“This reality is so fixed & it can’t always / be a matter of escaping to other realms, right.” – Alina Pleskova, “Blood Moon”
It’s time for one of these. Reflection is good. Thank you for reading this year, and may your winter be filled with warmth, friends, family, and contentment. Watch Muppet Christmas Carol.
Shipwrecked Sailor Blog
As this blog goes on, it feels like I have a better and better idea of what I want to do with it. In January of this year, I did my little history project, reading A People’s History of the United States, Four Hundred Souls, and An Indigenous People’s History of the United States. I liked the tone that set for the year—it’ll be hard to come up with another January reading list that so profoundly affects the way I view things.
As I wrote last week, reading books is good. This year, I think I struck a good balance of fiction and poetry, and realized that novels and poems are my favorite thing to read. I like a little nonfiction, maybe with lakes in it, and I also like myths! We read Homer this year! Also read a ton of Indigenous writers and plenty of horror. That will not change. We close-read some poems this year, which I’d like to do more of next year.
Music was a big theme. Lazy & Entitled has been in the studio, and I have been thinking about music. We celebrated Black guitarists, AAPI guitarists, and Matt Freeman’s bad bass technique. We strolled down memory lane with a few albums, and wondered about playing bass with a pick. We talked about Chon & Polyphia & Elephant Gym & Weezer & jazz. I wrote liner notes for i dreamed a knife like a song you can’t whistle and for if not a river.
Politics was unavoidably a theme this year. I mean, this blog will never shy away from politics. Not, like, the minutiae of Hill drama or Cabinet appointees. But I follow the news, and I often read to try to learn ways to live a more moral life, a more socially responsible life, and to be more articulate about socialism. Not many people voted. Cops, unfortunately, still exist. Aaron Bushnell did his thing—not done writing about him, stay tuned for next year. If there’s one takeaway from a year in which politicians willfully ignored protests so that they could go on funding and supporting genocide, a year in which the two major US political parties tried to out-cruel each other (Democrats: “we’ll do Trump policies at the border!” Republicans: “we’ll deputize a bunch of dipshit rednecks to run wild with guns at the border”), that takeaway is this: remember that the wealthy are the real enemy. And the internet is a Nazi bar.
Me Personally
I went to AWP! That was a blast, and I will be back in Los Angeles in 2024! Dear friend and my beloved have books coming out right around that time.
I thought there would be more publications between my awards eligibility post and now. I do have one acceptance supposed to be published before January, but who knows. Whatever, I try to manage my expectations with writing “success.” Or I return to Sherley Anne Williams. Having Aimee Bender of all people she’s only my favorite writer ever select a (still unpublished) story as a contest finalist is a pretty big deal, and aforementioned dear friend Dr. Han Vanderhart was kind enough to nominate a poem of mine for Best Of The Net.
Here’s what I published this year:
“warm February watching nature documentaries” in Moist Poetry Journal
“human pastoral brick” “marriage sonnet 3” “KAYAKING IN THE GRAND TETONS” in The Rumen
“WINDY MORNING KAYAKING PRATT BEACH” and “THE TREES MY DUDES THE TREES” in Moist Poetry Journal
“UP LATE WATCHING X-MEN: FIRST CLASS” in Passionfruit Review
Also, in the spirit of being kind to myself—hopefully reminding other writers on the submission grind to do the same—each year since my first publication in 2021 (again, before I was on staff at CX), the number of acceptances I’ve gotten has gone up.
The Line Break
We had a blast this year! We had a good balance of guests, special episodes, and just Bob-and-me episodes. We did guerilla poetry at AWP, which was a blast. We did a crossover episode with Of Poetry. There are exciting things in the works for next year—many hopeful guests, and who knows? Maybe we’ll do guerilla poetry at AWP again this year. Here are half of our episodes this year:
Guerilla Poetry At AWP Apple | Spotty | Soundcloud
Of Poetry Crossover Apple | Spotty | Soundcloud
Thus The Line Break Read Homer Writer of Epics Apple | Spotty | Soundcloud
Celebrating 2024 Ghost City Press Chapbooks Apple | Spotty | Soundcloud
August In September Apple | Spotty | Soundcloud
Presenting the 2024 Garden Party Collective Chapbook Contest Winners Apple | Spotty | Soundcloud
Lazy & Entitled Annual Report
We put up some YouTube videos for Shipwrecked Sailor songs and did two big podcast extravaganzas, interviewing Haunt Season star Adam Hinkle and Friend Of L&E Chloe N. Clark. Expect much more podcast in 2025.
We also spent all year writing songs and recording them, too. We have two albums very near completion. Recording takes a long time, people have divergent schedules, etc etc etc. But both of these albums are super sick, and Brendan and I cannot wait to show them to you.
Again, the number of L&E things we did this year increased from 2023, and will increase again in 2025. Then in 2026, it’ll probably level out. Exponential growth is poison, we’re just trying to make cool art.
Not to jinx anything, but we’ll have a novel(la) out at the end of 2025.
Thanks for kicking it this year.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris