Each year we make our resolutions and try to keep them. I’ve never been one to focus too much on losing the weight gained over the holiday (I trust I will as I get back to my morning walks and other routines and work my way through a few leftover treats). My resolutions tend to be about my writing life, and this year, I have a some built-in goals.
2023 was a very good year for my writing. I signed a contract with Fernwood Books to publish my fourth poetry collection, Tree Fall with Birdsong, and I had poems accepted for two anthologies: Southern Voices: The Power of Place and The Ecopoetry Anthology: Volume II. I also published poems in Peauxdunque Review and Birmingham Poetry Review.
The publication of a book comes with a number of built-in goals. By May, I’ll need to submit my final revision of the manuscript to the press and I’ll need to line up some poets to write blurbs for the cover and develop a list of places to send review copies. Those are three resolutions ready and waiting to be added to my list. A little less obvious, though, is the resolution to get out some targeted submissions of more poems from the manuscript to journals who I think could publish before the release date of may 2025. The anthology publications and a few well-placed poems will be a good way to get the word out about the new book.
Even more important, though a little less obvious, will be to continue to publish other poems, so my next resolution is to get even more serious about submitting new poems, especially those in my “Intergalactic Traveler” series. But since that series has now topped 20 poems is is finished or nearly finished, my next resolution is to focus more time on writing new poems. I have some ideas for poems, so we will see where this will lead. 2024 will be an exciting time as I gear up for the release of two anthologies and moy fourth collection of poem.
Kendall Dunkelberg 