here (queer?) to stay

managing burnout, plus regularly scheduled queer stuff

This is the first time in my life where I’m actually able to enjoy summer without school looming ahead. I saw the school supplies aisle set up in H-E-B a couple weeks ago and only panicked for a millisecond! What a weird feeling!

I’m still experiencing some burnout symptoms. I’m also practicing self compassion. Taking my pills. Talking to my therapist. Leaving the house. Writing… prose?

Above all, I’m trying to manage my relationship to poetry. I realized that if I take care to not burn out further now, I’ll get to do poetry stuff for longer. So when I would normally be working 13 hour days, reading 3 books a week, wearing myself out on microaggression-riddled socializing, I’ve been working closer to 7-8 hours, cooking, watching Suits, and playing Going Under.

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Taking care of my brain and body is weird! It’s almost like I’m too used to chaos and/or dysfunction. L-o-l.

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Last week, I went to Houston to hang out with people I love, and to participate in a beautiful reading at City Hall.

César Ramos of Raspa Magazine put together this wonderful exhibit of queer Latinx Texan writers, Aquí and Now.

My poem can be found online here, but also IRL! In Houston!

I was so nervous about sending this poem in. I’m so glad I did.

The reading was incredibly moving. If I wasn’t on my pills I definitely would have been openly weeping on stage. Like, for people dismissed and dehumanized by the government to be welcomed to City Hall of the biggest city in the state… For me to go through all the racist queerphobic colonial shit in undergrad and grad school, and come out alive and maybe even thriving a tiny bit?

this is queer & trans joy embodied tbh!

Many eternal thanks to César, Victor, Farrah, Stalina, and everyone in Houston

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who made me feel at home as my queer Chicano poet self.

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Now for some trans and/or literary links:

Submissions:

• Taco Bell Quarterly
  is closing on July 31! They pay a lot! I love the editors!

• ANMLY has a fantastic folio coming soon. Are you into CNF Video Game Writing From LGBTQ+ Writers of Color? Check out the call for subs here

  • ANMLY is also open for general subs until August 1. I hear one of the nonfic co-editors loves queer and trans BIPOC narratives.

• The Latinx Archive has a new anthology in the works, Not Your Papi’s Utopia: Latinx Visions of Radical Hope. Submissions close August 1.

• The Bennett Nieberg Transpoetic Broadside Prize is open until August 2. Trans poets without a full-length, send your stuff in!

• Get your chapbooks of all genres ready.

  Abode Press
  is opening for submissions on August 15! Check out our submissions page here. (Plus, learn more about who we are in our Substack!)

Stuff to read:

• Belle Point Press’ Mid/South Sonnets anthology is now available to pre-order!! I have a Texan Sonnet in there, and there are so many poets I admire in it as well!

• fifth wheel press
  is having a Sealey Challenge sale on their digital books! This post on their Substack has a lot of great resources for affordable queer poetry

• I wrote about 10 trans poetry collections I love for Chicago Review of Books

Workshops:

• I’m teaching a workshop with Abode Press!!! For only $10, join me on September 6th for Writing Queer and Trans Joy. Full description here.

  • For an idea of what I’m interested in with trans joy, check out the folio I edited for ANMLY.

  • The workshop is mostly rooted in poetry, but writers of all genres are absolutely welcome!!

• Poet C.T. Salazar is teaching a two-day sonnet workshop with Belle Point Press! Registration includes a free copy of Mid/South Sonnets

• Roots. Wounds. Words. has a new program for justice-involved storytellers, Words of Resistance and Restoration. The program is free, and applications close next week.

  • If this doesn’t apply to you, I 100000% recommend RWW programming for any BIPOC. RWW saved my life, frankly.

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Suits corner:

I’m on S4E11. Fuck Harvey honestly! And also I <3 Rachel and Mike!

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If you know me, you know that August is a difficult month for me.

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I might be a bit quieter here, or maybe just more sad on here. Or maybe I’ll cope in my normal way of trying the Sealey Challenge and falling off 11 days in.

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We’ll see how this self-compassion stuff goes!

<3

I met this cat in Houston. I was told not to steal him, which was the worst part of my trip

You may have noticed that I added a paid option for this newsletter. I’m currently going through a few big life transitions & recently got accepted to a residency to finish my first full-length manuscript! Subscriptions will help offset these expenses. Plus, if you subscribe as a founding member I’ll send you a zine grab bag!

That said, trans poetica will always always remain free. I do this because I love writing and connecting with likeminded folks. “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.” Thanks for reading this far down!

1. I’m not a gamer in the slightest (yet???) but I’m incredibly fixated on this game right now. Might post a review when I complete the final dungeon.

2. I’m willing to pretend the Dallas-Houston beef doesn’t exist

3. Someone with a dead parent tell me it’s okay to still be depressed as fuck about it 3 years later

4. INEVITABLY I get triggered because my dad was a book nerd, too