Things I’ve Almost Blogged About

Clearly, I’ve decided to keep this blog, even though I’m not posting as much as I feel like I should be. I don’t want to be on Twitter anymore, but it is literally still *the* place where potential translation clients go to find me, so I can’t quit it yet. Still toying with the idea of doing a newsletter – it would be fun to privately share some of the projects and news I’m working on that I can’t shout about publicly yet.

For your edification, here’s an aggregation of all the things I wanted to separately blog about since my last post. The first half of this post is all news about my publishing, translation, and editing news. The second part is quick reviews of events, books, and 5 books I’ve read recently that I originally wanted to blog about as separate posts.

News About My Words

Publishing News:

• My personal essay “Sonnets, Silhouettes, and Secrets” appeared in Oh Reader Magazine! This essay explores theme of unrequited love through discussion of romantic marginalia I found in an early 1930s edition of Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning that was gifted from one woman to another.
  
• My story “The Clementine of Enlightenment“—which takes place in Harper’s Ferry, WV—was published over at Scrawl Place, which publishes stories with strong connection to specific real-world places!
  
  
• My found footage-style science fiction story “The Death, Desire, and Dance of the Planet Aysudalit” was published in Archive of the Odd‘s third issue (Aibohphobia)! Archive of the Odd specializes in publishing stories with unusual narrative formats and structures.
  
• The anthology that my story “Cavities” appeared in—OOZE: Little Bursts of Body Horror—has sold so well that I earned royalties for the first time!
  
• Darkness Blooms, the anthology I co-edited with Alin Walker for The Dread Machine is out! This anthology features 17 dark speculative fiction stories exploring the themes of identity, security, and community.
  
• Haven Speculative Magazine published my poem “Picture This”! (I mentioned it was forthcoming in a previous blog post, but never actually announced it here. :E )

Translation news:

• My translation of “History of a Piano in Spacetime” by Isis Aquino was published by MAYDAY Magazine, a literary magazine with a robust archive of works in translation from all over the place! MAYDAY Magazine includes the original-language piece after each English translation, which is pretty cool if you’re trying to find new reading material in a language you’re learning!
  
• My translation of “The Three Tests” by David Mancera was published by Futura House, a new magazine specializing in bringing stories by Spanish-speaking authors to English-speaking readers! I cannot get over how cool Futura House is—it makes me so full of hope for the future to know there’s a magazine out there that shares my reason for translating speculative fiction!
  
• My translation of “Lamia” has been reprinted by Calque Press in the new edition of Alphaland, a collection of translated works by Cristina Jurado! “Lamia” first appeared last year in Apex Magazine, and it was the first translation project Cristina and I worked on together. Also, it’s a feminist take on an Iberian monster you’ve probably never heard of!
  
• I’ve been helping Cristina Jurado copyedit her own translation of her award-winning novel Bionautas, and now the English version of Bionautas is currently being serialized by Twine Stories! Bionautas won the Ignotus Award for Best Novel in 2019 from Spain’s Pórtico (the Spanish Association for Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror).

Reviews

Events:

• New York Comic Con – I attended on a Pro Badge this year and actually tried to go to some programming for industry professionals. The networking event organized by Comic Book School to connect writers and artists was a lot of fun. I tried to go to the speed dating-style networking event, but couldn’t find it. Strongly recommend better signage to indicate Pro programming locations in the future. Did enjoy the freebies and steep discounts at publishers’ booths + shopping at Bandai’s Studio Ghibli merch booth.
  
• Western Maryland Indie Lit Fest – I was invited to be on a panel called “Women Who Write”, and thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and meeting peers outside my usual speculative fiction circles. I tabled a little bit before/after the panel, and sold more books than I ever have at any other appearance. This opportunity found me because I’m a member of the Maryland Writers Association! If you’re a writer somewhere with a local writing association (and can afford the annual dues), I strongly encourage you to join up to keep abreast of opportunities in your area!
  
• Small Press Expo – After many years of wanting to go, I finally attended SPX! I was purely there in shopping/consumer mode, and only went for 1 day. I made it halfway through the dealer hall before I caved and started spending money, and used up ALL my cash on indie comics, art, and other publications. It was a delight to meet creators IRL and chat with them, and every artist alley at other cons will forever pale in comparison to the amazing offerings of SPX.
  
• Pórtico & Futura House Livestream – The stars aligned, and I was able to participate in a Spanish-language panel hosted by Pórtico to introduce the editors of Futura House (Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas, Cristina Jurado, and Inés Galiano) as they announced the first story Futura House would publish: my translation of David Mancera’s “The Three Tests”! It was a pleasure to meet David in real time (we’ve only collaborated via messages and emails), and an honor to be among such accomplished writers, editors, and translators. (I was **SO** nervous!)

Books:

These are short versions of the book reviews that I started to write, but never finished:

• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (2023): A story about an author who, after her best friend—also an author, but more successful—dies, takes her friend’s unpublished manuscript for her next book and passes the novel off as her own. Speculative elements emerge toward the end of the story, but this is a witty, unflinching, dark take on the realities of today’s publishing industry. (Also, I recognized *all* of the real-world publishing drama Kuang alludes to, which means I’m probably too online… :E ) Highly recommend this one for anyone interested in the publishing industry in any capacity.
  
• Lost Places by Sarah Pinsker (2023): Pinsker’s second anthology collects several of my favorite stories that she’s written. “Remember This For Me” is a story about an elderly artist with memory loss who’s trying to complete pieces for an exhibition of her lifetime accomplishments. This story originally appeared in the anthology I co-edited, Catalysts, Explorers & Secret Keepers: Women of Science Fiction, and it is still probably my favorite piece Pinsker has written to date. “That Our Flag Was Still There” is my second all-time favorite Pinsker story . Each day, someone is selected by lottery to be the Flag for the day on live broadcast, the colors of the nation’s flag are pumped through their skin, and they’re allowed to say whatever they want—for the entire day. Overall, strong anthology & highly recommend.
  
• Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell (2022): Can’t remember if I’ve already raved about this short story collection, but it is EXCELLENT and delightfully weird, Argentine, and literary-speculative. I read the Spanish version of this book and wanted to translate it, but instead I have hardcore translator envy because Megan McDowell had the honor of bringing this magnificent collection to the English-reading world. Highly recommend, please read this book!

5 Books I’ve Read Recently & Enjoyed:

Presented in alphabetical order by title:

• Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer (Book 1; 2019): Action-packed space fantasy set in a neo-medieval world about a ragtag group of space gays trying to take down the patriarchy. Sheer joy to read!
  
• Diaries of War: Two Visual Accounts from Ukraine and Russia by Nora Krug (2023): The author collects the messages she received over the course of a year from two friends/colleagues (one in Ukraine, one in Russia) after Russia invaded Ukraine. Each page spread features 1 page from Ukraine, 1 page from Russia. This is a text-heavy graphic novel, but it plays to my love of epistolary storytelling. (The author also wrote a graphic novel that I read several years ago about exploring her German heritage called Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home.)
  
• Himawari House by Harmony Becker (2021): A graphic novel about three foreign exchange students sharing a home and trying to adjust to life in Japan.
  
• Iberian Monsters: Spanish Ogres and Bogeymen by Javier Prado (2023): A fascinating exploration of monsters and folklore from the Iberian Peninsula. Each monster has a 1-page write up, and on the facing page, there’s a black-and-white illustration with incredible line work!
  
• The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes (2022): The title says it all. If only this book had come out when I was in high school – definitely would have made me feel more comfortable & less alone being queer.

The End

As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out if you ever have any questions!