Gatherings - December 2024
Beyond continuing to do what I’m already doing, I’m not into resolutions. I never follow through and they mostly make me feel terrible.
Dear SMLTA Readers,
In the final SMLTA Gatherings of 2024, Kirby reflects on the year in three parts, and I share a couple of things: my favourite reads in 2024, my new podcast of my old out-of-print book, some excellent newsletters, podcasts, and my absolute favourite poem by W.S. Merwin, “The Last One,” which is still relevant—eerily relevant.
After deleting Twitter and losing interest in TikTok, I’ve considerably reduced my social media time on other platforms as well and have been keeping my focus on SMLTA and engaging in community here.
I started getting some conversations going in November, and I’m hoping that SMLTA becomes a place where we will chat about what we’re writing and reading, our struggles, frustrations, tips, and good news alongside our concerns about the fragile state of the world. For me writing is never separate from the world but deeply intertwined.
I’m also working on a novel so reducing social media and apps will be a good thing. I started SMLTA when I was experiencing writer’s block while trying to finish Anecdotes. Writing about the writing process and publishing other writers pulled me out of my rut, and I’m so thankful for the SMLTA readers and their support of this project and all the contributors who have shared their work. A special thank you to paying subscribers whose support enables me to pay honorariums for original unpublished writing on the site.
January 1, 2025 will be the fourth anniversary of Send My Love to Anyone!!! If you visit the site, you may have noticed that I have been changing it up a bit by adding more sections to showcase past contributors organized according to genre. It’s been fun looking back at some of the work published on SMLTA over the past four years like Lisa Robertson Twitter essay “On Education” and Farzana Doctor’s “Writing in the Pandemic.”
Beyond continuing to do what I’m already doing, I’m not into resolutions. I never follow through, and they mostly make me feel terrible when I inevitably fail. So no resolutions for me. My way of making progress is to procrastinate on one thing by focusing on another, which has worked for me for my entire writing life, so I’m sticking with it.
As for 2025, I have an interview coming out in
’s newsletter Women Writing, I’ll be a guest speaker in ’s writing course where I’ll be chatting about newsletters and later in the year for a bookclub she’s organizing. I’m also headed to AWP this year where I’ll be participating on two panels (more to come on that). If you’re going to AWP, I hope to see you there!I’m also fundraising for Yousef, 29, in Gaza. A dear friend of mine is a very close friend of Yousef’s. She is trying to help him get to Ottawa where he has secured a spot in a graduate program in health administration. I have donated twice and have included this campaign in my book giveaway. Please consider sharing or donating if you are able.
I wish you a happy new year, and hope you enjoy the last Gatherings of 2024.
Kathryn
Recent SMLTA Conversations!
Join the conversation!
How’s your writing life?
Also if you have a book or something else coming out this year share in the comments! I’d love to know what SMLTA readers are up to!
What are you writing and reading these days?
Share in the SMLTA chat:
’S year in review
Episode 2 of Onion Man 2.0
How’s turning my out-of-print-book into a podcast going?
Pretty well because I’m not worried about how it’s going, I’m just having fun doing it, which I think is the best reason to be doing something. The first episode got more downloads than the book ever sold, so that’s interesting.
Doing this podcast is not only having me reflect on the writing process of this book, but also I’m reflecting on my time working at the factory. I checked in with a London Facebook group about the location of the factory because I could not remember, and I got so many responses from people who used to work there who shared their memories. That was very cool. When Dave and I were in London last, we drove along the road where the FB group told me the factory was located. I’m still not exactly sure which building it was or if the building is even standing, but I think it’s where the recycling plant is or close by it.
The Neurology Lounge Podcast with Ibrahim Imam: Spinal Cord Injury with Susan Mockler
My sister Susan Mockler wrote a memoir called Fractured which was published by Second Story Press in 2022.
Recently she was featured on The Neurology Lounge Podcast (UK) with Ibrahim Imam.
Fractured is a compelling illumination of the challenges of acquired disability and the ways in which people with disabilities are sidelined and infantilised. Mockler, a psychotherapist, speaks with frank honesty about her family and friends’ reactions to her injury, and the hard-won lessons that she and those around her learned from her experience. —Second Story Press
You can read an excerpt from Fractured in Issue 18 of SMLTA.
is running a writing course in the new year, and I’m thrilled to be one of the guest speakers where I’ll be chatting about newsletters.
The Ongoing Fight for Freedom, Peace, and Justice in Sudan from Hammer & Hope
How organizing among refugees, workers, and resistance committees furthers the work of the December Revolution.This is the second installment of a two-part series of interviews with people organizing in Sudan conducted in May 2024. Read the introduction and the first interview here.
If you would like to help grassroots civil society and mutual aid groups at the frontlines of relief efforts in the parts of Sudan most impacted by state violence, donate to the Sudan Solidarity Collective.
— Rabab Elnaiem, Nisrin Elamin, and Sara Abbas
My all time favourite poem: “The Last One” by W.S. Merwin
Well they’d made up their minds to be everywhere because why not. Everywhere was theirs because they thought so. They with two leaves they whom the birds despise. In the middle of stones they made up their minds. They started to cut. Well they cut everything because why not. Everything was theirs because they thought so. It fell into its shadows and they took both away. Some to have some for burning. Well cutting everything they came to water. They came to the end of the day there was one left standing. They would cut it tomorrow they went away. The night gathered in the last branches. The shadow of the night gathered in the shadow on the water. The night and the shadow put on the same head. And it said Now. Read "The Last One"
mars ibarreche: Thinking—and speaking—with collage in The Yale Review
Taking inspiration from the urban settings that have shaped them, from the nation’s Southeast to the West Coast, ibarreche creates a striking form of layered collage reminiscent of papercut book art while also evoking their forebears: Fall In possesses the physicality and verbal-made-visual quality of Kurt Schwitters; Cry You has all the declarative impact of a Barbara Kruger billboard but on a more human scale. Above all, the tactility of these works, with their words nearly lifting off the page toward the viewer, speaks to the hand and mind of their creator.
Read Thinking—and speaking—with collage
On Being Seen
Noor Naga and Elamin S. Abdelmahmoud talk about the Giller boycott led by CanLit Responds. (Starts at the 12 minute mark.)
Sheridan is tragically closing it’s Creative Writing and Publishing Program. Write a letter to the admins and sign this petition!
How Canada's Authors of Conscience Revolted Against the Giller Prize's Support for Genocide in Gaza by Layth Malhis, Institute for Palestine Studies
The Boycott Giller campaign message is emblematic of the clarity and urgency of what many authors across Canada have been calling for over the past year. Rooted in a shared commitment to justice, the campaign seeks to build “an arts community that isn't bound to corporate blood money” by demanding an unequivocal stand “against Israel's genocide in Palestine.”
What Happened Next: Casey Plett
Rachel Gilmore goodness:
The Fold recommends Congolese and Sudanese authors
recommends A Fidai Film, Media City Film Festival
“River” by Joni Mitchell
The Weird Surprise of Growing Old by Catherine Hiller in from Oldster Magazine
Fascinating story from On the Media
The Morning After Pill ella® is NOT an Abortifacient from The Vagenda
by :
Read I Published a Novel and No One Cares! from
interviews Chelene Knight
From the SMLTA Archive
Support Send My Love to Anyone
Support Send My Love to Anyone by signing up for a monthly or yearly subscription, liking this post, or sharing it!
Big heartfelt thanks to all of the subscribers and contributors who make this project possible!
Connect
Bluesky | Instagram | Archive | Contributors | Subscribe | About SMLTA