So what did you accomplish today?

Not posting here this summer much–not because I’ve take the summer off or because there isn’t any news.

Getting ready to launch my first collection of poetry in many years.  The early reviews are excellent.  Am excited to be able to do a few in person signings, cautiously since we’re far from free of the pandemic.  I am grateful to the team working with me.   For ARCS or review copies for your literary journal or blog please contact Adelia at UNMP or DeeDee–contact info in CONTACTS page.

Release Sept 1, 2021

Working on a new book of fiction and couldn’t be more thrilled to be back to writing.  After the 2016 election through 2020, it was a struggle to think about working on a fiction again.  It had been said, after all by others long before me–It Can’t Happen Here, 1984, Brave New World, the Shock Doctrine, Neruda, Modotti…  I pushed through to finish a poetry collection started in 2012 which had foreshadowing of the years that were to come.

https://www.nuevayorkpoetryreview.com/Nueva-york-Poetry-Review-2616-1-poesia-chicana-ana-castillo?fb

The pandemic brought deaths but some of my generation and previous, also began to leave…Rudy Anaya, Francisco X. Alarcón and after the poetry book was done, Sister Dianna Ortiz–whom I wrote about years ago.

We are surviving and some of us are even thriving, we thriving on hope and perseverance as much as on the food, water and air that are still able to sustain us on the planet.  My poems address my heart and mind’s concerns but I believe also the concerns of countless, many who don’t have public voices.  Writing poetry, the act of writing vs performance (but not mutually exclusive) was a political decision I made nearly a half century ago.  I still maintain it.

In current times when we are all equipped with cameras at the ready and posting nearly every moment of our day and significantly, showing ourselves living enviable lives, I’m also no different.  I want to show that a woman pushing seventy years of age should take care of her physical and mental health but also, that her life may be one at peace with her life choices and most of all, at peace with her surroundings.  Every day, before coffee, I take a walk, accompanied by a few of my animals, take in fresh air and greet the sun.  The hours ahead are usually calm and quiet, but also productive.  At the end of each working day, I mentally review what was accomplished and there are always good and positive things.

I’ll get back to writing and particularly hyped lately about another new associate but we’ll hear more of them as I round the bend on the new book.