This announcement is horribly overdue, but I was thrilled to be published in ‘Delightfully Unprofessional’, the third issue of hotdog, an inspiring, bold, irreverent and yet deeply profound feminist zine. You can read more about them here and I’d love it if you bought a copy.
They took one of my older pieces, ‘The Mine’, a poem about surviving darkness. It was first written at a very difficult time, but it represented a return to poetry for me and a few months later it helped push me to start my MA in Writing Poetry. I ended up substantially reworking it for submission with my MA portfolio – where it became something a little different. My portfolio charted the emotional journey and the work that went into becoming and being a mother. This poem now represents a turning point in my emotional life, where I worked with my husband to get better and to deliberately and proactively to build something out of the ashes of my illness, which ended up being my little girl. Of course, it also exists as a reminder that my mental health will always be a part of who I am as a woman and now as a mother. I was so proud to have it published by the powerhouses that edit hotdog, Molly and Megan, and hotdog continues to go from strength to strength (including a stint on display in Somerset House).
A note on editors: working with Molly and Megan was a dream. They were engaged, kind, open to dialogue and made the process feel so empowering. The work of publishers and editors is never easy and not everyone can do what these wonderful women were able to do with me, but it meant to much to have hotdog be my first print publication and I will always be grateful to them for sharing my work with their readers.