 Artwork by Truck Torrence of 100% Soft Despite 2020 being a dumpster fire in so many ways, for many people, I'm grateful to the editors who published my work this year, and to my friends and colleagues who continue to do the weird and necessary work of writing. Here are the pieces I published this year:
Juked: "The Mimosa Tree" "The woman said, I wish I would have a child as dark as the night and as bright as the moon, and she was so weary that she lay down and fell asleep right there, her cheek pressed against the grass, her arms wrapped around herself as the moon and stars kept watch." Post Road: "In the High Prairies" "The railroad tracks carry the smell of dead things warmed by the midday sun. In the high prairies of Montana, it’s been a cold March—but this morning a northwest wind swept in, bringing mild air that makes the ice on the trees crackle and sigh." Wigleaf: "Fairy Tale Happy Hour" "A frog, a hedgehog, and a wolf walk into a bar." A Quiet Afternoon: "The Baker's Cat" "Karina dreamed of freshly baked limpa bread made with dark rye flour, flavored with orange peel and caraway and anise. She dreamed of fluffy cardamom buns filled with whipped cream." Longleaf Review: "The Kudzu Eaters" "In the old days, we burned the bodies of fossils to keep warm. We loved roads so much, we drove them until we turned the rivers to oil and rock salt." Okay Donkey: "The Jackalope in Economy Class" "The jackalope fantasized that she and Nessie would hit it off. They probably had a lot of things in common besides being cryptids." Malasaña: "Wendy the Fire-Eater" "The carnival lights scattered rainbows in Wendy’s black hair, and her tattooed skin smelled like paraffin fuel." PANK: "Two Women in the Underworld" "I hear they started a band called The Pomegranate Seeds with Eurydice on drums and Persephone playing guitar They are teaching Cerberus to howl in three-part harmony" Closet Cases: Queers On What We Wear: "Firecracker," Et Alia Press "When I couldn’t disappear, I tried instead to sparkle as brightly as possible, to become so visible that my glamor and eccentricity were a shield." P.S. And thank you to the editors of the Wigleaf Top 50 for longlisting my flash fiction "Convenience Store Prayer," published in 2019 by the wonderful CHEAP POP. Thank you to editors Michio Kaku and Jaime Green for listing my essay "A Funeral for Two Birds," published in 2019 in The New York Times, as Notable in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2020.
 I'm honored to share that my essay "A Funeral for Two Birds," published in The New York Times, is listed as Notable in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2020!
Thank you to editors Dr. Michio Kaku and Jaime Green. You can read the original essay here. The anthology of other great essays is available for purchase at your nearest independent bookstore, Indiebound, or Powells.com.  I'm excited to have a short story about baking and magical animals in a new Canadian anthology, A Quiet Afternoon! The anthology includes 13 speculative fiction stories that go perfectly with a cup of coffee or tea on a rainy day (or any quarantine day). It's available as an ebook for $7.50 (less in U.S. dollars), and the publisher, Grace and Victory Publications, is donating 50 percent of the proceeds to Black Lives Matter-Canada.
"Karina dreamed of freshly baked limpa bread made with dark rye flour, flavoured with orange peel and caraway and anise. She dreamed of fluffy cardamom buns filled with whipped cream. She dreamed of gingerbread cookies laced with spices and molasses, saffron Lucia buns curled into the shape of the letter S, sticky bites of flourless chocolate cake, and thin oatmeal cookies that crunched between the teeth before a delicate layer of chocolate melted onto the tongue." Happy reading! And thank you to the editors who made this possible.  Photo: Oriol Portell/Unsplash I have a new poem published at PANK, titled "Two Women in the Underworld":
"I hear they started a band called The Pomegranate Seeds / with Eurydice on drums and Persephone playing guitar / They are teaching Cerberus to howl in three-part harmony" I'm also excited to have a short story in the Canadian anthology A Quiet Afternoon, a collection of speculative fiction published by Grace & Victory Publications. It will be available as an ebook on July 1, and 50 percent of the profits will be donated to Black Lives Matter - Canada. These are calm, cozy stories you can read with a cup of coffee or tea on a rainy day—no fairy tale gore like many of my other stories have!
 My new flash fiction piece published today at Okay Donkey asks this pressing question. It's one of the silliest stories I've ever written, but to tell you the truth, I also earnestly relate to the jackalope a fair bit. Thank you to the editors at Okay Donkey!
"The jackalope fantasized that she and Nessie would hit it off. They probably had a lot of things in common besides being cryptids. For example, the jackalope’s favorite drink was whiskey, and Scotland was known for excellent Scotch." After writing this story, I was excited to find this mural of a jackalope and Nessie (plus Bigfoot, a werewolf, and a UFO) outside Ha Ha Pizza in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  I'm happy to have a short essay published in a new coffee table book called Closet Cases: Queers on What We Wear. Published by Et Alia Press, it's a gorgeous compilation of photographs paired with poems and essays about LGBTQ+ identity and self-expression. You can order it here.  Photo by Jonathan Daniels/Unsplash Thanks to Malasaña for publishing my new short story "Wendy the Fire-Eater," the third piece I've published that was inspired by Coney Island. "The carnival lights scattered rainbows in Wendy’s black hair, and her tattooed skin smelled like paraffin fuel." The Coney Island Circus Sideshow puts on a live sideshow every year, April through September, with acts like contortionists, sword-swallowers, fire-eaters, human blockheads, and performers who lie on beds of nails. Go see the show if you live in New York or plan to visit (as long as you're not squeamish about swords and nails)!  Photo by Luxim766/Flickr CC Many thanks to the editors at Juked for publishing my short story "The Mimosa Tree." It's a dark, dreamy fairy tale featuring hummingbirds, a vengeful owl, cannibalism, and the moon.
It was inspired by the "The Juniper Tree," a slightly lesser-known fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. "During her pregnancy, she craved fiddleheads and wild leeks and mushrooms that grew from damp earth under the brightest moonlight. She walked the woods on those spring nights, searching for them...By day, she gathered silvery feathers dropped by herons and doves, and she tied them with a ribbon over the headboard of her bed. In her garden she grew artemisia, yarrow, lamb’s ears, all the pale flowers and herbs that reminded her of moonshine...." |
