Writing Update: February 2023

Publications, nominations, in-progress work, & recent favorite reads from yours truly, Salena Casha

We’re back for round two and the first official writing update of 2023.

What was published in Jan & Feb 2023

A few pieces made it out into the world in February, all 1,000 words and under.

• The Median - Ghost Parachute

  • This one was graced by a custom illustration from Brett J Barr

• About a Dyson - Block Party (“Sucker” issue)

  • Yes, it’s a story about a vacuum cleaner. Happy Valentine’s Day.

• Nevers, Poolside - Heartbalm Lit’s Scraps of Therapy Micro-issue

  • The call was for twitter-length pieces about therapy so I decided to pull inspiration from the Sports Psychologist I used to see in High School for swimming

    

Nominations:

I was honored to have a writing peer nominate my short piece, what we are to each other and what we are not, from the February 2022 issue of Bending Genres for Ellipsis Zine’s Best of 2022.

Read the story here if you missed it the last time.

My favorite reads of February

I kicked off 2023 with some solid reads: How Beautiful We Were, Less is Lost, In the Garden of the Beasts, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, Dead Wake, and yes, the Spare, autobiography. It was tough to pick, but favorites so far are below.

Books & Collections:

• I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane

  • It’s a heavy one, very Black Mirror meets 1984 but it is worth a read. The high level is that there’s a world where rather than being imprisoned, they give criminals an extra shadow. The story follows a widow and her newborn navigating a harsh climate where synthetic shadows haunt both of them.

• Thank you, Mr. Nixon: Stories by Gish Jen

  • If you’re as into short story collections as I am (I mean, can we talk about Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado?!), Jen’s recent publication will knock your socks off. Honestly, I’m embarrassed I had never read anything by Jen until this point as she’s both prolific and celebrated (and very witty). These vivid short stories are simultaneously intertwined and standalone, all with signature descriptions, memorable and quirky characters, biting dialogue, and historical context. The pieces evolve through the 50 years since Nixon’s 1972 visit to China and takes readers into the depths of familial drama as characters deal with generational and cultural divides within immigrant families alongside their experiences of racism and xenophobia on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lit Journal:

Not enough time to read a full book? Check out Taco Bell Quarterly’s Sixth Issue instead. If you can’t read the whole thing, I’ve picked out two favorites below.

If you're unfamiliar with the zine, they exploded over the last few years as a counter-point to literary giants such as The Paris Review and The New Yorker and have produced a swath of high brow pieces that all include references to Taco Bell. My two favorites from this recent publication are:

• This Taco Bell is Sinking into the Boiling Sea by Sunny Rosen

• Dear White Women by Mari Ramler

Both pieces are short poems, about a page - a page and a half each and they hit you between the eyes. Nbd, just TBQ tackling environmental catastrophe and racism alongside soggy Crunch Wrap Supremes.

What I worked on these last two months

I spent a lot of time getting involved in the NYC Midnight writing competitions in January. If you’re ever up for exercising your writing muscles, they’re a BLAST and prove supremely generative. They’ve got everything from screenwriting, short story competitions, microfiction - you name it. I’ve progressed so far into the second-round of four of the 250 word competition and submitted for the first round of three of the short story competition.

• Recent theme for 250 words: Fantasy/Fairytale, the act of filling a bucket, and the word “decline”

• Recent theme for 2,500 words: Science Fiction, a deadbeat character, and infomercials

In February, I got to take part in my first Writing Battle, a similar if not cheaper alternative to NYC Midnight. I can’t reveal my prompt until everything goes through judging but it’s a far more reasonably priced competition than NYC Midnight and you get to provide feedback on other competitor’s pieces throughout the month, which I always think helps you become a better editor of your own writing.

Outside of that, I worked on a few other longer-form fiction pieces and memoir bits. Both are requiring full rewrites so hopefully putting this here will force me to make some real progress the next time we speak.

A few fellow writer plugs:

These past few months, I’ve been lucky enough to beta-read and provide feedback to my fellow writer, R. Tim Morris. Check out his website here and a recent piece of his in Maudlin House called The Name of The Album.

Additionally, I had the honor of working on some narrative nonfiction pitches with Erica Zendell and learning about her WIP. You can subscribe to her monthly newsletter, Zen in the Art of Fighting, here.

The look-ahead for March

I’ve got a a satirical piece about horribly executed corporate unconscious bias training pending publication from Defenestration Magazine as well as results from Ellipsis Magazine’s Best of 2022 and their short-form humor competition.

Keep reading, and, if you feel so moved, reach out! I’d love to hear from you. Have a wonderful Sunday!

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