Happy New Year, peeps! It’s still just the 6th of January, so I think I can employ this greeting for a bit more time, give it s-t-r-e-t-c-h for as l-o-n-g as I can, maybe even until the vernal equinox.
As I usually do at the start of the year, I look back on the data of a calendar year of writing. 16 poems in 12 paper copy journals or anthologies. Humbled that one of my poems landed in an anthology not too many pages away from poems by the writer Sheila Bender and Joseph Powell, one of my creative writing professors at Central Washington University. In 1993, he published his collection of poems, Winter Insomnia. I attended that launch and in the copy of the book I purchased after, his inscription encouraged me to “keep up the fine writing and send me a copy of your first book.” I made true on that in 2017 when I mailed him a copy of Something Yet to Be Named. I still have the letter he wrote in return.
Additionally, I published 18 poems in online journals. I am so very grateful for all editors who take a chance on writing and move it from a page in a writer’s hand to a greater reading world.
And because I’m an absolute believer in seeing the whole picture, 2023 landed me 23 rejections and 15 still-waiting-for-confirmations, or in the words of Submittable, “Received” or “In Progress.” And that’s all bundled up in the beauty of writing as well.
Finally, the ravens here are my desk muses. Raven Ladies are from the wildly creative Yukon artist, Donald Watt. You can read more about Donald and his art at Yukon Artists at Work.
Cheers to a the new year ahead. May it be truly happy, full of possibilities both hoped for and surprising. Keep on writing!
Kersten Christianson, Poet 