Wrapping Up 2023 ✨✨✨
Wrapping Up 2023 ✨✨✨
We keep going!
Everything has felt really heavy lately, so I wanted to hold space for that. Things are bleak, and these days I’m trying my best to read/listen and learn from others. And to remember what I’m grateful for, from the little things to the people in my life.
I’m so grateful for all the support for this newsletter — and a special shout-out to everyone who is a paid subscriber! Your support not only helps me create this newsletter, it also supports my writing practice. This past year, I continued freelance writing but it was a tough environment, because of layoffs and budget cuts (which is normal for media, unfortunately, but I was so often going on Twitter and seeing more and more writers/editors sharing about layoffs). I freelanced while working part-time for the majority of the year, but it was tough to keep momentum going sometimes!
Still, I’ve been able to do some really cool things in last few months. My latest: an interview with chef Sohla El-Waylly for ELLE. Last month, I was part of a great panel about creative equity at NYU’s Latinx Project (thank you Carina and Arlene!) which you can watch here if you’re interested.
I also balance my freelance pitching and editing (which is paid work) with creative nonfiction and literary writing — which is not always paid. Literary magazines are almost always volunteer-run and they get tons of submissions. And while I sometimes find the turnaround and the low pay frustrating, I love print magazines and literary communities. I’ve been so inspired by the work of other writers, and I know it’s important to get my name out there, too. It’s not always easy! This past year, I got 16 total declines from lit magazines (with 4 pieces still pending).
This year, I’m grateful to Gulf Coast Magazine (shout-out to Rosa!) for publishing this essay I wrote on 2010s alt rock, pop music and femmes. It was also really cool to be part of We Have Food at Home, a fellow Substack publication that published my flash nonfiction piece about friendship, food and LA.
✨ ✨ ✨ All this to say, that I’m so so grateful to everyone who is a paid subscriber, a free subscriber or a frequent reader. And to everyone who has sent an encouraging note my way or read anything I’ve published, thank you thank you! ✨ ✨ ✨
I also wanted to give a shout-out to two writer friends who recently published books: L’Oreal Thompson Payton wrote a “pocket-sized pep talk to walk with you through any obstacle in your career or personal life.” Published earlier this year, “Stop Waiting for Perfect” is all about encouraging you to go after what you’re passionate about! And if you’re a fan of romance, Jennifer Chen recently published “Artifacts of An Ex,” which follows Chloe Chang as she deals with a break-up and “starts buying other teenagers’ break-up boxes to create an art exhibit, Heartifacts.”
I hope you find joy and calm in these last couple of months of 2023.
I’ll leave you with this lovely poem, which was one of my favorite things I read last week:
In Case You Missed It
My Domestika course, “How to Write a Human Interest Story,” is live now! Check it out here. And tell a friend.
Keep scrolling for 15+ opportunities for creatives.
🍂 November Deadlines
✍🏼 Forge Project is looking to foreground Palestinian experiences—more info here.
🎨 Due 11/13: Lucid Art Residency Program 2024
✍🏼 Due 11/14: Writing Between the Vines (I did this and loved it! Such a great experience, and a special, gorgeous setting.)
✍🏼 Due 11/15: Nickelodeon Writing Program 2023
🎨 Due 11/17: 2024 Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant
🎨 Due 11/21: 2024 Queens Arts Fund
✍🏼 Due 11/30: Red Hen Press Quill (Queer) Prose Award
✍🏼 Due 11/30: Narratively’s 2023 Memoir Prize
🍂 December Deadlines
💭 Due 12/1: The Betsy James Wyeth Fellowship in Native American Art
✍🏼 Due 12/1: Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities Tony Quagliano Poetry Award
✍🏼 Due 12/1: 2024–25 New York Times Fellowship
💭 Due 12/3: The Morgan Drawing Institute Morgan-Menil Fellow
💭 Due 12/6: Craft Archive Fellowship
💭 Due 12/15: Museum Fellowship for HBCU Graduates
🧳 Due 12/31: LGBT Chamber of Commerce Foundation 2024-2025 Scholarship Application (Texas)
✍🏼 Due 12/31: Poetry Society of America Student Poetry Award judged by Elisa M. Gonzalez
✍🏼 Due 12/31: Michigan Quarterly Review Jesmyn Ward Fiction Prize
🎨 Due 12/31: Exposition Review comics submissions (including hybrid forms: a poem in comic form, graphic nonfiction, graphic flash fiction, etc.)
✍🏼 Due 12/31: Exposition Review submissions (film/flash fiction/experimental/visual art, etc).