"Stranded" Published in Rougarou
“Stranded” by Sarah Morgan. Published in Rougarou Journal of Arts & Literature, Summer 2019
In the Spring of 2019, my dear friend, Lisa, and I set out on an impromptu road trip with no set destination in mind, and an unspoken pact to fall down every rabbit hole we encountered. With my Sony a7R at my hip, I captured every surprising turn of the garden path including this surreal location. If you look closely, you can see five tabby cats stranded here at this abandoned gas station.
At the start of 2019, I was an unpublished poet with no clue how to submit my work for publication, but that would soon change. I began the work of submitting to literary journals, and with a lot of grit and perseverance, finally got one of my poems picked up, then another, then another… by the end of 2019 I had 5 poems published in four literary journals.
Finding journals to submit to is hella hard work. Much harder than the actual writing part. In my search of places to publish my work, I stumbled upon Rougarou Journal of Arts & Literature. As I looked through their beautifully curated journal, I remembered the photo I’d taken at the abandoned gas station and thought, “They would love it.”
I’d never submitted any of my photography work for publication, but I thought what the heck, might as well give it a try. A few months later here is the response I got from the editors:
When my photo appeared in the Summer 2019 issue of Rougarou, I was floored to find that it was published alongside short fiction by the author, Dick Bentley. Check out his work and mine here.
In The Pocket
It’s comforting to find that it isn’t just me, pocket-rage is something women everywhere are feeling. How the Fvc% did we get here? Where did this tight-jeaned and pocketless idea come from? This Podcast (Articles of Interest), featured on 99% Invisible, digs deep into the history of pockets and gives us the skinny on who’s worn the pockets in society and why. If you have any interest in the history of gender coding in clothing, the sociology of garb, or the anthropology of fashion, definitely check out Articles of Interest.
365 SONGS/365 DAYS
I’m doing a thing! So excited to finally announce a project that has been germinating in the dark space of my mind for a few years. I’ve been writing songs as long as I can remember, and one day it occurred to me, you know, I think I could write a song every day.
As it turns out, I can write more than one song a day. The day I figured that out is exactly the day I knew I could pull this crazy project off. So, I’m doing it! I’m writing 365 Songs in 365 Days. This journey will be a genre-bending, cross-training, soul-purging feat of amateur songwriting, and not only am I DOING THE SONGWRITING, but I am also SHARING THE PROCESS. If you’re into masochistic acts of creativity and candor funneled into the containers of random song structures, click here.
A Free Service that Returns Library Books for You!
Top left of image: Overdrive App
The Overdrive app is one of my favorite things ever. It’s a free app that you can use with your Public Library card to check out books and read them on Kindle.
Here’s a list of some of the books I’ve read from my library for free using the Overdrive app:
Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit. The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris, Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver, Principles by Ray Dalio, How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, A Colony In A Nation by Chris Hayes, Educated by Tara Westover, Hamilton the Revolution by Lin Manuel Miranda, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks… the list goes on.
Everytime I hear of a good book, I open up my Overdrive app and put it on my Wishlist, then when I need another book to read I just open up my wishlist and see what is available for checkout. Now I always have a book in my pocket wherever I go and I can keep on getting nerdier and nerdier.
The amazing thing about Overdrive , other than it being always free, is that the books return themselves. Since I started using Overdrive, I have never paid a late fee for my books, and when I check out the book again, my highlights and notes are still there.
This is amazing.
You’re welcome.
Pie Chart On Getting Published
Getting published is hard work. Enjoy this pie chart to learn more.
Getting Published
*actual data from submitting a collection of 5 of my own poems to 30 publications. sarahmorganstory.com
First Time Getting Published!
Thank you to Steam Ticket literary journal for being the first to make me a pro poet. It has been a dream of mine to get published, and I have to say, when I got the email saying that my poem “UNOBJECTIFIED AT 38,000 FT.” had been accepted for their Spring 2019 edition, water definitely came out of my eyeholes.
Poet, mónica teresa ortiz, at Malvern Books, Austin, TX
mónica teresa ortiz reads from autobiography of a semiromantic anarchist
Malvern Books, Austin, TX (March 2019)
…so now we love in silence, and we pretend that there ain't a body buried between us. mónica teresa ortiz
In her book, autobiography of a semiromantic anarchist, mónica teresa ortiz digs up bones of ancestors and of Queerness and exposes these bare remains both past and present.
I can relate to the anxious feeling of fear ortiz mentioned (visiting home near the cemetery), and the feeling that death isn't just something for the end, but something lived with every day, where unmarked graves of violence, trauma, and Otherness litter the sidewalks. The act of writing their epitaphs together, of marking their headstones, gives us all rest from the tiresome daily grind these deaths burden us with. I am grateful to ortiz—for tending the garden of unmarked graves. She has inspired me to do the same.
Poet, Allison Cobb, on stage at Malvern Books, March 2019 in Austin Texas.