The silencing of authors begins even before book bans...

The news is filled with dystopian things, and it's scary to even contemplate. I'm struggling to find a balance between being informed and being overwhelmed. I suspect many of you are finding that balance hard to achieve as well. Yesterday, I read about the canceling of NEA grants to many fine presses, some of which have published books by friends of mine. It's unbelievable to think that the silencing of writers is at hand. If there's no one to publish the books, to (in essence) give validation to the authors who are doing their best to make sense of the landscape-- both interior and exterior-- then we are all lost in a wilderness. A dark, barren one, at that. Banning books is apparently not enough; now we can't have new ones. Yes, self-publishing exists, but there's no guardrails there-- combine AI and self-publishing and we may as well read the backs of cereal boxes and call it great literature. (That is not to say that there are not good writers who choose to self-publish, but they are the few.)

My (!) publisher has sent the official email about what the next steps are, in order to have the official contract officially sent to me. I can't believe I'll have two books in the world-- chapbooks, but still, things with my name on the cover. I can't quite wrap my brain around it. I'm grateful. Apparently there were over 350 entries to the contest, and they chose 12 total to publish. That feels good. 

And I will have to get a new photo or two taken. The busy work of building the file of required elements begins. And I'll have to ask poet friends to write blurbs again. And so it goes, eh?

Have a good day, and if you are needful of books, please buy from local book sellers or even directly from smaller publishers. They need help. We all do.

C