How did it get to be December 29th already? It seems like only yesterday, I was entering poetry contests, kicking the year off with hopes of making my 50 rejections for 2025.
I met my goal, almost double. I had 91 rejections. And 26 acceptances, down a few from the past couple of years, but still a 28.5% acceptance rate, which is way above average, Denton tells me. I usually hit around 33-35%, so this was a little bit of a let-down to me, but when I look at my year as a whole, I’m proud of what I achieved.
I had pieces accepted by the journals or magazines Appalachia Bare, Mildred Haun Review, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Songs of Eretz, Clinch Mountain Review, Mountain Movement Magazine, Cutleaf, and Marshall University’s Critical Humanities.
My work was also picked up for several anthologies, including Tributaria, The Stafford Challenge 2024-25 Anthology, These Mosaics, 25 Tales, Chicken Soup for the Soul’s Changing Habits, Changing Lives, and one about pop culture across 450 years that I can’t remember the name of that J.D. Isip is editing.
I placed in a few contests in 2025. “The Hawk Flies” was an honorable mention poem in one of the Poetry of Society of Tennessee’s monthly contests (March, I believe). “Genevieve” took 1st place in fiction with the West Virginia Writers Conference contests. “Breathe” took first place in essay at the Mountain Heritage Lit Festival. And “Second-Hand Girl” took first place in fiction at the Chautauqua Festival in Wytheville, VA.
I completed my short story collection and submitted parts of it as chapbook submissions three or four times, with no luck. Then I submitted it to Mountain State Press, where it still waits for final judgment. Hopefully, I’ll know something in the next few weeks and can either be excited or can learn from the experience and try again.
I completed a poetry chapbook as part of Connie Green’s chapbook class and submitted it to a few competitions. I’m still waiting for word from Finishing Line Press, but I don’t expect to win anything and am, therefore, already adding and changing placements of some of the poetry. I will keep trying in 2026 and see what happens.
I kicked it into high gear in October and November, completing the manuscript for my memoir. It still needs to be revised, but I got through the main writing, which took me about seven years of on-again/off-again writing to do. I worked with a Book Coach on the project and she feels like I have a product that has potential national appeal because of the Duran Duran connection. So, as soon as I find out about my short story collection, now entitled Miles Away from Nowhere, I can get back to work on that.
I attended several festivals, conferences, and workshops, including TMW’s January Jumpstart, the Mildred Haun Conference, TMW’s Annual Conference, Mountain Heritage Lit Festival, Chautauqua Festival, Highland Summer Conference, Appalachian Writers Workshop (Hindman), Table Rock Writers Workshop, and TMW’s Fall Workshop. I took some classes with Darnell Arnoult and Diane Zinna, too.
I had the opportunity to judge entries for the Scholastic Art & Writing Contest for my region through Hindman Settlement School this month, which was a new thing for me. I was blown away by the writing of the juniors and seniors’ whose entries landed in my hands.
And just yesterday, I was invited to be a reader for a journal I highly respect. I don’t know if I’m allowed to disclose this fact, though, so at least for now, I’m withholding the name of the journal. If they tell me I can share that information, I’ll be sure to share the good news openly.
It was a great year for my writing. I look forward to 2026.
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