Publications in 2020: A Year of Anthologies and Virtual Readings

This year has been many things, but for me as a writer, it's been a year of anthologies and recorded readings. 

First is the ACCOLADES: A Women Who Submit Anthology which included my poem, "Camp Stories," originally published in Kartika. This anthology launched at AWP in San Antonio in March. I had my flight and housing booked, was ready to go, but with the news of COVID accelerating, I cancelled my plans to go. The anthology launched beautifully in my absence and I even recorded an IG reading of the poem. 

Next up was Mom Egg Review's "Home" edition which took on new meaning as we spent so much time around the house this year. This essay, "At Home in America" is actually about a trip to Oregon and driving around in circles in Sunriver and thinking about what Bend means to me, my family, and the next generation. I read this one for MER's virtual reading as well. 

A short story and my only fiction publication this year was "Infamy" for Made In LA: Volume III: The Art of Transformation. This community came together in ZOOM spaces several times in 2020 during a launch party and a discussion of book stores and beaches with Small World Books in Venice. 

Wrapping up my 2020 year of anthologies was my poem "Instructions for Surviving a Modern Pandemic" which appears this beautiful Alternative Field publication In Isolation: an anthology. 

I had a couple of essays come out this year as well. "California" an essay excerpted from Through Eyes Like Mine, was published by Nasiona for their section on being mixed race. "Vegas Indulgences," as essay about proportion and sexual assault in a place where the scale of everything is off appeared this spring in Lady Liberty Lit. 

As the pandemic kept us all home, the other essays I published this year involved the passage of time, our evolving communities, and writing through hard times. "A Meditation On Time" and "Writing Through Despair" appeared in Women Who Submit's Breathe and Push column and "Community in the Time of COVID" was published in Cultural Weekly. 

I had the opportunity to participate in the Deschutes Public Libraries' Know Us series by. speaking about growing up multiracial in Central Oregon. You can view my conversation with Liz Goodrich on youtube. 

Other poems published this year include: "How Do We Count Our Dead?" in Bitter Melon Poetry's Stay Home Diary, and "Meditation on the Morning Spent at the Soccer Field" and "Family Haiku" both in Tiger Moth Review's Issue 4. 

Thanks to all the readers, editors, and publishers who worked hard to continue to bring art forward during such trying times. I am so honored to share my thoughts and stories with you all.