News! Updates! Something!

It’s been a minute! There’s been a lot going on since my last real update, including several publications, a number of gorgeous contributor hard copies, a couple of award nominations and one (1) entire WorldCon. And as things piled up and I kept neglecting to update this space, it just grew into a bigger and bigger Thing Looming in the Corner that I subconsciously ignored. So while I may talk about the other stuff in a year end post, I’m going to start clean here.

I’m suuuuper excited to share that I’m going to have a poem in the upcoming anthology The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread, from Neon Hemlock Press. I’ve always loved everything Neon Hemlock’s put out, so I was thrilled when dave ring reached out and asked if I had any poems that would fit the theme of “queer gothic depravity.”

Oh, friend, have you ever come to the right place 😀

Publication is currently slated for February 2024, with pre-orders open now. Link for both pre-orders and the amazing lineup of authors: https://www.neonhemlock.com/the-crawling-moon

Poetry Drop – Fireside Fiction!

Once again, I’ve given up trying to be timely with my updates and just feel accomplished that I remember to update at all. Last March I had a poem published in Fireside Fiction, acquired by guest editor Aigner Loren Wilson, copyedited by Chelle Parker. The full title is the longest one I’ve ever written at 15 words: “A Message From Her Feline Self, Unborn, to Her Cousin, Whose Ancestors Were Once Wolves” and is I think my favourite title to date. The poem itself contains dreams and futures and a bit of blood and a lot of fury. I feel strongly about almost everything I’ve published, but I am especially proud of this one.

Extra exciting, my poem was chosen to be the cover piece for the month’s issue, which means associated cover art! Jessica McCottrell created this absolutely gorgeous piece that captures so much of the poem’s essence and tone. I’m still blown away every time I see it. Full image at the artist’s website here.

Art by Jessica McCottrell, http://www.j-jacks.com

It’s somewhat bittersweet though, as this will be the last time my work appears in Fireside. I’ve been fortunate enough to have two poems published with them, (previously: “Mother Tongue” in 2019) but after ten years of publishing, the magazine will be closing in July of this year. Fireside has always been a force of fair pay and diversity in publishing, and I’m glad to have been even a small part of their legacy. They will be greatly missed.

Rhysling Part 3

Well this took me by surprise. I didn’t realise there was an actual, physical award that came with the Rhysling, but this lovely bit of shininess showed up in the mail today! (or possibly last week, I’ve gotten bad about checking the mailbox)

Thanks again to Apparition Lit for publishing this poem, which you can read here: https://apparitionlit.com/taking-keeping/

Rhysling Part 2: Sorry, What?

So, uhhh, I appear to have won the 2020 Rhsyling Award for Best Short Poem.

This was my first year with a nominated poem and when I got my copy of the Rhsyling Anthology,  I was struck by just how good the other poems were. While I loved mine a lot, I never honestly thought it stood a chance and was content to enjoy seeing my work in good company. When I first got the email letting me know I’d won, I actually gave it 24 hours before responding, so they had time to tell me it was a mixup, a mistake and take it back. They didn’t take it back.

The poem itself, “Taking, Keeping” was published last January in Apparition Lit’s Resistance issue and I’m still so pleased that this was where it got to make its appearance. Apparition is doing some really great stuff right now and is run by a wonderful team who I’ve been lucky enough to work with more than once. Their new Redemption issue is coming out soon, and you should definitely check it out!

So…yeah. Rhysling Award. That’s a square on my poet bingo card I never honestly thought I’d be able to check off.

Thanks to the SFPA for organising the award, for all those who voted for my work and to the team at Apparition Lit for giving it space to exist in the first place.

Poetry Drop Day: Frozen Wavelets

It’s been a hot minute, but I have a new poem out in Frozen Wavelets issue 3! “Eclipse” is a short shot of haetae imagery and my second published poem featuring haetae, because I love them and I’m never going to stop.

I’m going to join a lot of people in saying that it feels real weird right now to be talking about words and poetry, especially speculative poetry, with everything else going on. But sometimes all I can do is continue to make art.

Direct link to the poem here: https://frozenwavelets.com/issue-2-2/eclipse-by-jessica-jo-horowitz/

Poetry Drop Day: Anathema!

Okay. Okay okay okay. I’m only four? days late this time. Whatever. Time is an illusion, and lunch time doubly so.

I’m super excited to be rounding off the end of National Poetry Month with two new poems up at Anathema: Spec from the Margins. Along with publishing consistently amazing work (and I say that entirely without bias), Anathema’s goal is to showcase fiction and poetry exclusively from queer, BIPOC writers and that endears them to me greatly. This is the second time I’ve placed poetry with them and can say that their team is great to work with and they’re open to subs year round, so if you meet the criteria, I would encourage you to submit.

(As an aside, providing an issue’s entire poetry section is a first for me, and hoo boy, not having someone else’s work to hide behind when the impostor syndrome hits is a whole new kind of stress. WHO KNEW.)

I wrote “Heart of the City” for my writing group’s poetry challenge, with a 20 line limit. The main piece of critique I received was to expand it, add more detail and context and I thought, okay, there’s my revision goal. But when the time came to revise, I realised I liked it vague. I preferred it vague. Because it’s not a poem that tells a story, it’s a poem that makes a promise. Read here: http://www.anathemamag.com/heart-of-the-city

“Pieces of Me” came from hitting a point where I was just DONE with being exoticised through food comparisons. It’s a personal piece and I still get a little squirmy seeing it out in the world, but…there it is. Read here: http://www.anathemamag.com/pieces-of-me

Poetry Drop Day: Apparition Lit

Look, I’m just going to admit that I’m real bad at these.

I have a new poem in the world, in Apparition Lit’s Transformation issue! The issue came out last week and the poem went live on the website back on Monday but really, who’s counting (not me, clearly).

It’s a small bit of Little Red Riding Hood retelling, in which Red steps outside her story and explores what it might be like to be more than a child, more than a granddaughter and more than either hero or helpless.

This is my second poem at Apparition and both times I’ve worked with them, they’ve been absolutely lovely. Good humans, good editors, good publication. I highly recommend them to anyone thinking of submitting. Their next submission window opens May 15th, to the theme of Redemption.

You can buy their current issue here: https://apparitionlit.com/issues/

Or read the poem online here: https://apparitionlit.com/stories/all-the-better/