Hello blog readers and happy new year! 🥳✨ As we're now 5 days into 2023 and looking to the future, so I wanted to take a minute to reflect on my past year...
2022 was insane for me (in a good way) 🤯 I’ve published more work than I ever have before and participated in some amazing opportunities. I’ve also been in my last year of graduate school at Chapman University, getting a MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English.
(Here is actual footage of me studying for my Literature & Critical Theory class)
At Chapman, I taught an entire semester of a Rhetoric and Composition class I designed called The Rhetoric of Belief, which was about different systems and subjects of belief in our world! I also created a Disability-Forward pedagogy, which I'll be presenting at the College English Association (CEA) Conference on a panel in March 😍 And next semester I am teaching Fantasy Rhetorics, which will be super fun, and scaffold my work for my MA thesis, which is on, you guessed it, fairy tales 🧚♀️ I also got straight A's again which boggles my mind - this is the first time I've ever (in my entire life) been a straight A student! 🙏🏻
So, what else happened in 2022?
My concert reading at New Musicals Inc. closed out the year for me! Fabulous composer/lyricist Kat Zimmerman and I had a developmental reading of our new musical Home for the Holidays (you can watch the live stream here) and it went pretty well! We have a lot of rewriting to do but fingers are crossed that by next winter, we will have a cast album produced and released! 🎶🎭
My poem "By the Patio Table" was published by Calliope Art & Literary Magazine ✍️
My song Race Against Time (co-written with the very talented Angela Parrish and wonderfully generous Dan Povenmire) finally premiered on Disney's Hamster & Gretel on Disney Channel and Disney+ in Episode 2: Math Punch! 🐹
My short screenplay Grow was published with The Clockhouse Review 🌱
My monologue Reflection was published in the Smith & Kraus WE:US Monologues for the Gender Minority Anthology 🪞
My short story The Tea Shop was published with For Page and Screen Magazine 🫖
I finished the Maestra Mentorship Program as a mentor and mentee 🎹
I was a NEXT Emerging Artists Literary Fellow for The Braid Theatre Company 😀
I participated in the Theatremachers Cohort for the Alliance for Jewish theatre and had songs from Home for the Holidays showcased in their 2022 Conference 🎭
My poem “Preparing for an Interview” was Published 📝
My short play Death Bites, was published with Next Stage Press’s Disability Forward! Anthology
My poem “Family Tree” was published with Calliope Magazine 🌳
My poem “Light Through Water” was published by The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls, Oceanic Literary Magazine 🌊
My poem “Arrivals” was published with Brave Voices Magazine 😁
Looking at all of the things I accomplished really makes my head spin. Damn, indeed. I've been busy. One would not think that as most writers do, I struggle with imposter syndrome on a regular basis. But we cannot let the fear of the unknown define us - we must acknowledge that the fear exists, ask the questions: "Why am I not where that person is?" "What am I doing wrong?" "What if I never do XYZ?" and then let those questions go, and move forward in spite of them.
Fun fact, spite is A+ motivation
So, to wrap this up, in 2022 I wrote in spite of myself - I wrote 47k words of my thesis novel, 17k words of what I'm hoping is going to be my debut novel, and have outlined and plotted, written prose, screenplays, poetry, musicals, and songs, and all in spite of my own ever persisting self-doubt. If I've learned anything this year, it's that my curl pattern is a 2B, and that if you trust the work and banish every thought that tries to stop you from writing it - the work will guide you home 🏡
Happy 2023 everyone, and thanks for reading! 🎉
Best,
Makena
