Goal Diggers

Last year, I had some great wins: 1) My first poetry collection was accepted by Duke University Press. What Had Happened Was will debut in 2025; 2) I submitted my essay on Arab American fantasy and speculative fiction to a hospitable place; 3) I published a poem in Madison Review and read for the editors and some selected guests; 4) I went to three virtual poetry workshops; and 5) I featured on a few podcasts I love including MoMA and AudioDiaspora. I am incredibly proud of these things and grateful for all the folks whose hard work helped make it happen.

This year, my writing goals include working on two new-ish projects: a poetry collection, and an essay collection. New-ish projects are not like brand new projects. They require a great deal of thought time as well as administrative labor. For instance, a new project requires research and reading to start. You’ll find yourself amassing information and free writing a lot. For a new-ish project, you have a handle on the basic idea, even if that idea changes. What’s more, you’ll need support in the form of fellowships, grants, workshops, and the like. All of those require applications, emails, interviews, and/or meetings. (Perhaps many meetings.)

So, your goals will need to account for this.

As I do my planning for January through March, my task list includes items like “find deadlines,” and “curate poems for applications,” and “write tentative abstract.” This work is certainly included in the plan to write every day (more on that next week), but it does not feel like writing. As a result, it can feel like you are doing no writing at all. It can also drum up anxiety about the writing. This is all part of the process.

My plan is to consider this administrative work a gift: a way of taking stock of where the project is and securing what I need for it to move forward. The things I’m applying for? Those are not referendums on me or my work: they are opportunities for me to articulate my work to others. Should they choose to support my work, that’ll be excellent! If they do not choose to support my work, I’ll be glad I took the time to take stock of my work.

Besides, as a goal digger, I’m going to keep going.