It’s been a rough few weeks for this news geek. I suppose they all are. But with the story about the “Cornell 7” breaking in mid-September and developing daily since, it’s been particularly tough.
It’s exhausting to be trapped in the loop of victim blaming and shaming. The loop of being scolded for not adequately protecting ourselves and being forced to hear the other side of that mouth insist men present no danger. The loop of standing together saying #MeToo and I Am Jane Doe and “believe women” while knowing they’d already have put a stop to this type of harm if they wanted to.
And while I believe that patriarchy, misogyny and rape culture hurt men, too, the power dynamic is undeniable.
I’m sitting on a full-length poetry manuscript that launches itself out of that space. It’s “about” feminine rage but not for its own sake and not even for revenge (though I have some flash fiction ideas about that LOL). My “Gertie” manuscript is about rising up for its own sake. It’s about pursuing pleasure and being loud and taking up space because autonomy and authority must belong to all of us.
It’s tempting to believe that Gertie would have given us so much to hang onto in this news cycle and that, since she’s still unpublished, the moment is missed. But that’s the thing: History tells us otherwise.
The loop of misogyny never going out of style.
I keep being reminded that this manuscript is my persistence, my insistence, my defiance. And even though prior versions are 0 for 30 (at least) and this version is 0 for 3 so far in 2026, I’m still poised to fight for her. One way or another, her voice is going to be heard.
In addition to the news cycle reminding me of why this poetry manuscript and writing in general matter so much, I received that same message a couple different ways on a recent visit to Saratoga, NY.
First, Jill and I attended a talk with iconic poet and novelist Julia Alvarez. The event, held in the beautiful Universal Preservation Hall, was part of the Saratoga Book Festival. I am new to Alvarez (one of many holes in my reading history), but she’s been a longtime influence for Jill.
In her talk, Alvarez described several “Gertie-adjacent” concepts, including these three:
#1 / Writing helps us understand and tap into the “hugeness in your little self.”
#2 / Writing and reading are political. Alvarez said that writing and reading ask (and answer), “What are the things we musn’t lose?” In this and other obscene political and cultural environments, what do we really value? What’s essential to our being?
#3 / Alvarez said wealth and self-importance are “gated communities” that writing and reading expose. She called readers “freedom fighters” because when dictators are actively taking power, they ban books and clamp down on education.
My full-length manuscript sits most squarely in the space of that second concept. My speaker literally fights for — and claims — her essential being despite, as Mary Oliver writes, “the voices around you / … shouting / their bad advice.”
The second reminder that my manuscript is of value was a tarot reading included in a mystery bag I bought from Magic Moon on Phila Street, as is tradition on trips to ‘Toga.
The overall reading said, “Your voice is needed right now,” and this card from a Crystal Oracle deck was part of it. It says, “I speak from a place of love,” and although the Gertie manuscript does a fair amount of stomping around, it is ultimately love (and care) for the self that saves my speaker.
Spoiler alert (LOL): That speaker is me, and I’ll keep pushing. Gertie matters now and will continue to matter for as long as it remains revolutionary for women to take up space.
I’ll end here with my notes about September’s creative activities. (Remember, if this kind of thing doesn’t interest you, feel free to skip it.) My goal for the month was to dip back into the creative life after intentional rest in July and August.
Since the last time I did a list like this, I’ve added a new category: self-promotion. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and taking in how other people do it. I’m trying to do more of it and better understand what I want to get out of it (and why) and what my personal boundaries around it might be.
SEPTEMBER 2026 WRITING/WORKSHOP/REVISION
- Daily Morning Pages
- Free writes X11
- New drafts X1
- Revisited an old project that I’m planning to revive
- Ass in Chair Collective X1: 09.07
- Poetry workshops X2: 09.10, 09.25
SEPTEMBER 2026 ART-MAKING
- Sketchbook spreads X12 (something’s brewing!)
SEPTEMBER 2026 BLOGGING
- Published a blog post with a list of poems about wild animals
- Published a blog post with examples of poems written after Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”
- Added several new poems to existing lists/resources
- Fixed some broken links
SEPTEMBER 2026 INSPIRATION
- Watch “Jillian Stacia — Inside the Manuscript” (recording of a workshop hosted by KGT)
SEPTEMBER 2026 READING
- The Wild Truth by Carine McCandless (memoir)
- New editions of several lit mags, including Plume, Radar, Whale Road Review, Nelle, AGNI, Alaska Quarterly, and Glass
SEPTEMBER 2026 PUBLISHING/SUBMISSION NEWS
- Submitted individual poems to 13 lit mags
- Individual poem acceptance X1 (Rust + Moth! a dream!)
- Individual poem rejection X1
- Poetry manuscript rejection X2 (one included a note indicating it was among the strongest the press received)
- Updated bios and cover letters
- Researched new-to-me lit mags/deadlines
SEPTEMBER 2026 SELF-PROMOTION
- Instagram post promoting the free prompts on my blog
- Instagram post promoting new resource list at my blog (poems about wild animal encounters)
- Linktree updates
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