This year, I decided to split everything up, as life and American culture continues to fracture. You see, life imitates art (and blogging).
Teaching
I taught as an adjunct professor for a year and was hired by my alma mater as a full-time instructor. My role now is hybrid: I teach a class or two every semester while also helping to direct the university’s writing center. This new role suits me, as I have previous experience working at the center for years. I’ve also come to incorporate my classroom teaching with more writing center pedagogy, spending more time individually with students as I did when I was a writing consultant. I often feel much better about teaching when I get to spend time like this with students as individuals; it humanizes the learning process a lot more. I also look forward to teaching poetry and perhaps creative writing in the future.
AI and Algorithms
If you are any teacher of writing, I feel your frustration. These LLMs have become so quickly integrated into so many online tools without enough deserved skepticism. I emphasize in my classes how writing is distinctly human, bound up intimately with identity, voice, and an individual’s critical thinking, and these tools remove all those essential elements. As a result, writing loses its originality and texture. I find myself, more than ever before, having to justify why writing your own original work is important and necessary, which seems surreal to me. Any issues with traditional plagiarism have become almost quaint. This is where we’re at now, unfortunately. I half-joke with colleagues that I am returning to parchment and quills. Students will be expected to bring their own inkwells.
Writing
I published a lyric essay in Salamander, which was recognized as Notable in Best American Essays 2024. I received many nice rejections for my poems, but didn’t have enough time to send more out. I will try to work on that. I say this every year.
Reading
I read a lot of student papers, of course, and texts/books on writing and teaching writing. Outside of that, it was mostly poetry and graphic novels. Bite-sized things in my leisure. I have gravitated less towards literary fiction, as I have been writing more poetry and nonfiction.
Libraries
I got a new library card, and so my sister and I have gotten more in the habit of paying visits to our local library. We’ve discovered new writers this way. They often have sales too, where we find good books for a dollar. I harp on and on about using the library’s resources to my students. It’s free, it’s one of the few remaining third places we have, and it’s right there. Use it!
Social Media
What are we even doing anymore with these platforms? There has been a migration from Twitter/X to places like Bluesky and Threads. Everything is so fractured and it feels kind of pointless to try to keep starting over and over and over again.
Weather
I know I constantly bleat and whinge about how oppressively hot it is, but this year was brutal. And then the hurricanes came.
Illness
I got COVID for the first time and I was so mad. It was miserable. The one time I leave the house.
Body
I continue to suffer from irregular GI issues. My dysmorphia also hasn’t been great. My body and mind love being my archnemeses. Instead of all this AI nonsense, can someone please usher in the era where I can upload my consciousness or become an ethereal mist? Thank you.
Election
Disappointed but not exactly surprised, which is my general response to most human outcomes.
Congrats/Thank Yous
Congrats to my sister for graduating with her degree in environmental science!
Congrats to me for surviving the first semester in my new professional role!
Thank you to my husband, whose lovely presence continues to reach far and deep.
Thank you to teachers, always.
Thank you to the editors of Salamander, who championed my work.
Congrats to my writing friends on all their publications!
Memorable Media and Art that Defined the Year
Books:
Autobiography of Red and Red Doc> by Anne Carson
Bestiary and The Renunciations by Donika Kelly
Bound by Jubi-Arriola Headley
Mammoth by Rachel McKibbens
Song and To the Place of Trumpets by Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Obit by Victoria Chang
The Clerk’s Tale by Spencer Reece
The Tradition by Jericho Brown
Bluff by Danez Smith
Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook
Roaming by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki
TV Series:
Somebody Somewhere
Broad City
English Teacher
Abbott Elementary
The Great British Baking Show
The Dragon Prince
Heartstopper
Movies:
Nope
Totally Killer
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Babes
Bottoms
The Craft: Legacy
Video Games:
Palia
Dave the Diver
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
Tekken 8
Subnautica: Below Zero
Botany Manor
Sticky Business
Endless Ocean: Luminous
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Little Kitty, Big City
We Love Katamari Reroll
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
Lemon Cake
Beyond Good and Evil (20th Anniversary Edition)
Cattails
Potion Permit
Paradise Killer
Pikuniku
The World Next Door
My Time at Portia
Crab God
Pokemon TCG Pocket
The Fall of Porcupine
Metaphor: ReFantazio
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic
Infinity Nikki
Music:
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan
Prelude to Ecstasy by The Last Dinner Party
All Born Screaming by St. Vincent
Palomino by First Aid Kit
Fire Within by Birdy
Dreaming of Revenge by Kaki King
Philharmonics by Agnes Obel
The Burdens of Being Upright by Tracy Bonham
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