IN WRITING ACROSS GENRE, forthcoming from W.W. Norton in 2025 (preorder here), includes my flash "The Lunatics' Ball" and a craft essay where I talk about my hybrid writing. In June, Matthew Clark Davison and Alice LaPlante will teach a week-long workshop on Mallorca based on the book! I'm excited to know that students will have access to my work. And that my first readers will be in such a beautiful place.

Finally finished the short preface to THE LUNATICS' BALL so it's ready for my two beta readers. Figured out that my first deadline for submission is February 15. Also extremely discouraged as I went through the possible publishers and had to eliminate most of them because at 92,000 words LB is too long. Should I try to get an agent? Will this process take years? Will I ever find a publisher?

I just discovered that THE PAST TEN, ed. Donald Quist, Kali White VanBaale, and Bailey Gaylin Moore (Cornerstone Press), which will include my essay "January 10, 2014," is available for pre-order here. They also have some nice blurbs for the book:

"A reflective mosaic, made up of some of the most exciting voices in American literature today." —Jaquíra Diaz

"The 71 essays in The Past Ten may be 'fun-sized' (1,000 wors max) but boy, do they pack a wallop. Heartbreaking and heartrending, even the most harrowing of them full of hope." —David Jauss

"The many memoirists assembled here create compelling codas, artificial endings, closing parentheses in order to look back and look closely, sit and sort, assess and assay with gifted elan and elegant exegesis, and see for the very first time these very mean and memorable meanings." —Michael Martone

"What a powerful and brimming treasure trove of stories this is: stories of transformation of metamorphosis, of loss, of love, and of becoming, A persuasive and ingenious ode to time: its waves and meanders, its sharp cures and gentle arms." —Robin Marie MacArthur

I guess it's not the only essay I wrote last year, as I wrote some new ones for THE LUNATICS' BALL and revised many, but it may be the only essay I published. I thought of PAST TEN as a literary journal, but actually it's not. The content is solicited (until now, anyway) and it's a blog (laid out a bit more like a journal, not a continuous column like most blogs). Glad it's turned into a book. I'm excited about participating in the offsite reading at AWP at the end of March. We made our reservations at the. Marriott, the fancy hotel at the center of things. Haven't decided whether we'll fly or drive. Flying Southwest to Los Angeles just before Christmas was unexpectedly pleasant.

My flash "That Boy When You Were Sixteen" came out in AQUIFER: THE FLORIDA REVIEW ONLINE  while we were in Southern California visiting family. It looks great. Loved working with Editor in Chief Jamie Poissant and acquiring CNF editor Brendan Stephens. Love the magazine.

Here's the graphic they used to advertise the piece:

​A beautiful Christmas day at home with Steve and Ben, turkey dinner with all the trimmings, fire in the fireplace. Five days before Ben returns to Borneo. How many goodbyes have we said in airports? It's always hard.

​I’m filled with gratitude this year to have come through some unexpected health problems (perhaps most health problems are unexpected—never fully expected even as you age). I’m grateful to my terrific doctors, an army of specialists, it seems. I’m grateful to the editors who’ve published my work this year, and the colleagues at CRAFT and in the literary community who’ve supported me. To the fellow writers who've critiqued and encouraged me. And always, to my readers!
 
Most of this year was devoted to finishing my work-in-progress THE LUNATICS’ BALL, and I’m almost there. That is, I’ve actually printed out a hard copy of the entire first draft. (Individual chapters/essays have gone through many drafts.) I couldn't have gotten this far without my long-standing San Francisco writing group, the Leporine Conspiracy (now an international writing group via Zoom). I'm still not sure what it is, my baggy beloved monster: a researched collection? a hybrid memoir? a collective (auto)biography? speculative nonfiction?

​I’ve been writing considerably less flash and longform fiction and nonfiction for publication than in previous years.

Nonfiction
 
​"Doorbells," Doubleback Review (reprint)
I was thrilled when this essay was accepted by South Loop Review, a print magazine I loved, and disappointed when they folded one or two issues later. I’ve always liked the essay and was grateful when Doubleback Review accepted it for reprint.

"January 10, 2014," Past Ten
This essay was solicited shortly before I was diagnosed with serious heart problems, and I was happy for the opportunity to reflect on what I was doing ten years ago and also on the shock of my new diagnosis. After about nine months of worry and frequent ER visits, after unsuccessful procedures, after an ablation, it appears that my atrial fibrillation has been fixed (or at least is in abeyance) and my heart has regained its former strength. It’s not something I’ll take for granted now.
 
Past Ten will also include this essay in an anthology, forthcoming from Cornerstone Press next year. And there will be an offsite reading for the anthology at AWP in Los Angeles next spring. My husband Steve, who published a novella with the University of Tampa Press this year, will also be on a panel. We haven’t been to an AWP since before the pandemic.
 
"The Lunatics' Ball" (reprint) and craft essay, The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre, by Matthew Clark Davison and Alice LaPlante (W.W.. Norton)
Also forthcoming: a reprint of the title flash in The Lunatics’ Ball (originally published in F(r)iction) along with a craft essay about hybrid writing in a W.W. Norton textbook on cross-genre writing! Matthew Clark Davison will be using the textbook in a class he’s teaching in Mallorca next summer. I hope other creative writing teachers will adopt the book, and I’m excited to reach many new readers.
 
Interview: Donald Quist, CRAFT
 My coeditor Shara Kronmal and I interviewed Donald Quist (the founder of Past Ten and the judge for CRAFT’s Memoir Excerpt & Essay Contest). Donald provided such substantial answers to our questions about his books and teaching and writing creative nonfiction! I particularly like what he says about vulnerability. Our interview was published this week.

I just sent questions to Naomi Cohn, author of the wonderfully innovative collection The Braille Encyclopedia: Brief Essays on Altered Sight (Rose Metal Press, 2024). That interview will be published in CRAFT next March.
 
Fiction
 
Both of these were stories that I’d started and laid aside when I didn’t know how to end them. Both were fun to return to.
 
I particularly enjoyed writing dialogue in this one.
"Petey's Own Personal Jesus," Roi Fainéant Press 
 
My “road rage” story was one of those short stories that kept evolving and changing as I pushed further. I did not anticipate the ending at all. (The editor at BULL is known for his amazing acceptance letters. It was so nice!)
​"Randall's Commute," BULL
 
Flash
 
I’ve been thinking a lot about “speculative nonfiction” and enjoyed writing this one. (Also a really nice acceptance letter and grand copyediting experience!)
“That Boy When You Were Sixteen,” Aquifer: The Florida Review Online
 
Amy Marques created a beautiful work of art in this anthology of reprints collaged and painted on pages from The New Yorker. I was pleased to see this recent micro from Midway Journal included.
"Doppler Effect," Duets + 1, curated with art by Amy Marques (p. 41)

​I was too self-conscious to participate in readings with this flash on being flat-chested! But the anthology has done brilliantly and garnered a lot of well-deserved reviews and attention on social media.
“Late Bloomer,” Awakenings: Stories of Body & Consciousness, edited by Diane Gottlieb (ELJ Editions, 2023), order here 
marketing sheet here
​
I love that Francine Witte publishes groups of flash in Flash Boulevard, because these work so well together. “Returning to the Wreck” is a lyric piece for The Lunatics’ Ball.
"I Dream You Are Alive: Creative Nonfiction Micros" (“So Long Ago,” “The Umbrella,” “We Could Have,” “Family Ties,” “Sex Education,” “Something Else,” “Returning to the Wreck”), Flash Boulevard 
I was thrilled to discover the Kathy Fish included this set of micros on the recommended reading list in her February 2024 newsletter.
 
When Current solicited work from me, I developed the historical context a bit more in this piece, which was a great improvement, I think. Something I should think about in other memoir pieces as they evolve.
"Shoplifting," Current 
​
Every February, the UK journal Fictive Dream devotes the entire month to flash. I’ve been included many times. I loved taking part again.
"Pretty Penny," Fictive Dream

I still miss my cat! Of course the flash needed to mean more than that.
"Ode to My Cat, Ten Years Gone," Sweet 
 
I have a microflash in an anthology at Alternating Current Press that was delayed by the pandemic and looks like it’s finally coming out. The Tertiary Lodgers features secondary characters in well-known literary works (mine is Nippers in “Bartleby,” one of my favorite short stories).
 
I have flash forthcoming in two magazines that I like a lot: Does It Have Pockets?, and South Florida Poetry Journal.
 
Interviews
 
Ashley Balcazar originally asked me if she could interview me for Jill Talbot’s graduate seminar on creative nonfiction at the University of North Texas. Ashley, who is also bipolar, was particularly interested in that subject. When she later asked whether the interview could be published in American Literary Review, I wasn’t sure at first. But I decided that it’s part of the “coming out” that The Lunatics’ Ball represents. I appreciated her questions.
Ashley Balcazar, "Creative Nonfiction and Poetic License, An Interview with Jacqueline Doyle," American Literary Review (Spring 2024)
 
Awards
 
Not many this year, but I was gratified when Current nominated “Shoplifting” for both Best of the Net and a Pushcart. Current has solicited two essays from me, which they paid for, and both were a perfect fit for a journal that is primarily political. I was pleased to publish them there.
 
I was excited when “(Parenthetical Asides)” (published in Centaur) was longlisted in the Wigleaf Top 50.
 
I was also excited when “Little Darling” (originally published in Wigleaf) made the longlist of the SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest, one of the top 41 of 1170 entries, and disappointed when it didn’t advance further.
 
A teacher myself, I’m always thrilled to hear that other writers have taught my work. Kathy Fish used “Little Darling” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” in her flash classes this year. Jill Talbot taught “Little Colored Pills” and “Haunting Houses” in her CNF classes at the University of North Texas. Will Woolfitt taught “The Madwoman on BART” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” in his classes at Lee University. Jasmine Sawers used “Little Darling” when she taught in SmokeLong Summer. Ashley Balcazar taught “My Blue Heaven” at the University of North Texas. Bailey Gaylin Moore taught “Imaginary Friends” at the University of Missouri. Ellen Blum Barrish taught “Dear Maddy” in her essay and memoir workshops.
 
Readings
 
I’ve been staying away from indoor venues because of Covid (the probable source of my heart problems), but I loved reading in the Racket series on the back patio at The Sycamore in the Mission (an unpublished flash from The Lunatics’ Ball that I’ve never read before). I read in Jon Sindell’s beautiful garden in the Outer Sunset in his Rolling Writers series. I also read in Francine Witte and Meg Pokrass’s wonderful online flash series The Prose Garden (my first time reading “The Lunatics’ Ball,” a shorter version of my title flash).
 
Editing
 
In January, I decided to reduce stress by reducing my editorial duties at CRAFT: I now do acquisitions and editing for creative nonfiction flash, and my former editorial assistant Shara Kronmal does acquisitions and editing for longform creative nonfiction. CRAFT earned another Notable Essay citation in Best American Essays (our fifth since I became our founding CNF editor four years ago). I love working with our EIC Courtney Harler, Shara and our great editorial assistants and reading team. Reading submissions, deciding on acceptances (we pay well, but therefore accept very few submissions), working on collaborative edits, honing down our contest lists, writing some of our introductions (very like the close reading I enjoyed when I was teaching): I love all of it. I couldn’t have imagined such a fulfilling part-time job, and I don’t think I could have managed it while I was teaching full time.
 
Teaching
 
I filled in for Grant Faulkner several times in the online “accountability” group that I’m also participating in. We have a standing arrangement that I will sub for him when he’s away. I visited Jill Talbot’s creative nonfiction class at the University of North Texas via Zoom for a lively discussion. I also participated in a panel of editors in Hannah Grieco’s advanced creative writing class at the Writer’s Center via Zoom.
 
I have a really great prospect for teaching flash next year that I superstitiously don’t want to specify until it’s materialized. Probably it will be more work than I think, but it should also be fun.
 
So here’s to 2025. Heartfelt thanks to all of you for your support in this sometimes difficult year. May we all prosper in our creative endeavors, despite the darkness and uncertainty ahead in the US and the world.
 
 
Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash

When I finished editing our current CNF flash today, I decided to write the introduction on the spot, while my ideas were percolating. Often our CNF editorial assistants want to write the introductions, but it's a treat when I get to do one. It reminds me of the kind of close reading we did in my classes, that I don't get to do any more. I was roaming the internet, looking for something quotable on metaphor in flash when I ran across Kathy Fish's "Art of Flash" newsletter of February 2024 and discovered that my pub in FLASH BOULEVARD, "I Dream You Are Alive" (multiple micros), was on Kathy's recommended reading list. Always a thrill, particularly from a writer/teacher/flash guru whom I respect so highly.

My AQUIFER flash will be out on December 19.  Just got meticulous copyedits from the Editor, Jamie Poissant, and a really nice email that ended: "Thanks, and please know just how much I love this piece. I remember loving it, but I have a whole new appreciation after today's markup. Thank you for thinking of us for this, sincerely." That's something that happens to me when I edit. (This week, Anne P. Beatty's "Women's Hospital.") Very uplifting to hear that from another editor! 

Our son Ben is coming home from Borneo to visit for two weeks (yay!) and we'll be in Southern California together when the flash comes out.

I ran across Donald Quist and his publications when PAST TEN solicited work from me (he was their founding editor). I was pleased when he agreed to serve as guest judge for this year's Memoir Excerpt & Essay Contest at CRAFT.  The interview with Donald Quist that my coeditor Shara Kronmal and I did over email was published today at CRAFT. It wasn't necessarily easier for two people to do an interview, and not easier to have it edited by our interviews editor and editor-in-chief. But I love the result, and it was a learning experience. Donald has published several books and has so many useful things to say about writing creative nonfiction (which he teaches at the University of Missouri). Among them, what strikes me today is his comment about vulnerability:

"Vulnerability is the engine of creative nonfiction. Even if it’s a more research-based piece, even if you are writing about a subject that is not you, we’re going to want the 'you' to do some contextualizing for us. We’re going to want to see you, the author, because we want to know why you care. It’s just a natural human instinct. We’re wired for this type of connection. If you explain to us your stakes, if you explain why you care, why it’s important to you, we’re way more likely to be sympathetic to the subject. I see a lot of great writing fail to resonate because people think they themselves are not interesting enough to be present in the text. They say, 'But it’s not about me!' Nah, fam. It is about you. "
​

I have hardly published anything at all this year, absorbed as I am in THE LUNATICS' BALL. So it is particularly exciting to hear from CURRENT that they've nominated "Shoplifting" for a Pushcart Prize. This was the second time they solicited a short essay from me, CURRENT is nothing like the journals where I usually publish, and both times I think the essays were a perfect fit. Thank you, Robert Erle Barham, Eric Miller, and CURRENT editors!