2022 Writing Round-Up
Writing always has its high and lows, strikes and gutters, with many rejections for every acceptance, and 2022 had all of the above!
Happy New Year to all my fellow AutCasts and OutCasts!
When Harry Met Sally, Ghostbusters 2, The Godfather Part II: there are plenty of New Year’s Eve movies I could have written about to keep this newsletter seasonal but I decided to take a break this week and instead bring you a round-up of my writing highlights for 2022.
Starting in January, I published a short story in Ireland’s spookiest literary mag, Púca. ‘Queen of Tarts’ features one of Dublin’s most beloved characters: Molly Malone.
February was a busy month! I had another creepy offering ‘The Broken Men’ come out in the wonderful Crow & Cross Keys journal, a witchy tale of devilish goings on down the backroads of Connemara! (Disclaimer: Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental!)
Then, one of my favourite essays, an homage to my mother and her love of The Terminator franchise came out in one of my favourite magazines for cultural criticism: Literary Hub!
There followed a bit of a lull where I was convinced I would never publish anything again!!!
The spell was broken in May, when I was selected as a finalist in Phoebe’s Spring CNF contest with my essay ‘Misplaced Loyalties.’ This was a really special one, exploring grief, embodied memory and health care injustices.
Only a few days later I published my first post-diagnosis essay in Catapult, for their Don’t Write Alone column. I examined the impact my neurodivergence has had on my writing life and the work I’ve been producing.
In June I was given the chance by Electric Literature to indulge my obsession with the creepy imagery that abounds in Stranger Things and got to geek-out about the series and all the ways our culture demonises vulvas!
In August I actually published something related to my PhD: A brief look at the possibilities for feminist pedagogy in the class room through the work of the wonderful Centre for Training, Healing and Transpersonal Research – Q’anil for the LSE Engenderings blog.
October was a bumper month!
My short story, ‘A Creeping Ulcer’, won the Michael Mullen Charity Fund competition and was read at the Kildare Readers Festival by the wonderful Ed O’Loughlin.
Oranges Journal published another spooky tale The Witching Hour inspired by the legendary Betty Dodson’s Bodysex workshops. They also nominated this story for a Pushcart prize!
I featured in Issue 19 of Stone of Madness Press, a journal dedicated to queer, trans, and neurodiverse writers, with a piece of short CNF entitled A Shattering.
In November I launched this newsletter! And, I got to geek-out once more for Literary Hub on one of my favourite outcasts of all time: Wednesday Addams. While not too impressed with the new Netflix series, Addams Family Values remains one of my favourite movies.
Closing out a very up-and-down year in publishing, in December I got to write about the nitty gritty of rejection for Catapult once again. I explored the peculiar act of masochism that is trying to be a published writer while experiencing rejection sensitive dysphoria and ways of dealing more productively with rejection.
And that wraps up 2022!
For every publication mentioned, there are multiple rejections and many more stories and essays that still have not made it into print. And while some rejections stung more than others, I’m proud to say I kept writing and pitching and submitting through a second bought of COVID, the post-diagnosis emotional rollercoaster and while trying to finish a novel and a PhD!
To wrap up, I’d like to thank all the wonderful editors I worked with over the year, particularly Eliza Smith at Literary Hub, Stella Cabot Wilson at Catapult and Denne Michele Norris at Electric Literature for providing a home for my, sometimes strange and unusual, words.
See you next week for some back to school musings with Matilda and, in the meantime, stay safe!