Within the last month, I’ve received three print journals in the mail. They’re all different sizes, all beautiful in their own way. And I have essays in each one of them.
I wrote two of the essays in the midst of one of my deepest creative crises: for about a year, I just did not feel like writing at all. I gave up writing. Until I realized I wanted to write:
- A super-nerdy literary essay that places my odd childhood alongside the semi-obscure writings of Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber. This just came out in the Christian literary journal, The Windhover, my first time getting to publish with them!! This essay is only available in print. You can buy a copy here.
- A funny yet still very nerdy essay in which I compare my obsessive organization to Monk, the stereotypically neurodivergent star of the eponymous detective show. Yes, this was a year before I got diagnosed. This is my second essay for The Other Journal, and I’m so pleased i got to work with this lovely crew again. You can read the essay here and subscribe here.
Giving up writing scared me to death, guys. It is so much a part of my identity. But I needed to give it up to find myself again.
I wrote the third essay right after the crisis abated. It’s about the shadowbox of thread pictured above. It’s for Geez Magazine, a quirky and delightful Christian journal that’s what happens if mystics ran away and joined a socialist circus.
Their issue is about “crafting for the end of the world” which describes 90% of my spare time and mental space.
Three essays, in three different places. This is the most I’ve gotten published in print in, well, forever, guys. The year I spent wandering in the creative wilderness was really, really hard. And yet it has made my life, both creative and otherwise, so much better.
I’m far kinder to myself now. I have shed a lot of unhelpful beliefs about achievement. I am much better at advocating for myself. And the wilderness prepared me to discover I’m actually developmentally disabled, since disabled writers and thinkers got me through the darkness. I already had realized they were desperately honest and radical prophets, so realizing I can count myself among their number kind of feels like an honor.
I’m so proud of this work. I hope you’ll check it out. Here are pictures!
I’d love it if you’d check out my essay in The Other Journal—it’s online here.
