I've been working diligently this summer on new drafts of new poems, and I've been renovating some older work, too. Part of the commitment to my own craft that I made at the start of the pandemic was to send my work out more regularly to small presses and journals.
I attended AWP in San Antonio in early March, and when I arrived home, I was almost immediately in lockdown mode. Despite the forward momentum that AWP always provides, it took me a few months to get my writing life in order while coordinating a new normal with my teaching and life in general.
Anyhow, by early July, I was working on anything, just to be working on poetry at least a few days a week. The poem "Fontanel," was first drafted over a decade ago, just before I met my second husband. However, this summer's version is much sharper and better, I think. A lot of life has been lived in the last ten years, that is for sure.
I am very pleased that "Fontanel" will be published by West Trade Review, and I am grateful that there are editors out there like Ken Harmon, who take risks on writers who don't have biographical statements full of publication credits. This is my first publication credit in over five years--and my first publication since before the shooting at UCC.
When there is a link to provide, and when the issue is available, I will update.
