Fallow Thoughts

I'm tired of thinking up subtitles.

One of Ko Kirk Yamahira’s unwoven canvases.

I am working on trusting that my body is connecting even when my mind can’t feel it. There are a few first blooms on the cherry tree, and a pile of manure waiting to be spread on the raised beds. The garden in my head already bears fruit, even though I haven’t yet broken ground. 

I’m a week late with this newsletter, that is, if you measure by Substack’s standards. Consistency, above all else, is what matters on this platform, so I’m told. But I don’t want to make money with this newsletter. I just want to feel connected to something, to anyone, through my words, because that’s all I have right now, or so it feels sometimes. 

Is consistency still paramount when connection is the goal? Maybe. But as I inch closer to having a book published in the world, I find myself turning inward more. I have always been a very private person. My general philosophy is that everyone can’t pay attention to me all the time, so it matters more what I’m doing when no one is watching. Lately that’s been a lot of Breath of the Wild and some gardening. Not a bad mix, but also not that exciting for newsletters. Sometimes you just gotta be a person not a content mill, and let the work speak for itself.

But I’m also putting together events in the lead up to the pub date of A Natural History of Transition. One of the first events that I’m really looking forward to is coming up soon on March 19. I’ll be part of an environmental humanities panel hosted by the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, discussing human/nonhuman relations in relation to my work alongside the wondrous Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Sarah Giragosian, and Patricia Vieira. I can’t wait to talk with these writers about this topic.

What I’m Reading

You are eating an orange. You are naked. by Sheung-King. I’m really enjoying the language and the many stories within stories it offers. This came out recently from Book*hug press in Toronto, which has furnished several of my favorite reads over the last year. I’m always interested in what they’re offering and seeing how their authors are playing with form and genre.

Publishing Opportunities

AGNI is accepting submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry until May 31.

Dirty Queer is a curated open mic & online journal focused on sex/sexuality/gender now open to submissions. Priority will be given to 2 Spirit and Trans Black, Indigenous, People of Color, folks with disabilities, and other marginalized voices.

Glass Poetry Press is open to submissions for poetry chapbooks until March 31.

Quarterly West is open for Prose Reader applications until April 1.

The PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship provides a five-month immersive mentorship program for early-career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. Apply before March 17.

Foglifter Journal is open to submissions in all forms until May 1.

Nat. Brut is open to submissions for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry until April 30.

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My book A Natural History of Transition, is available to preorder through Metonymy Press.

First time here? Subscribe below. You can find more of my writing at calangus.com.