Traveling to Bolivia had never been on my radar. However, after being awarded a travel scholarship that I wasn’t even certain I was eligible for, it was obvious I had to seize the moment and go.

So now with no sleep and an over-24-hour travel day ahead with three flights to catch, I am making my way to South America for the very first time with twelve other students from my university. I will be taking an advanced journalistic practices course capturing photos, videos and interviews while traveling around the vast landscapes of Bolivia.

May 10, 3:53 A.M. Time never quite feels real to me when traveling, but feels especially like an out-of-body experience when I decide to pull an all-nighter and pack the day before. I always think it’ll make traveling easier, but I don’t know if that has ever been the case–espeically since I have three flights to catch today.

Nonetheless, I’m sitting in the XNA airport in Fayetteville, Arkansas with my study abroad group for the first time. It’s still dark; I think I’m already on hour 17 of being awake? I honestly don’t really know. But on we go!

May 10, 4:04 A.M. I’m face-to-face with an armadillo attempting to burrow in the lobby from outside and he’s proving to be great entertainment for my tired brain. I got curious, naturally, so I researched about armadillos in Bolivia, since that’s where we’re off to.

From what I’ve gathered, the Bolivian hairy armadillo is severely endangered because, though they are commonly seen as pests, they are also hunted for their shells to make musical instruments. Along with other environmental factors and lack of conservation efforts, this has led to the species’ endangerment. Here is the article I just read about it. This could’ve been a really cool project to cover while abroad, too. I kind of wish that I did!

I’ve found that I get really inspired being in public and around others because you just don’t ever know who/what you’ll see or hear. I’ve added over a hundred writing ideas and quotes in my Notes app from just observing other people interact with each other and the world around them.

Ideas have ranged from investigative work about local emergency room quality to profiles about Fayetteville’s late-night gas station employees. There is so much more to a place than its reputation; Northwest Arkansas, for example, is known for Walmart, for the University, for its sports teams and for its Greek life, but I think the real culture can be found in the most seemingly random places.

May 10, 5:29 A.M. I’m watching the airport workers load our luggage onto the plane–I always try and get them to wave to me (to no avail this time)–and I’m getting so excited. This airport is really small and I’m still a bit shy around my group right now, so there’s not much to do but sit and wait. It’s still dark, but I can see the sun trying to reach over the horizon now.

May 10, 6:05 A.M. Onward to Houston! It’s about a two hour flight from Fayetteville and our plane is taking off. I’m feeling so exhausted, but I don’t know if my excitement or nerves will let me sleep on the plane yet. The pinky-blue sun is starting to show its colors against the overcast morning and the journey has officially begun.

May 10, 7:52 A.M And touch down. I read my book (A Concise History of Bolivia by Herbert S. Klein) and attempted to nap on the flight, but the ride went rather quickly, so no complaints.

Having this historical context on-hand while exploring Bolivia proved invaluable, particularly during our tours and when speaking to locals. It gave me a foundation to better appreciate the local indigenous heritage and areas we visited and came in handy when I helped communicate and translate a few interviews for my classmates!

May 10, 10:44 A.M. I’ve gone ahead and bought my airport snacks and drinks (Cheez-Its and a Mugs root beer,) so I’ve decided to start going over my project one more time before we leave for Panama City.

Since this is a Substack specifically for writers, I’ll give a synopsis of my project’s theme and my pitch crafting process:

As a culture writer finishing my first year of journalism graduate school, I prepared for the journey ahead. After accepting the aforementioned scholarship, I not only began to research the rich history of Bolivia and study its up-to-date news coverage, but I also made a conscious effort to polish my rusty Spanish speaking skills.

And since this multimedia storytelling program was offered through the journalism school, I immediately wanted to make a connection with my local Bolivian community to see what stories they thought needed to be told. To my surprise, the community was large enough to have its own small–but seemingly thriving–Bolivian-breakfast-staple salteña shop.

Through conversation with locals, I learned that Bolivian food is hard to come by in the United States–especially in a small Southern town like Fayetteville–and many locals really missed homemade Bolivian cooking. They told me that there were many deep-rooted traditions involving food, but nothing was quite like the ritual of the early-morning salteña. It’s difficult to make and is arguably even harder to eat, but something about the warm, sweet-and-savory broth mixed with its wheaty, toasted shell speaks to the soul. I immediately knew I had to tailor my project around this cultural artifact, inspiring my pitch: Investigate the history of the salteña, its cultural significance and how modern-day salteñarias are adapting recipes due to the lack of ingredients being delivered during La Paz’s current political road blockades.

Ultimately, making that community connection became the energy I needed for this project. It put the people I spoke with directly into my final pitch proposal for my professor and gave me something concrete to help guide me through the busy streets of La Paz, the city which the local salteña shop owners considered the “salteña capital” of Bolivia.

Now that my group’s travel itinerary is seemingly concrete, I’m researching popular salteña shops to try around where we’ll be staying as I wait out these last few hours in Houston.

May 10, 12:56 P.M. I just woke up from a nap on my makeshift cot that I made out of a blanket and sweatshirt, tucked away and hidden under a row of seats that run parallel with the huge window overlooking the plane’s load-in area. After going over my notes and jotting down some restaurants to visit for my story, I got really tired and had to find somewhere to rest for a bit.

May 10, 1:30 P.M. On top of writing my salteña article for class, I’m also filming for my on-campus production assistant job I have. Right now I’m doing my last interview before we board our second flight to Panama City. I have to film my classmates and our study abroad journey vlog-style for my university’s YouTube video page, and I can’t help but feel slightly obnoxious about it–like I’m a TikTok influencer with no social awareness or something.

But this is my job and I’m going into this trip with the goal of being more confident and asking strangers for interviews on this trip, which I think is the main thing holding me back from covering more multimedia stories in my spare time.

Though I’ve made huge strides in overcoming my social anxiety, approaching people can still feel overwhelming at times. After conducting around a hundred interviews over the past five years, I’ve found that most people have a lot to say and enjoy when they are given a platform to speak on things they care about.

At my best, I’ve noticed that I am very inspired by the present moment and am better at acting on things spontaneously rather than ruminating on an idea for a long time, so I’ve been trying to adjust my workflow a bit and incorporate more instinctive elements in my final work to try to overcome that social barrier that can still come up from time to time.

May 10 2:34 P.M. Officially boarded and on the way to Panama City! Just a little under four and then… only one more… flight to go.

May 10 4:42 P.M. We are so up (35,000 feet up) and halfway there.

May 10 7:47 P.M. The day is getting redundant. I’ve been reading, writing, interviewing, filming and napping on and off for the past 14ish hours or more. I’m tired and severely need a break, preferably in a bed of sorts.

To create coherent thoughts for my story, I’ve been digging through various Reddit threads, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook groups. I’m taking notes and synthesizing information about salteñas and their deep cultural connections to Bolivia. Here’s a snippet of what ended up in my final story, which you can read here.

“The popularity of the dish spread across Bolivia, with the modern-day salteña eventually being refined in Potosí, a historic mining hub in the southwest region (which I knew from my book I read!). Today, many salteña shop owners continue to evolve the traditional recipe to suit their specific tastes and introduce contemporary twists to suit modern trends, though they never stray too far away from its post-Colonial origins.”

I needed some soup (which I successfully ordered in Spanish), so I’m eating on a chair at my gate and it is packed with people and researching the cities I’ve never heard of before. One thing that has shocked me is, to my surprise, I’ve been a lot of my group’s translator so far. I’m not super confident in my Spanish skills––I can have a basic conversation and get by, but I put a lot of effort in trying to brush up and learn the language in a more immersive way outside of the classroom. I used a program called Dreaming Spanish that uses the comprehensible input method to focus more on that immersive learning style.

May 10 9:57 P.M We just took off and are finally headed toward Bolivia. I’m sitting next to such a nice older woman from Copacabana named Annalisa–so we’re kind of name twins. I’m super excited to finally get there but all I can think about is sleeping in a bed.

May 11 5:18 A.M. We are here in Santa Cruz de la Sierra! It got super chaotic after we landed so–on top of being awake for 36+ hours–I feel a little delirious right now. It was a rush of going through customs, waiting for luggage, loading everyone’s bags in a party bus that smelled so strongly like Peptobismal that I started getting slightly nauseous, then checking into the hotel.

But we are officially here! I’m finally comfy in a real bed and I am so excited to start working on both of my projects tomorrow. But perhaps slightly more excited to go to sleep right now.

Goodnight!

Anne-Elise Tidwell (she/her) is a multimedia journalist and storyteller studying documentary film journalism at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She works as a graduate assistant and content creator for the university’s multimedia design house, UA Productions, while freelancing for local publications. As a first-generation college student, Anne-Elise has spent the last four years mentoring fellow first-generation students in her university’s 360 Program, which has provided international reporting and communication opportunities in Italy and Bolivia. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, The Arkansas Times, The Idle Class, and UARK’s student media outlets, The Arkansas Traveler and Hill Magazine.

Free Community Show at Confidential Coffee in Long Beach on Aug. 22nd @ 6p - 10p

Pluto’s is hosting a free community show later this month! Join us for live music, open mic, vendors, and more! Stop by real quick or stay a while, we’ll be there all evening. More info here.

Sunburnt Fest 2026 at Lopez Urban Farm in Pomona, CA on Sept. 5th @ 12p

Poetry Peace LA x Pluto’s present a poetry and music summer festival, coming this September! 15+ music acts and poets, a full vendor market, hourly workshops, and a full day of our two favorite things: creativity and laying in the sun. Tickets are on a sliding scale and available now here.

• Cult Publishing is looking for art and stories to feature within their Manuscrypt magazine. Applications are currently open for their next issue’s theme: aliens and cryptids. Story submissions close August 14th, 2026 at 5p EST. Looking for horror stories meant to entice the reader and leave lasting impressions. Submissions can be poetry, short stories, etc., but there must be an element of horror. More info here.

• The Raven Review is a quarterly literary magazine that publishes extraordinary poetry and short prose centered around the deep, dark, and emotional. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, but they will be considered for the issue within the timeframe in which the piece was submitted. Their current submission window, for the Fall issue, closes August 15th. Guidelines and info available here.

• Luna Station Quarterly is now open for submissions until August 15th! They publish speculative fiction written by women-identified authors and will consider stories submitted by any woman writer, regardless of experience or writing resume. Make sure to view their guidelines and get more info here.

• Sonder Literary is publishing their fourth issue! For this submission period, you can submit to the general issue with no theme, or the sonder subsection with the theme of memento vivere. Looking for works based on grief, retrospection, and remembrance. Submissions close on August 20th (though, subject to change). Submit any medium you please! All experience levels and works are welcomed. Just make sure you follow the guidelines, seen here.

• The Momentist is now accepting submissions for their next issue until August 23rd. Accepting fiction, poetry, non-fiction, translations, and even artwork of any medium. Be sure to refer to their site for all the details and guidelines here.

• Plum & Cove is about to publish their first issue and want you to submit! Submissions close August 25th or once the submission cap is met. Open to all forms and themes, as long as your writing is raw, memorable, and original. More details and guidelines here.

• There’s nothing better or worse than a distraction. The powerful distract us from what’s important, and we distract ourselves from the results. Is it even possible to pay attention to what we’re supposed to? For slips slips #3, slips slips want to see short works that address both sides of the equation – by exposing nefarious distractions and creating more pleasurable ones. Writers and artists of any genre and medium welcome to submit. Deadline is August 31st. More info here.

• The Hot Mess Press is officially seeking submissions for their summer edition. This is a non-fiction only issue. Accepting submissions of the following genres: creative non-fiction, poetry based on real events, personal essay, memoir, multimedia artwork, and photography. Submission deadline is August 31st at 11:59p CST. More info here.

• Seeds of Liberation is hosting a grant writing workshop series throughout the month, with the next one coming up on August 16th! Whether you’re an artist, organizer, researcher, mutual aid collective, or someone with a vision for your community, this workshop is designed to help you build the skills and confidence to pursue funding without compromising your values. Schedule and details here.

• Jazz & Journal with Jiji’s Jazz Club in DTLA on August 16th. Playing some full jazz albums, giving you background on the recordings, and a live performance by a jazz trio led by Seku. Books, journal, sketchbooks, quiet activities. Don’t miss out! More info here.

• Join Heavy Manners Library for an evening of poetry featuring a line-up of eight local writers! They will also be raffling items from their store to raise money for the library. Happening August 17th. More info here.

• In the spirit of our upcoming full-length magazine centered on the DIY, get inspo and check out WHAMMY!’s Sleazy Femme Film Fest on August 19th in Echo Park. View their schedule here.

• Channel some back-to-school energy and the focus of Virgo season with this journaling and vision-boarding workshop, in the beautiful Heartbeat House courtyard with Sarah Corey on August 22nd! This is a workshop for everyone to explore their creativity and connect to themself — no matter their level of expertise or past experience with writing or art. Vision board materials will be provided, but please bring your own supplies as you see fit. Ages 10+ welcome. Tix and deets here.

• Floine Lounge will be hosting a journaling workshop on August 30th at Centerpointe. Spend time creating, learning, and connecting! More info here.

Write from your body. We often think of writing as something that happens in our heads, but our bodies are constantly holding stories, too. Pay attention to where you feel tension, hunger, warmth, exhaustion, excitement, or longing. What does your chest want to say? What does your stomach remember? Sometimes the most honest writing begins somewhere below the mind.

Love After Love
Derek Walcott | 1930 –2017

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

The bookshelf I have in mind is not physical, simply because I have moved too many times. The books that have made an impact on me are always there at the back of my mind - some on the bookshelf at home that holds books from elementary school, some on the makeshift “bookshelf” I have right now that is really just random books piled on a drawer, and some from pure memory. The books I read when I was coming-of-age were the ones I remembered the most. They shaped who I am on a foundational level, the way friendships at a young age often do.

I have loved books from a young age because they represent to me a world and people I would like to know. It is a cliché to say that writers grow up lonely—but that was true for me. I grew up in a practical culture, where neither my parents nor larger society had a strong interest and taste for the arts. It was hard for me to relate to many people my age or to talk about the things that mattered. On top of that, it was hard for me to stand out except in academics, so that was the reason I often found myself in the library more than anywhere else. The first authors I enjoyed reading were American authors. Louis Sachar’s The Boy Who Lost His Face not only caught my eye, but would later influence my choice in the English name for myself. The protagonist was David Ballinger, a shy boy desperate to fit in, crushing on a pretty but “‘strange”’ girl, Tori Williams. Tori was confident in her “‘strangeness,”’ making jokes before doing a speech in class on Lincoln’s Address, everything I aspired to be. It was the first time I recognized it was possible to be different and self-assured at the same time.

In 6th grade, I was top of my class, and the gifts came in not as a trophy or vouchers, but the books chosen by teachers. So, picture this: me in my 6th-grade uniform in my round pink glasses, and a stack of heavy books in my hands. Little did I know that one of the books would become my own introduction to young adult literature. The exterior of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak was at first intimidatingly large and “serious” for a 12-year-old, but I was transfixed by Death as the narrator of the story in the years leading up to WWII in Germany, not as an evil character but a tired, confused one. Though a tragedy, the story also had many comical, heartwarming, and relatable moments, a duality characteristic of great writing. Liesel Meminger, the protagonist who stole books and learned to read, her childhood sweetheart Rudy Steiner, and her kind-hearted foster father Hans Hubermann filled my otherwise monotonous study days with unexpected vibrance and intensity. The quote from Death, “I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant,” remains what I remember to this day and a reflection of my own grappling with the human condition. I thought that perhaps I saw myself in all the characters.

After that, the number of books on my shelf grew and grew. I began to notice some books that were trending at the time. The name Jodi Picoult appeared over and over in the bookstores and on classmates’ desks. I read My Sister’s Keeper, and I was blown away by the complex moral questions in it. More than the ethical quandary, I was again drawn to the lonesome individualistic character in the story. There was Julia Romano, the Guardian ad-litem for the main character Anna who, despite her successful career, harbored deep insecurities from way back in high school. She had pink hair that boys labeled as “fallen out of the cotton candy machine,” and when she finally dated Campbell Alexander, who seemed to love her for her differences, he left her without explaining why.

“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them,” she said earlier in the novel. Then, when she found out that her ex-lover left her because he had epilepsy and did not want to take away her independence, she said, “I’m lonely. Why do you think I had to learn to act so independent… You don’t love someone because they’re perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.” This explained a lot of things I had been going through at that age. When the movie came out years later, I heard that major parts of the book were changed. I could not watch it for fear that it would ruin my memories.

There were more stories along the way. In high school, my favorite book was The Catcher in the Rye because there was a quote from Mr. Antolini that informed the core reason why I loved literature in the first place. “[Y]ou’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to.” I became determined to be part of that learning, and later contribute to that learning by becoming a writer myself. In the gap year leading up to college, I moved from “coming-of-age” to the philosophical and the existential. I read Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, where I imagined myself as the introspective Tereza, and reflected on the choices I made in my own life. Should I stay in my hometown or move to America? How pivotal was that decision in the vast river of time? I moved to New York City a year later, where I would meet famous authors in-person, fulfilling a dream I had since I was in middle school.

I changed where I lived many times. I found myself in numerous houses, some with bookshelves and some not. I rarely got my own bookshelf, just stacks of books on tables and in suitcases. When subletting rooms, I sometimes saw other people’s bookshelves, full to the brim with books they loved and books I was curious about. The only real bookshelf I had was the one in my hometown, continents away. But the books that altered the way I saw the world, the books that left me in awe—they were all books I read growing up, where words brought me instant belonging and understanding, where words revealed to me worlds in themselves. The books I read after that are still amazing, but never quite as profound as the impact made those years prior. Those books - they stayed with me after the physical form was long gone. They were childhood friends, teenage companions, early adult confidants, responsible for my growth, my joy, and the feeling of home anywhere I went.

Yimin Huang is an MFA graduate from the University of San Francisco and an author and poet. Her short stories have been selected as finalists for Singapore’s Writing The City Showcase 2021 and 2022. Her writings have also been published in Neocha, The Hooghly Review, Expat Living, Hey! Young Writer, Wildscape, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Between The Lines, and more. She recently taught as a writing instructor for South Bay Spaces in July.

This month’s highlights issue includes our upcoming bi-monthly Creative Lounge, our upcoming annual one-day Writer’s Retreat, lots of local LA events, and several writing opportunities to leap into. Don’t forget to peep our writing tip and read our specially selected poem of the month. 💌

Creative Lounge at The WUUM on July 12th @ 3p - 6p

A Sunday afternoon of creative workshops for artists, writers, and creatives from all walks of life. Will include an open figure drawing workshop with a live model, a hands-on zine workshop, mingling hour, and live ambient music throughout. Come create, build community, and lounge with us! For more details and tickets, check here.

3rd Annual One-Day Writers’ Retreat at Junior High LA on July 19th @ 12p - 8p

Join us for our third annual One-day Writers’ Retreat at Junior High LA! 8 hours of multiple intensive workshops, connecting with fellow writers, and improving your craft. Food and drink provided onsite. For more details and tickets, check here.

• Twin Flame Literary is open for submissions until tonight. They accept prose, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Submit here.

• Orion Literary is currently accepting submissions for their third issue, themed stars. They are looking for poetry, prose, flash fiction, and more. The window closes July 10th. More details here.

• Gramercy Review is open year-round for submissions as they publish quarterly. They’re currently seeking for their July online issue. Window closes July 12th. More info and submission portal here.

• The Orange and Bee are accepting submissions until July 14th. Original works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction that engage in a significant way with the long history of fairy tales. Submit here.

• Silly Goose Press is looking for your midnight moonlit mythologies, your odes to the Great Lakes goddesses, your meditations and manifestations, your rites and rituals, and your love letters to the never-topped muse: The Moon. Deadline is July 15th. Details and submissions here.

• Rind and Root is now accepting until July 25th poetry, criticisms and reviews, and visual work with thematic preferences like culture, identity, and politics. More info here.

• Mulberry Literary wants to read your best work, regardless of theme or genre. Deadline for their upcoming issue is July 30th. Make sure to check their website for more details, guidelines, and portal here.

• A Curious Moon is already preparing for autumn with their open submission window, closing July 31st. Send your fallen leaves, lovely spoils, skeleton key to the crypt. Open to fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry under 5,000 words. Check here for the specifics.

• Poetry Workshop + Reading at Barnsdall Art Night on July 10th @ 5p

  • Join a community writing workshop and poetry reading, thanks to Heavy Manners Library! The workshop is a unique pedagogical approach to giving oneself permission in finding poetic voice and building confidence in performance of your writing. The workshop will be instructed by poet, journalist, and screenwriter Erin Taylor. More information here.

• East Los Book Festival at East LA Civic Center on July 12th @ 10a - 4p

  • Calling authors, poets, publishers, artists, and fans of all literary genres to join the East Los Book Festival for their third year! Celebrating legacy, stories, and voices. Main stage authors, book signings, kids’ stage, live readings, and vendor marketplace. More details here.

• Mazer Book Fair in West Hollywood on July 12th @ 1:30p - 3:30p

  • The June L Mazer Lesbian Archives is hosting a book fair from 1:30p to 3:30p, or until books are sold out. The Archive will be selling duplicate lesbian and adjacent books for $1 each, too! Please bring cash to speed up the checkout process. For more details, check here.

• DIY Personalized Books at Edendale Branch Library on July 16th @ 3:30p

  • Workshop participants will make individually personalized books that can serve as diaries, albums, or scrapbooks. Participants can choose from various types of bound and folded book designs. Materials provided to help you express your creativity. For more information, check here.

• Manana en Movimiento in Avocado Heights on July 18th @ 5p - 11p

  • Visit a ranch for community art-building for those of the San Gabriel Valley area. A collective of twelve local artists and organizers will host a co-created immersive exhibition showcasing their ecosystem of art to bring the community together through art, food, music, and dance. RSVP is required. Check here for more details.

• Storybook Shadow Box Workshop at Heavy Manners Library on July 26th @ 3p

  • Explore collage and world-building techniques while creating a one-of-a-kind shadow box scene. Turn memories, stories, and imagination into a meaningful personal keepsake. This workshop is ideal for ages 16+. No prior experience needed, just a curiosity to create! Info and tix here.

Read a lot. Most successful writers are also avid readers, usually in the genre they write in. If you aim to get published, reading your genre will give you insight into what’s popular as tastes change over time.

I was twenty-one years old and baby-faced in California, still trying to make myself enjoy dressing in miniskirts and flats, trying not to make my awkwardness obvious. This was before I turned twenty-three and finally gave up, defaulting to my now uniform baggy pants and t-shirts. How I dressed was just one of the many things I forced at the time for the sake of conformity and compensating for the lack of intimacy I had with myself. Unfortunately for twenty-one-year-olds, you don’t quite figure out who you are until much later. So post-college life presented itself as a unique challenge of attempting to find belonging without having the slightest idea of where I might belong. I pushed myself to enter unfamiliar rooms, trying to find one that would embrace me, or at the very least take me in.

I tried to wrap myself into the image of an LA poet: wearing heavy eyeliner, posting too much on TikTok, bleaching my hair blonde, and most importantly, attempting to enter the expensive writing workshops and dark venues with “satirical” poets that seemed to be everywhere. I didn’t get very far, thankfully. I felt like I was stretching my skin too tight, molding to what all the allegedly serious and professional writers seemed to do, and write, and look like. Professional poets charge $80 for a one-hour Lana Del Rey poetry workshop catered to white attendees; professional poets write about heartbreak as a personal injustice rather than injustices committed against marginalized communities; professional poets are edgy and ironic and pretentious and careless about all the wrong things. The more I saw these poets getting published, getting praised, the more discouraged I felt. Where were the writers who gave a fuck?

It was a hard year, of trying too much in the wrong spaces and not knowing how to try enough in the right ones. I lacked an inner confidence at the time that I find essential to my being now, and it’s impossible to imagine navigating the world without having the self-assurance I now carry. But I know I did it once, and it was in this awkward phase that I hosted my first book launch, at a house in Loma Linda with a DJ, a few friends, lots of strangers, and a handful of poets I’d randomly messaged on Instagram asking if they wanted to read at my launch. Today, I’m still grateful they said yes, as it was from this night that I finally began to figure out what belonging meant and what it could look like.

I found my people soon enough. I explored unique and wonderful spaces, ones that I didn’t quite fit into but that welcomed me with open arms anyway. Creatives with heart, with joy, with care imbued into everything they wrote, everything they made, everything they performed. I began both hosting and attending open mics, and although it took time, I eventually stepped into a room that felt comfortable enough to slouch in, to belly laugh in, to bring my first drafts and experiments. The beginning of Pluto’s may have been an accident, but finding artists, writers, and friends I saw and felt seen by had been an intentional exercise in building trust and familiarity, in both myself and my community.

This is a word we hear a lot lately: every event, showcase, and gallery is branded as a community gathering. We use this word a lot at Pluto’s, too. But frankly, I do side-eye the collectives charging inaccessible prices that try to put the stamp of community on what they’re doing. I’ll be honest, I’ve got capitalism entrenched in me. I started working when I was about fourteen years old, and I was working 2-5 jobs consistently up until last year. I’ve been self-publishing since I was twelve, and used social media as much as possible to self-promote and learn to market my work. I understand the need to charge more for your work; artists need a way to pay the bills, and there will never be any shame in this. But I do not want to hear that the intention of your work is community, is for the people, when your prices do not reflect that.

An $80 workshop is not community; a $50 coworking hour is not community; it is an attempt at commodifying company, the main selling point being the loneliness of others and the gatekeeping of resources. The trademark of community has become a buzzword used for monetary gain.

I write this bluntly because I need everyone who reads this to understand my intention in building Pluto’s. When I say community, I am talking free and open embrace. I’m talking no borders or barriers, no gatekeeping, people stepping into a room without worrying about what they have to offer, without worrying about how much money they got in their pockets. Pluto’s is not something I profit from yet—everything made goes directly back into producing our events and zines, as well as paying the artists involved. My goal is not, and will never be, to get rich through this. I write this as a low-income person who wishes I had known where to find these resources through a creative, accessible, and accepting community at a younger age. Maybe I would’ve ditched the miniskirts for baggy jeans and felt like myself a lot sooner.

Look, there’s no wrong way to create, no wrong way to spend time with others if it comes from kindness, from caring, from the desire to hold someone’s hand or learn a new name. There will be times that Pluto’s has to charge more for an event or a zine, because we have to fund ourselves to continue what we’re doing. However, to not only capitalize on but also take advantage of humanity’s need for other people—for belonging—feels morally wrong. We have to find a way to survive and self-fund our creative projects, but I refuse to claim community and sanctuary if I am putting myself first. Community is ultimately about selflessness, and to claim it at the cost of others requires a cognitive dissonance I can’t even begin to imagine.

Pluto’s is turning three years old this month. My impulse decision and happy accident has resulted in leading a collective, now with a team, for three whole years. Consistently at the most accessible prices we can manage, consistently staying true to our core beliefs. To the organizers, creatives, and artists who are aiming for accessibility while also surviving in a capitalist economy, please continue to do so. Continue to try.

There is no perfect way to create or be in community; it’s a scarily vulnerable experience to be seen enough to care and be cared for, to offer trust to an audience that hasn’t inherently earned it. I encourage you to offer it anyway—so long as it’s realistic for yourself, so long as you can give without it draining you. Try it and see how it feels to give a little more than you usually do once in a while. Maybe I’m biased, but speaking from experience: I think you’ll find it immensely more fulfilling.

Sat, June 27th @ 6p - 10p: Pluto’s 3rd Anniversary - Poetry & Jazz at Midnight Books in DTLA

Celebrate three years of Pluto’s. Opening with a journaling session accompanied by live jazz, followed by two poetry and music duos, and closing with jazz funk and dancing. Vendors, photobooth, drinks, and more. Join us.

Speak up now more than ever, let your voices be heard, get your stories out there. Rebel, rebel, rebel.

Read more and continue to follow along with us in this wonderful journey called life.

Credit: Susan Livingston on Pinterest

Sat, June 6th @ 8p - 11p: Rebel, Rebel Zine Launch Party at Scribble in Highland Park

Pluto’s upcoming zine, Rebel, Rebel, will be celebrated with a show on pride, euphoria, and self-acceptance! Featuring music by Dash George, Lorena Latorre, and Dearie. Poetry by Lacey Smith, Shaina Mackk, and Isa Valencia. Activities like live screen-printing, typewriter poetry, personalized portraits, and more! Come join us!

Sat, June 27th @ 6p - 10p: Pluto’s 3rd Anniversary - Poetry & Jazz at Midnight Books in DTLA

Join us in celebrating three years of Pluto’s! Opening with a journaling session accompanied by live jazz, followed by two poetry and music duos, and closing with jazz funk and dancing. Vendors, photobooth, drinks, and more. Come celebrate! Follow our Instagram for updates.

• Fahmidan Journal is accepting submissions for their upcoming Autumn issue! The next deadline is June 15. For more details, check their website here.

• Write the World’s Personal Essay Competition 2026 is here! “This month, dear writers, share a story from your own life. Make sure to include characters, rich descriptions, and narrative details. Who knows, it might just resonate with a stranger on the other side of the world.” Writers aged 13 to 19 are eligible; length of piece can be from 400 to 1,000 words; submissions close June 22nd. More details here.

• Send your work to Kreatif Magazine! The next submission period is open for the Summer 2026 issue, and it closes on June 25. Check their page for more information here.

• Orion Literary is currently accepting submissions for their third issue, themed stars. They are looking for poetry, prose, flash fiction, and more. The window closes July 10th. More details here.

• Musezine Magazine wants you to write for their blog! They welcome your stories, essays, poems, and art no matter your writing level. More information here.

• Enjoy a day filled with art, music, and local makers on June 7th @ 11a - 4p! Discover original work and meet incredible artists at Temple Art Market in Echo Park. Come shop local, build community, and support artists. Grab your free tickets here.

• Come join the conversation on the intimate chronicle of queer family-making at Skylight Books in Los Feliz on June 8th @ 7p. RSVP is recommended but not required. Entry and seating are first-come, first-served. RSVPs do not guarantee entry to a full event. More info found here.

• Join The Center in Hollywood for their Pride Coffee Hour on June 11th @ 9a - 11a. Volunteers help prep and serve food, help with activities like nail painting and bracelet-making, greeting guests, and support staff in making this space warm, safe, and celebratory! Full of connection, creativity, and care. More details here.

• Enjoy a special night at Heavy Manners in Echo Park on June 14th @ 7p - 9p for An Evening of Poetry and Experimental Music. Check out the details here.

• Bayard Rustin was the principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. Come hear Arnold Weiss present his fascinating and inspiring story at the Westwood Branch Library on June 16th @ 6:30p. More info here.

• Join The Center in Hollywood for their Juneteenth Coffee Hour on June 19th @ 9a - 11a, where you can spend a morning full of connection and community care. More details here.

• Black Bass Collective and No Prxssure present Prideteenth 2026! LA’s only celebration that combines Juneteenth and Pride. Back for their fourth year and coming in hot with some of the fiercest queer Black selectors. Celebrate on June 19th @ 10p - 4a. More info here.

• Come be a part of the conversation for Rasheed Newsom’s latest book, named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The Nerd Daily, Queerty, She Reads, and more! Happening June 24th @ 7p in Los Feliz’s Skylight Books. RSVP is recommended but not required. Entry and seating are first-come, first-served. RSVPs do not guarantee entry to a full event. More details here.

• The Memories of El Monte/People’s Cafe community art space will have its grand opening on June 27th and 28th @ 10a - 8p. Join in community and resistance in the heart of Tongva land, San Gabriel Valley, as their doors open to all who are welcomed. More details here.

Credit: Pluto’s x Kiefy Studios 2024

Find other writers. Meeting fellow writers can be just as fun as the writing process. They understand the struggles of the process and the industry, making them valuable and worth keeping around. You have a good chance of finding writer friends at your local library, bookstore, online, or writing organizations. (P.S. We’re a good place to start.)

Who Said It Was Simple

BY AUDRE LORDE

There are so many roots to the tree of anger   
that sometimes the branches shatter   
before they bear.

Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march   
discussing the problematic girls   
they hire to make them free.
An almost white counterman passes   
a waiting brother to serve them first   
and the ladies neither notice nor reject   
the slighter pleasures of their slavery.   
But I who am bound by my mirror   
as well as my bed
see causes in colour
as well as sex

and sit here wondering   
which me will survive   
all these liberations.

Credit: Audre Lorde, “Who Said It Was Simple” from From a Land Where Other People Live. Copyright © 1973

This is a diary of a woman who is picking up the pieces of herself that she lost along the way and reconnecting with her creative path.

It’s a somewhat rushed day, packed with moments of life at home and movement in some of my creative areas. I’ve been thawing out from a long frozen state in my writing practice. Burnout after a cookbook, general overwhelm from the state of the world, and working laborious day jobs have made for a decrepit well from which to pull. In a moment of lucidity, though, I realized not pursuing my artistic endeavors just makes me less whole, and tomorrow isn’t promised. So, I’ve been making a more concerted effort to continue working on my dream projects instead of letting them gather dust, and I’m barely getting my bearings again.

And while I’m re-awakening some of my artistic practices––painting, sketching, and acting––which all feed into each other, like activating different muscle groups, I’m mostly zeroing in on my creative writing endeavors, after years of setting them aside while working as a food and culture writer. Currently, I have two works in progress: the first is my debut poetry chapbook due out in Fall 2026, titled By the Candlelight, and the other is a fiction piece (unsure if it will be novel- or novella-length) that has been in the works since 2020.

5:00 am — Eyes opened for the first time, but since I went to sleep at 3am, it feels physically wrong to get up.

10:00 am — I’m up again, and feeling more rested, though it’s a late start. ‘Tis the life of someone who often works late nights — my internal clock is a little broken, and set to vampiric hours (though, my lifelong insomnia would say my clock is working as usual). Blood. (Just kidding.)

First thing, as usual, is to brush my teeth, let my dog-child Blue out, then start making a morning beverage.

Lately, I’ve been getting into the habit of making my husband a pour-over coffee, which has been a sweet little ritual. And then, since I’m drinking matcha again, I start whisking away — another sweet ritual (we alternate).

10:30 am — I start Blue’s breakfast as usual by turning on the electric kettle. Her meals always consist of a base of freeze-dried veg and animal-derived nutrients that I just have to rehydrate with hot water, and then I top it off with a fresh meat protein from our butcher around the block. On her menu today is a cut they label as “beef stew,” which comes from the shoulder.

10:45 am — I’m usually pretty bad at making breakfast right away, but a chilled blueberry smoothie made up of frozen Costco berries always does the trick. Depending on the day, and what’s in my fridge, I’ll add different greens (it’s usually spinach, but I’m playing around with adding frozen peas), some almond or oat milk, peanut butter (non-negotiable), protein powder (if I have it), and a glug of maple syrup.

11:30 am — Today, I have a self-tape audition to send in for a short film casting. Acting is something I’ve been pursuing again at a slower, more sustainable pace after a long hiatus. I’ve moved some things around in the living room to create a blank space and have adjusted the lighting. Next, I dressed and made myself up to appear as my most authentic version of the character. Then I ran my lines with my husband Marcel, aka my reader, and took a couple of takes. The first scene I do second, because of how emotionally intense it is, and I have to get in the right headspace for it. I manage to cry at the right moment, but we do another take for safety. Acting, whether or not anything comes of it, always helps me enrich my fiction by bringing life to my characters

1:30 pm — I sit for a moment to upload the audition and send it off. Fingers are dully crossed!

2:00 pm — Marcel makes us his household-famous coconut garbanzo beans on a bed of creamy buttery dill rice for lunch. We hang out for a second before he has to start getting ready for work.

3:30 pm — Marcel leaves, and I stare at my oil painting in progress. It will be the cover for my poetry chapbook, By the Candlelight, that will come out this fall. I decided against continuing painting today because I have work tonight at 8pm, and I’d rather use that time and energy to write.

4:00 pm — I’m running against the clock.

This is, unfortunately for me, the way I work best. Under some kind of bubbling pressure.

I have two hours until I need to start getting ready for work, and I’m devoting it all to my fiction piece. To be honest, I’ve been stuck on it. The version I’m working on now has been in the works for about four years, and the concept in its entirety has been kicking around for six. I’m eager to finish and start querying, though I also know it’s taking the time it needs to develop properly.

I’m happy to report, however, that I had a breakthrough late at night a few days ago. I finally figured out how all the pieces fit and wrote an outline. This feels contrarian to the way I like to typically work, in a more intuitive, free-flow kind of way. I like to tap into a flow state and let the story come. However, now I’m understanding why authors like an outline: it gives direction to the flow, especially when working on a long-form piece with different characters and plot variables.

Of late, I had been getting stuck, and instead of hitting my head against the block, I started moving to future chapters. This was a piece of advice that came to me once in a dream to keep the writing flowing, that was also later underscored to me by another writer. Because while I don’t always know what’s next chronologically, there are future parts of the plot that I could see very clearly, and so it made sense to jump into those parts to keep the story moving. The downside is it’s made for slow progress because getting back into the doc and trying to start from where I left off doesn’t always work sequentially leaving me unsure of what to pick up on next, so I’m trying something new. All this to say, today’s work will eventually, hopefully, involve writing. But, for now, I have cuts to make and pieces to rearrange in a new doc, based on this new outline. Wish me luck!

4:30 pm — There are so many edits to make. I keep thinking this. But I must push that aside and remember I’m not in the editing phase, yet! This is perhaps the hardest part of writing long-form. I want to edit it so desperately! Especially as the idea becomes more refined. But, I push through the instinct and stick to my outline as I continue drafting. I’m making a note to myself to restart an analog notebook to keep notes of the changes I wish to make, and any other ideas that may come up while away from my desk, so I can go back to them later.

6:00 pm — By this time, I close my laptop. I have to make Blue her dinner, take her out for a walk, and get her ready to stay home and wait for her dad to return.

7:30 pm — I kiss my baby goodbye (worst part of the day), and I’m off to work.

8:00 pm — Funnily enough, while what I do is cook at work (another piece to my artistic puzzle, as a recipe developer and longtime food writer), it is also the perfect place to draw inspiration from for my fiction piece. There’s a surprising (and unsurprising, given it’s set within the restaurant industry) amount of parallels, which I could not have planned for if I tried, that have been helping give a more realistic dimension to my story and characters.

2:00 am — I get home, tired, but Blue greets me excitedly with a full tail wag. Marcel is already in bed, and we greet each other and hang out for a little bit. As we start to settle in, and he begins to drift off to sleep, I roll over in bed, open my notes app, and write a poem. It’s at this time, the wee hours of the night, that my creativity likes to spark back up. It’s been this way since I was young, always fighting insomnia, but easily slipping into my most imaginative self. Because of my sleep issues, I’ve never been much of a morning person. But I relate my late nights to early mornings: quiet hours, where my time is owed to no one, and the world around me simmers down. While leaning into it wakes me up more than I’d like, it’s usually worth it; sometimes it’s when I do my best work. Slowly, sleep finally comes for me, and I fall into slumber. The end, goodnight, farewell. Until we meet again.

Andrea Aliseda (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate writer, multi-disciplinary artist, and cook based in Los Angeles, CA. Her debut plant-based Mexican cookbook, Make it Plant-Based! Mexican, was listed as one of the best cookbooks of spring 2025 by Bon Appétit and Epicurious, and is available everywhere books are sold. Her work has been featured by De Los, LA Times, Epicurious, The Kitchn, Bon Appetit, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. In February of 2026, Aliseda starred and co-wrote her first short film shot on super 8 with director Pauline Chatelan, titled Te Amo, based on her poetry project, Te Amo. This fall 2026, her debut poetry chapbook titled By the Candlelight, a gothic collection that delves into the darkness of depression and the triumph of love and self-discovery, is set to be published by Broke Poets Collective.

It’s been a busy spring at Pluto’s! We made our own mini Coachella and raised hundreds of dollars for the Lebanese Red Cross and PCRF. We made the kind of book fair we could only dream of as kids, complete with tattoos, piercings, and donated books to LA County’s Books for Jails program.

And, we’ve opened up our Substack guest essay submission form! So if you’d like to make a big move and share your writing with the Pluto’s community, please fill out the form and let us know!

Plus, we’ve got even more coming up. Read on, and move with creativity and community with us this May.

May 17th @ 3pm: Creative Lounge at the WUUM

Introducing our latest bimonthly offering at the WUUM: a Sunday afternoon of creative workshops for artists, writers, and creatives from all walks of life. It’ll include an open figure drawing workshop with a live model, a multi-genre writing workshop, and live ambient music throughout. More details can be found here.

• Unbound Inc. is an online literary journal open to submissions of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction for their inaugural issue until May 15th. More details here.

• Spout Magazine is looking for “weird” writers with genre-bending work. The deadline for submissions is May 15th, and you can see more details for it here.

• The Lost Kite Editions Chapbook Prize is awarded annually to a chapbook of any genre (fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, etc.). The deadline is May 15th. For more information, check their website.

• The Santa Clara Review is having their Flash Fiction and Flash in Bloom contests with submissions for both open until May 16th. More details available here.

• Quarterly literary journal WayWords is looking for fiction and poetry for their upcoming issue on the theme of time. Open through May 20th, check for more details here.

• Wild Lot is looking for essays/creative non-fiction of any length on the topic of nightness until May 31st. More details here.

• Violet Winding Stars is looking for poetry chapbook submissions until May 31st. For more information, check their page.

• Tadpole Press is holding their Mini Moon Writing Contest. Submissions, open until May 31st, must be 10 words or less. More details available here.

• The Black River Chapbook Contest from Black Lawrence Press is accepting submissions until their deadline of May 31st. More details here.

• Host Publications is open for full-length poetry submissions through June 1st. Check their page for more details here.

• Bicoastal Review is open to non-fiction submissions. The deadline is June 1st. For more details, check here.

• RockPaperPoem wants poetry submissions for a chance to win a poetry prize. The deadline is June 5th. Check here for more information.

• Little Fruits Magazine is accepting submissions based on this prompt: Write a piece about your longest days or your wildest nights for this summer solstice. They accept flash fiction, short fiction, and creative non-fiction up to 2,500 words. Call runs from June 1st through the 7th. More details here.

• Driftwood is open to submissions for both their 2026 Chapbook Contest here and 2026 Short Story Contest here. Both deadlines are July 15th.

• The Publishing Laboratory At The University of New Orleans is looking for the best unpublished novel or short story collection. The deadline is August 31st. Check their page for more information.

• Yawning Fox Press is accepting manuscripts of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and hybrid work. Open submissions. More details here.

• Starting May 7th, Underdog Books is holding a series of Writer’s Block Workshops hosted by Phoenix Mendoza in Monrovia.

• Join Malibu Poet Laureate Charlotte Ward to hear readings of original pieces written by local poets and bring a poem of your own to read for Caffeinated Verse: Poetry Open Mic at the Malibu Library on May 9th.

• Join art critic and essayist Megan O’Grady to discuss her book debut, How It Feels To Be Alive: Encounters with Art and Our Selves. O’Grady examines the work’s rippling impact, implicating sometimes unexpected lineages and genres. Taking place at Edendale Branch Library on May 9th.

• It’s World Poetry Night at Village Well in Culver City on May 9th.

• Cafe con Libros Press in Pomona is hosting their Obsidian Tongue/Open Mic Night on May 9th. Join host Ceasar and everyone to celebrate the spoken word.

• Village Well is also hosting a Writer’s Coffeehouse on May 10th as a time to connect with other writers.

• The Silver Lake Reading Club is joined by Aja Gabel on May 11th for Writing Club @ Malaya, a space for quiet writing and sharing time.

• Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena is hosting a three-part creative writing workshop, with the first one on May 15th.

• The Book Jewel in Westchester is hosting a Local Author Mixer on May 16th.

• Echo Park’s Heavy Manners Library is holding a creative writing workshop, Writing from the Inside Out, on May 18th.

• Fourth Fridays on Retro Row with Bel Canto Books in Long Beach will be full of pop-up vendors, an art showcase, and more on May 22nd.

• Heavy Manners is also hosting a Permission Poetics Workshop on May 22nd.

• The Book Jewel is also gathering their Writer’s Group on May 26th.

• Free Your Creativity! workshop at Scribble in Highland Park on May 30th.

• Junior High LA in Glendale will be holding a special poetry workshop that is queer and trans centered with Anna Goodman Herrick on May 31st.

When the writing gets good, stop. Not forever, of course. But when you’re reaching the end of a writing session, it can be helpful to pick a stopping point that will make an easy starting point the next time you sit down to write. You’ll be itching to get back to the work, and be able to get back in the writing flow right away the next time you sit down with that project.

Elegy with Apples, Pomegranates, Bees, Butterflies, Thorn Bushes, Oak, Pine, Warblers, Crows, Ants, and Worms

By Hayan Charara

The trees alongside the fence
bear fruit, the limbs and leaves speeches
to you and me. They promise to give the world
back to itself. The apple apologizes
for those whose hearts bear too much zest
for heaven, the pomegranate
for the change that did not come
soon enough. Every seed is a heart, every heart
a minefield, and the bees and butterflies
swarm the flowers on its grave.
The thorn bushes instruct us
to tell our sons and daughters
who carry sticks and stones
to mend their ways.
The oak tree says to eat
only fruits and vegetables;
the pine says to eat all the stirring things.
My neighbor left long ago and did not hear
any of this. In a big country
the leader warns the leader of a small country
there must be change or else.
Birds are the same way, coming and going,
wobbling thin branches.
The warblers express pain, the crows regret,
or is it the other way around?
The mantra today is the same as yesterday.
We must become different.
The plants must, the animals,
and the ants and worms, just like the carmakers,
the soap makers before them,
and the manufacturers of rubber
and the sellers of tea, tobacco, and salt.
Such an ancient habit, making ourselves new.
My neighbor looks like my mother
who left a long time ago
and did not hear any of this.
Just for a minute, give her back to me,
before she died, kneeling
in the dirt under the sun, calling me darling
in Arabic, which no one has since.

“Someone put a spell on you.”

Tough news for 9:15 am on a Saturday. I was fifteen minutes into my first-ever tarot reading, conducted via WhatsApp video call with a clairvoyant woman in the south of France. I sat cross-legged on the floor of my living room in front of my laptop and a purple candle meant to invoke “happiness.” I watched the flame dance on the wax and felt it mocking me instead.

This woman, we’ll call her Nadia, looked at me from behind her thick-rimmed glasses looped through a bulky gold chain that fell in a frame around her cheeks. She held up the tarot card to the camera, “This star here? It means someone put a spell on you.” I scribbled the bad news in my notebook lest I forget about it later, “star = cursed? not good.”

I didn’t get many details about who, what, why, or when this spell was put on me, but I received clear instructions to do a salt cleanse. That afternoon, I was in the shower, rubbing handfuls of kosher salt over my arms, reciting, “I send this spell to the light of God to be transformed into unconditional love.” Then I did it twice more that week. And three times a week since. How long does this go on? I don’t know, I don’t think it’s an exact science.

I’m not religious, and I’m not particularly spiritual either. Despite being raised Catholic, I don’t have the personality for faith. I’m a skeptic who questions everything, which is, as I’m told, “such an Aquarius” thing for me to do. So why was I dabbling in the occult? Why was I suddenly awake at 2 a.m., searching for Etsy witches who could cast a counterspell? Why did I empty my pockets for a psychic reading transmitted from another continent?

Well, for “research,” of course. I was in need of some inspiration.

I had recently finished the first draft of a short story, and it wasn’t working at all. I received notes from a trusted group of writers, and it was obvious I wasn’t making a clear point. Worse, I wasn’t sure what I wanted the point to be. Which, if you’re writing anything, is a problem.

We often talk about inspiration “striking.” We talk about an assault on our imagination when we’re in the shower, in the car, or even in our dreams while sleeping. When you’re hit like that…congratulations, you’ve been bludgeoned by an angel. But often, inspiration is less active, and it’s up to you to bridge the gap between yourself and an idea. Sometimes, you have to take the receiving team off the field and play a little offense.

One of the characters in my maligned work in progress was a tarot reader. It was clear to me why I was drawn to using tarot in a story: the practice has a wealth of incredible imagery and symbolism. But to crack this story, I was going to need to put myself in this character's shoes. This was a tall order for someone who had never even had a reading and wasn’t born with much connection to the “energy around us.” It was time to phone a friend, and I knew exactly who to call.

A few months prior, while I was going through some challenging times, my friend Alana showed up to my apartment with crystals, candles, and palo santo to cleanse my space. Through a fog of sad-girl tears and wisps of herbal smoke, I followed her from room to room as we ushered unwanted energy out the windows. I wouldn’t say I felt a quantum shift in the energy in my life, but I did find a lot of comfort in the pageantry and having a friend hold my hand. Once again in a time of need, I turned to Alana for guidance.

She sent me the contact info for Nadia, who her witchy friend group swears by. Alana described Nadia as “such a baddie who has been married to rich men like 2-3 times.” Nadia is originally from Chile but now lives in the south of France, which I imagine is a result of said marriages. I reached out via WhatsApp to set an appointment for a reading and got a quick and friendly response. Nadia explained she’s an expert in Egyptian tarot, Marseille, and Rider-Waite. She uses oracles as well as her intuition. And she takes PayPal! Sold.

We human beings have an insatiable curiosity for ourselves, and it always feels luxurious to indulge in a little third-party analysis. So, I gave myself a pat on the back for having found a self-judgment-free way to justify visiting a psychic and hopped on the call.

Nadia took the reins. She wrote down some information about when and where I was born and did quick math to work out my numerology. She shuffled cards, rang a gong, and invoked her connection to a spiritual realm I never seem to be able to access.

At first, Nadia led the conversation towards love and called me a pessimist about partnership (I didn’t ask, but ok!), but I quickly steered her towards talk of career. I was much more interested in knowing when I would be rich and successful. I’m happy to report that she told me many times that I’ll be very rich and have no money trouble, but she also repeatedly divined that someone I work with is going to “cause a chaos.” And of course, there was the spell. Mixed results overall.

As our session was winding down, I asked her about inspiration and how to be more inspired. She told me to connect with animals, become a child, and watch cartoons. She told me to give myself love, stop thinking I’m not capable, stop self-sabotaging, and be disciplined. I also need to get out more and investigate more. I’m not sure if this was the cards or Nadia giving me this advice. Is it sacrilegious to say they’re the same thing?

The real sorcery didn’t come from the cards or the stars or a spell; it came from the connection between Nadia and me. It came from my honest attempt to enter into the experience with an open mind and her diligent focus on the energy around me. Meeting her, even over video call, gave me a flesh-and-blood anchor for a previously very adrift character that I had approached with a narrow-minded sensibility.

Nadia surprised me, but not in the way I expected. Her wardrobe and personality fit the mold of a tarot reader, but she had also been married multiple times. Wouldn’t she have…seen that coming? This question isn’t meant to disparage her gifts, but to remind me that even when people have gifts, they’re still subject to the challenges of life. Life is messy, and I needed to subject my characters to a world of mess.

The next time I sat down to work on the project, I tossed my characters into a very messy situation and quickly landed on a point to the whole thing. I rejiggered it into a short film script in just a few days.

I don’t know if it was the tarot reading, the notes from my writers group, the open-minded approach to a new experience, or a strong Americano that led me to crack the story. In any case, it was a result of my going on the attack. I did something a little out of character and went to a psychic. Then I did something a little more out of character and “dispelled” myself several times a week. Once I forced my characters to also do something out of character to get out of a mess, my story worked itself out.

To be honest, I don’t think I believe in spells any more than I did before, but I do believe in the magic of novelty, which is what this whole pursuit provided. Spells, psychics, and energy cleanses are all fresh-to-me fodder for self-examination. Novelty unstuck me, and as Nadia encouraged, connected me with my inner child. There’s a Jack London quote from a 1905 essay titled Getting Into Print that sums up my point: “Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.”

And if you don’t have a club, I recommend trying a little kosher salt.

Samantha Weissert is an LA-based writer and filmmaker. She's written and produced interactive projects for brands such as Disney, Lionsgate, and the Gorillaz and was a semifinalist for the 2026 Disney TV Writers Program. She's worked as an assistant in writers rooms for shows on NBC, FOX, and Apple TV, and is working on a new action-adventure show for Amazon. Her film work has screened at the Atlanta Film Festival, the Sidewalk Film Festival, and is streaming on DUST.

We love to celebrate the poetry in everything all year round, especially with our Poetry in Motion and Coffee With Poets series. But April is a particularly special time to find the poetry in everything. We’ve got a lot of special stuff coming up this month, so read on and join us for a poem or two.

April 11th: Make a Scene @ The Woodbridge in DTLA

A music and poetry show where 100% of the proceeds go directly to emergency aid in Lebanon and Gaza. 7pm-10:30pm, $10 minimum donation. More details here.

April 30th: Free Virtual Writing Workshop

To close out National Poetry Month, we’re hosting a virtual hour-long workshop. Whether you celebrated by writing a poem a day or were too busy with spring cleaning to worry about writing, we’ll make sure you finish the month strong. Led by Paula Macena, founder and director of Pluto’s, the workshop will include grounding exercises, poetry prompts, free-writing, and sharing time. Free and open to all, but accepting donations if you’d like to support what we do! RSVP here.

May 4th: Tats N Books

A collab between Pluto’s and Tats N Babes, bringing you a tattoos & book fair! It’s like the Scholastic Book Fair you wish you had as a kid, with book vendors and book-themed flash tattoos. Venue TBA, tickets TBA.

Pluto’s is open to submissions for our next zine: REBEL, REBEL! In reference to "Rebel, Rebel" by David Bowie for Pride Month. Glamorous, freeing, and euphoric, exploring the themes of identity and self-expression despite the societal norms we face. Moving away from the confines of "normality" and towards a complete and unapologetic self. Queer euphoria. Show us how you break free.

Creative writing and visual art submissions will be accepted until April 28th. You can find more info and submit here.

• Little Fruits Magazine is accepting flash fiction, short fiction, and creative nonfiction about the fantasy and magic of the new moon by April 7th, and they want flash fiction, short fiction, and creative nonfiction about the struggles of labor history by May 7th. Find out more here.

• Shoegaze Literary is looking for writing that fits the theme of “Press Your Luck” for their third issue. Submit by April 15th and learn more here.

• The Ponderosa Prize has an open contest for full-length poetry manuscripts by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) poets. Deadline is April 17th, and you can find out more here.

• Copytext Magazine welcomes submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and artwork for their second issue. Deadline is April 30th and you can find more details here.

• What Books Press accepts full-length manuscripts across genres, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translation, and hybrid works, now through April 30th. Submit your work here.

• Charlotte Lit is accepting poetry chapbook manuscript submissions until April 30th. More details here.

• Choeofpleirn Press is also open to poetry chapbook manuscript submissions now through April 30th. More info here.

• The Autumn House Press Nonfiction Prize is open to manuscript submissions until April 30th. You can submit your work here.

• An independent anthology called All the Quiet Things: A Collective Portrait of Modern Womanhood is looking for personal writing from women by May 31st. More info here.

• Stories Books in Echo Park is holding their Feedbag Reading Series on April 3rd. The series features “eclectic lineups of independent writers that showcase a range of styles, voices, and backgrounds, all sharing the common goal of artistic expression.”

• Village Well Books in Culver City is holding morning writing sessions with Francesca Lia Block on April 3rd, and several more mornings throughout the month.

• Heavy Manners Library is continuing their open writing studio hours this month in Echo Park on April 3rd and on April 17th.

• Heavy Manners Library in Echo Park is also holding a Zine Fair on April 11th and 12th. Check out work from local artists and publishers.

• The Eagle Rock branch of the LA Public Library is holding a generative poetry workshop on April 11th.

• On April 12th, Village Well Books in Culver City is holding an interactive journaling workshop.

• On April 17th, Silver Lake Reading Club is holding a writing workshop/mixer/panel in Silver Lake.

• LA’s biggest annual literary event is back! The LA Times Festival of Books will be held at USC on April 18th and 19th.

• Ever wanted to try writing comics? Scribble in Highland Park is holding a comics-making workshop on April 18th!

• Da Poetry Lounge in Leimert Park holds an open mic every Tuesday, and a slam night every third Tuesday (April 21st, this month).

• The Writer’s Group at The Book Jewel in Westchester is meeting for some co-writing time on April 28th.

• There’s a full moon writing meditation happening at Underdog Bookstore in Monrovia on April 30th.

Be random. Not in a cringy “that’s so random” 2000s kind of way. But in the way that gives your writing brain new and interesting material to play with. Novelty is the spice of life, and sometimes you need some random inspiration to give you some new creative flavor.

So, for National Poetry Month in April, we put together a list of random writing prompts. Our challenge to you is to write a poem each day, inspired by each prompt. See where these random words take you, and be sure to tag us in any poetry posts you share!

Poem on Air (April)

By Terrance Hayes

Handcuffed in daylight walking through air
today the subject imagined a near future
where other subjects project a cloud
of information overhead. Aptly branded
“the halo” this new technology,
a wireless implanted cranial device, will
project the business (messages, expressions,
longings, paths & implicit pathologies)
of the customers along with advertisements
& light filters they cast over themselves.
The word “almost” hovers over lovers
almost in love. The day is almost
finished. The air is almost air.
“Had this device already been invented,
I might have a like-minded soul
on my walk,” the subject thinks observing
the magenta blooming in the magnolia
hanging around the park, but the subject
is grateful to have private thoughts &
recalls how little one can concentrate on a date.

I am haunted by the books on my shelf. There are only six I can trust, and each of those was written by Jane Austen. The rest sit there, gathering dust, reminding me.

They are the archive of my English major: O Pioneers, A Lesson Before Dying, The Known World, Rebecca. When everyone else was renting the books on their syllabi, I took pride in buying mine. For one, I could afford them; used paperbacks cost pennies on the dollar compared to textbooks. But more importantly, these were the beginnings of my library. When I thought of my future, I saw myself in a wood-paneled study with sliding ladders and air thick with the musk of first editions. My own private Shakespeare and Company, lined wall-to-wall with novels. Because these were novels after all. In choosing the English major, I was choosing feeling, throwing myself into lush interior worlds and beautifully poignant misery while my peers snored into five-pound textbooks in the science library basement. I was carving myself into a woman of discerning taste and piercing intellect who would surely re-read these books time and time again. Why would I want to return them at the end of the semester?

A decade later, they are crammed into a scuffed bookshelf in my living room that barely reaches my chest.

For the first 18 years of my life, I was an insatiable reader. I loved disappearing into the pages of a book, forgetting who I was for a while. I’d become so immersed in its world that I’d even dream as the protagonists. My dad loved that I shared his passion for reading. When I was eight, he read me The Hobbit chapter by chapter every night before bed, then continued on to The Lord of the Rings. I didn’t mind that the prose was sometimes hard to follow. In fact, I relished it. I wanted to be praised by adults for my precociousness — by my dad most of all.

I became obsessed with reading above my grade level, and my dad was more than happy to curate. I wrote a book report on The Maltese Falcon in 5th grade. On a family vacation that same year, he gave me his copy of The Once and Future King, forgetting the torrid sex scenes that filled the second and third books. I cracked into Shakespeare at 11 and moved on to The Grapes of Wrath by 13.

But it was Jane Austen who changed everything. In 2008, after Masterpiece Theater aired all six BBC adaptations of her novels, I tore through the source material hungrily. I had never read anything like these books — that signature blend of juicy romance and dry wit. It felt like she had written these words just for me. By the time I was assigned Pride & Prejudice in my 11th grade English class, I’d already read it so many times over that my teacher loaned me her personal copy of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies to read instead. Even as I cringed at the piss jokes crudely wedged into the pages of my favorite novel, I felt giddy with pride. My reputation as a voracious reader preceded me.

Then came college. I loved my English classes, but amid the sheer quantity of assigned reading, I didn’t have time to read for fun. By the end, I was burnt out. After graduation, I didn’t read a book for years. Something had changed. The worlds I had escaped into as a kid had become burdensome. The English major I’d hoped might turn me into a visionary novelist had instead made one of my greatest joys in life feel like work.

A short-lived book club in my mid-twenties eased me back in, tepidly. But without the guidance of a syllabus, I found I had no idea what I should be reading. I began pillaging Little Free Libraries for familiar names — Gravity’s Rainbow, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the entire works of William Faulkner — that would sit dormant on my shelf for years. I’d go to the actual library sometimes, too, but I’d hardly ever browse. There were simply too many options, and I am clinically incapable of making a choice. In a room full of books, I find myself trapped in an infinity mirror of possibilities. With a million alternate futures stretching out before me, how am I supposed to know which is the right one? Because surely there can only be one, and surely I am bound to make the wrong choice. A million to one odds. It’s statistically impossible.

When I moved into my apartment, my growing collection of unread books followed in ghostly pursuit. I loaded them into my bookshelf and set up a midcentury modern recliner next to it. It was no mahogany-shelved study, but it was as idyllic a reading nook as I could muster on a budget. It would be my quiet haven away from the modern world, where I could hide with my nose buried deep in a book, the way it always used to be.

The last time I sat there, I played Stardew Valley on my phone for four hours.

In the height of the COVID lockdown, I picked up a small, chunky paperback edition of Moby-Dick from a Little Free Library on Los Feliz Boulevard. I spent the next year slogging through it. I was trying to prove something to myself — that I wanted to read it, that I could read it, that I was still, at 26, the literary wunderkind I once fancied myself to be. I did finish it eventually, and I suppose I’m glad I did. The last 34 pages of Moby-Dick are Melville at his best. The middle 400 can rot in hell.

As I inched my way through encyclopedic asides about whaling that miscategorize whales as fish and sharks as whales with the insufferable authority of a rich, white 19th-century man, I turned to new hobbies. These were meticulous and wildly time-intensive activities that turned my brain off instead of engaging it. Cooking, baking, sewing, furniture painting, charcoal drawing, DIY-ing, and eventually stop-motion animation. I found I could spend hours in a trance-like state, unaware of the passage of time, listening to podcasts or nothing at all. When I ran out of my default podcasts’ back catalogues, I decided to try audiobooks.

I’ve never been a great listener. When my dad would read me Tolkien, I could interrupt him mid-sentence to ask a question if I was confused. My brain needs to be actively engaged in something to be able to fully comprehend it, and listening alone is too passive for that. I tend to zone out, lose the thread, and have to rewind back, sometimes several times over. But in the long, slow days of unemployment I spent hunched over my bedroom floor, animating tiny pieces of paper frame by frame, I needed something to fill the silence. If I picked the right books, dialed my pretentiousness back 60%, and opted for easily digestible sci-fi sagas or celebrity memoirs, I could follow along just fine. I could even get lost in them, the way I used to.

All of a sudden, I was reading again, constantly, even if I didn’t really think of it as reading. I devoured the Silo trilogy, then the His Dark Materials trilogy (somehow, I’d never gotten around to them as a kid). Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, Jeanette McCurdy — the holy trinity of celebrity memoir girly pops. Bad Blood, the sensational story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos — delicious! The Light Eaters, a nonfiction journalistic exploration of plant intelligence — fascinating! Crying in H-Mart — profound and wildly inspirational as another fiction-writer-turned-singer-songwriter processing her mom’s death. I spent over 300 hours listening to audiobooks in 2024 alone. Libby hated to see me coming.

I still struggle to get through physical books. A few weeks ago, I finally opened the ratty copy of Infinite Jest that had been taunting me from my bookshelf for years. I got all of 37 pages in before I abandoned it. When I revisited The Hobbit last year, I had every intention of re-reading The Lord of the Rings as soon as I finished. It’s still sitting on my bedside table; Bilbo and the dwarves have yet to make it to the Lonely Mountain.

If I’ve learned anything from audiobooks, it’s that I’m not exactly the distinguished intellectual I once aspired to be. I love a good story. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s not that I can’t still appreciate the cerebral brilliance of the modernists I worshipped in college. But man, those books are hard to follow. Reading Faulkner for class is one thing, when weekly discussions make sense of his impenetrable stream-of-conciousness narration. But I don’t always want to think that much anymore. My brain has its hands full just trying to keep me alive, fed, and functioning. Nowadays, if I’m reading, I’m reading for pleasure. And if I’m not reading, maybe it’s because somewhere along the way, I stopped reading for pleasure.

Or maybe what I really struggle with is a lack of guidance: as an adult, I have no required reading list to steer me or deadlines to ensure I finish. Left to my own devices, I’m back in that infinity mirror of choices. Maybe I only read so much as a kid because I had someone telling me what to read — my dad, my teachers, my peers. But there’s an exception to that rule. I fell in love with Jane Austen all on my own. Nobody ever gave me her books to read, but I found my way to them anyway. They’ve had a deeper impact on me than anything I’ve ever read, before or since. They didn’t just make me smarter; they made me happy. And no matter where I go, they’re waiting for me on that shelf — waiting for me to come back.

Mara Woods-Robinson (she/her) is a singer-songwriter, writer, and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She’s written, directed, and produced several short films and music videos, spanning dark comedy to paper stop-motion, and is currently self-producing her debut album under her artist name, Mara Woods.

This month, Pluto’s has a special way to channel that creativity with Pour Your Heart Out, a coffee and poetry workshop in Long Beach. Read on for more details, along with tons of other events, opportunities, and inspiration to help you make this a lucky spring.

March 18th: Pour Your Heart Out - Coffee & Poetry Workshop

Just in time for Women’s History Month, we’re gathering at Recreational Coffee in Long Beach for a femme-centered hands-on coffee & poetry workshop. Join us for a presentation and tutorial on how to make the perfect latte, from pulling espresso shots to refining your milk froth, including hands-on experience to practice latte art. Includes an in-depth workshop that’ll leave you feeling like a pro, your own delish latte, and a writing prompt journal to take home. More info and tix can be found here.

March 22th @ 6pm: Pluto’s Virtual Writing Sprint

Once a month, Pluto’s holds an hour-long virtual co-writing sprint in our Substack chat. Subscribe and join us for a cozy hour of getting words on the page and bonding with fellow writers.

• RockPaperPoem is open to poetry submissions for their next issue until March 8th. Submit here.

• South 85 Journal is accepting poetry, fiction, flash fiction, and non-fiction submissions on the theme of “surprise” until March 13th. More info here.

• Superpresent publishes poems, short stories, essays, visual art pieces, experimental art, video art, and sound art, and they’re taking submissions for their spring issue on the theme of “beginnings.” The deadline is March 15th, and you can find out more here.

• The Poetry Box is open to submissions for their poetry chapbook contest now until March 15th. Winners will get their chapbooks published. Details here.

• Ploughshares Emerging Writers’ Contest is open until March 31st. They accept submissions in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and you can find out more here.

• Four Tulips is looking for short prose and poetry with themes of water, sea life, and sunrises over the horizon for their “Out at Sea” issue. Submit here until March 31st.

• Thimble Lit Magazine is accepting poetry submissions for their spring issue until March 31st. Details here.

• Silly Goose Press wants fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry that capture “magic in the mundane and the mundane in the magical.” Submissions are open until March 31st, and you can find out more here.

• Fractured Lit is looking for stories of ghosts, fables, and fractured fairy tales. Deadline is April 19th, and you can find out more here.

• Atmo: A Literary Journal regularly accepts writing submissions in all genres. Details here.

• On March 7th, the Boca de Ora in Santa Ana will feature artists, screenings, and a literary stage full of readings.

• Village Well Books in Culver City is holding a free open mic on March 7th.

• Tap into your steamy side with an erotica workshop at Heavy Manners Library in Echo Park on March 12th.

• Off Assignment is holding a literary salon on March 12th in Fairfax.

• Heavy Manners Library in Echo Park is hosting a workshop on finding your poetic voice on March 13th and March 23rd.

• At Junior High in Glendale, there’s a writing workshop “exploring loss, rage, collective grief, and world-building” on March 15th.

• Street Poets and Junior High are hosting a donate-what-you-can women’s history open mic centering Los Angeles-based marginalized youth voices. In Glendale, on March 20th.

• Silver Lake Reading Club is hosting a 12-week guided program to work through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It meets on Saturdays at 9am and starts March 21st.

• Heavy Manners Library in Echo Park is holding two bookbinding workshops, one on March 21st and one on March 29th.

• Also from Silver Lake Reading Club, and also on March 21st: a horror story reading and movie screening.

• The Brunch Babes & Books Club at Café Con Libros in Pomona is meeting on March 22nd to discuss Olga Dies Dreaming.

• Underdog Books in Monrovia is holding a non-fiction writing workshop on the topic of “memories as material” on March 26th.

• Three LA-based indie authors are gathering for an event to celebrate Indie Press Month with Angel City Press at Vroman’s in Pasadena on March 27th.

• On March 30th, Heavy Manners Library in Echo Park is hosting a creative writing workshop to “understand our real and imagined dreams.”

Get loud! Writing exists on the page (or the screen, more often than not), but there’s so much power in hearing your written words out loud. When you read your work aloud — at any stage of the process, from first draft to final — you can often hear aspects of your work you might not catch just by reading it. Things like awkward phrasing or pacing issues pop out when you read your work aloud, and fixing them in the revision process can make your work really shine. Plus, it’s just fun to hear words you wrote out loud!

Pursuing a writing career while also juggling a full-time job, family, and home responsibilities can get pretty hectic and all-consuming. Especially after working freelance and part-time gigs for so long, I’m still figuring out how to balance my priorities, stay organized, and be kind to myself in a world that doesn’t always extend us that same grace.

On Friday, February 6th, I had a day off from work that was pretty open for me to get some writing done, so I tracked everything I did throughout the day, from answering emails, to household chores, to a poetry reading I was invited to perform at. While this is definitely not what an average day as a full-timer looks like – where I’m lucky if I can write for thirty minutes straight – I hope it exemplifies my belief that there is always time to get writing done – even for five minutes – if we make the time.

5:00 a.m. — Yes, you read that right. Even on my days off, I set my alarm for 5 a.m. exactly. This is my favorite time of day when everyone in the house is asleep, responsibilities aren’t yet calling my name, and I can take advantage of the quiet. So for the first thirty minutes of every day, I read. Today, I’m reading a poetry collection called Lone Yellow Flower, by Erika Gill, for a book review I’m writing later for LatinaMedia.Co, a media outlet I freelance for sometimes.

5:30 a.m. — I try to preserve this time only for writing, but sometimes there are urgent writing-related admin tasks I need to take care of. I check my emails and social media accounts first. Then, because I’m opening up pre-orders for my new poetry collection, STREAMING SERVICE: the series finale, today, I double-check all the links and text on my BigCartel shop and main website to make sure everything is working. I also pay off my credit card that I use for business expenses, and I review submissions for a zine anthology I’m co-editing with Paula Macena, the founder of Pluto’s.

6:00 a.m. — Now that the admin tasks are done and out of the way, I can concentrate on continuing to work on the first draft of my new poetry chapbook, tentatively called loverboy! and functioning as a sequel to the first in the series, amor. I first read through and edit what I wrote the day before, then start generating new material.

6:32 a.m. — By this time, my partner and our dog Buttons are waking up, so I close my laptop and let Buttons outside to pee on the patio. Meanwhile, I start fixing him his breakfast of ground beef and carrots. I also want to make sure he has food for lunch, so I cook up some ground turkey in a pan, then steam a cup of brown rice and a pot with chopped sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, garbanzo beans, and broccoli.

7:04 a.m. — My partner joins me in the kitchen and starts making us breakfast. Today’s menu includes scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast with jam. I brew hot tea and put together his lunch for him to bring to work.

7:31 a.m. — After eating, I say goodbye to my partner as he leaves for work and get started on the morning chores of washing dirty dishes, wiping down the counters, and cleaning the sinks in the bathroom. While I work, I listen to the audiobook of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson, which is pretty good so far.

8:00 a.m. — Before I can start writing my book review of Lone Yellow Flower, I need to actually finish reading it. I lie in bed, open up my Kindle, and read while Buttons takes a nap next to me.

8:19 a.m. — After I finish reading the book, my mind is swirling with thoughts! I stare at the wall for a few minutes, thinking about the book, what I just read, what I liked, and what I’d like to say about it in the review.

8:31 a.m. — I open my laptop again, start a fresh Google Doc, and start drafting my review.

9:10 a.m. — After sitting down for a while, I take a quick 15-minute break to walk around, stretch, and look up books in the L.A. County Library catalog that I need for a picture book manuscript I’m preparing to revise this month. I find five research books I like and place them on hold for pick-up next week.

9:25 a.m. — I keep on drafting the book review, surprising myself by going over the minimum word count. I finish it!

9:50 a.m. — Before I send it to my editors, I want to make sure everything looks good. Reading it through a few times, I check for and edit misspellings, turns of phrase that need tightening up, and paragraph breaks to insert. Once I’ve finalized everything, I compose an email to the editors and attach the review as a Google Drive link. Then I send it off!

10:03 a.m. — Since today’s the day I’m opening pre-orders for my new poetry collection, I do one final check of my website and shop. Then, I check on my scheduled post announcing that pre-orders are open and available. I continue to monitor activity on my social media and orders that begin to come in through the shop.

10:25 a.m. — Before I get too deep in the weeds of my pre-order launch, I decide to get dressed and take Buttons for a short walk around our apartment complex. This not only gives us an opportunity for exercise and valuable time spent together, but also to help me clear my head and breathe in some fresh air.

10:49 a.m. — It’s time for Buttons to go to the groomers for his bimonthly bath! I help him into his car seat in the back of my car and take him across the street to the groomers. He cries a lot, but I promise to give him a treat after he’s done if he promises to be on his best behavior.

11:00 a.m. — Since I have a couple of hours to wait until Buttons is bathed, clean, and ready, I head to my local library to continue working. I have to go anyway to pick up my reserved copy of Some Bright Nowhere by Ann Packer for my book club.

11:12 a.m. — After I check out the book, I find a chair and a table to sit at with my open laptop, water bottle, and headphones. I first check my emails and answer the most important ones. I check social media again to see how my post is performing, then update a few sentences in the bio listed on my author website.

11:29 a.m. — Since my book review is done, I can now turn my attention back to drafting my poetry chapbook. After putting on my earphones, I open the Canva document where I have my draft. Funnily enough, this is the same way I wrote my chapbook amor. Because I initially planned to have the prose in text boxes, and it was easier to move and center it on the page exactly where I wanted. While I won’t be keeping that formatting this time around, something about writing this way feels a lot more official and exciting, like I’m already writing with the goal of being published. As I write, I spend a moment every few minutes to look around and take in the everyday sights around me, which helps me generate new memories, ideas, and lines.

12:59 p.m. — I receive a text from the groomers that Buttons is ready for pick-up! Quickly, I pack up my laptop, water bottle, and phone, and head outside to the car.

1:04 p.m. — After driving back to the groomers, I park, walk inside, and pick up Buttons. I also purchase some homemade dog treats from a display case to reward Buttons for being such a good boy.

1:25 p.m. — Once we get home, I realize it’s already time for a quick lunch break! Today, I’m having “tea over rice,” a simple Japanese dish of hot green tea poured over white rice and garnished with your toppings of choice. I sprinkle rice seasoning, which has sesame seeds and seaweed. For my entertainment, I turn on an episode of my favorite TV show, Superstore, on Hulu.

1:40 p.m. — After I’m done eating, there are more dishes to wash, so I turn on some easy-listening music while I wash the plates I used and do a quick clean of the kitchen counters.

1:51 p.m. — Earlier in the month, a writer friend of mine reached out to me asking if we could have a phone call to check in, which we scheduled for 2 p.m. I have a few minutes until they call, so I start packing together pre-orders I’ve already received since announcing the launch, which each feature a copy of my book, a bookmark, a sticker, and a sticker sheet.

2:00 p.m. — My friend calls! We have a quick chat and talk about how we’re doing, how writing is going, and what we’re looking forward to this month.

2:21 p.m. — After my friend and I say goodbye, I hop back on my laptop and answer emails as part of my work with Amerie’s Book Club, a freelance gig I’ve had since digitally crossing paths with the Grammy-award-nominated singer and self-professed bibliophile Amerie in 2021. The emails are from publicists at publishing houses who’d like to get their books featured on the book club’s Instagram page while Amerie takes a short break from making monthly selections. I clean up the inbox, deleting and sorting, and respond to the publicists whose books I’m interested in featuring.

2:30 p.m. — I’m still not completely done with the draft of my poetry chapbook, so I continue to fiddle with it for a bit.

3:00 p.m. — Buttons must have an internal body clock, because right at 3 p.m., he nudges me as a reminder to feed him his lunch, which I cooked this morning. He eats and accepts his after-meal treats, which are half a chicken stick treat and a Greenie toothbrush.

3:04 p.m. — I mentally make the goal to finish this first draft of my poetry chapbook by the end of the day. I keep writing and writing until I feel finished and happy with the end result. As is my current practice, after I finish drafting something, I take a short writing break for a few days before putting my current project aside to “simmer” and work on something else.

3:50 p.m. — The only reading I’ve been doing today has been on my phone or Kindle, so I reach for a physical copy of The Baby-Sitters Club. I’ve been really enjoying the graphic novel adaptations of this classic series because they’re fun, relatable, and easy to get through when I don’t feel like reading adult books.

4:32 p.m. — Tonight, I happen to be participating in a poetry reading at Pitzer College in Claremont to celebrate the publication of Cosecha, an anthology published by Curious Publishing that I’m featured in, which spotlights creative writing and art from local LA artists. I get ready for my performance, taking a shower, finding something nice and comfortable to wear, and waiting for my mom to pick me up.

5:21 p.m. — There’s already a bit of traffic, so my mom picks me up early to make sure we get to the reading right at or before 6:30 p.m. to make sure there’s enough time to find the right building and parking. I follow her to the car, and we set off!

6:18 p.m. — We get to the poetry reading with time to spare, and we’re able to introduce ourselves to a few folks, including fellow readers. There’s also a potluck component where people were invited to bring a dish to share, so we head over to the food table and pick up avocados, potato balls from Porto’s, and homemade spring rolls.

6:41 p.m. — The poetry reading has begun! One by one, poets are introduced and asked to read their poem from the anthology, as well as 1-2 additional pieces if they choose. I read my piece entitled “loverboy” and another excerpt from the poetry chapbook I was working on today.

8:24 p.m. — The poetry reading ends and my mom and I head home, exhausted but exhilarated.

8:51 p.m. — After saying good-bye to my mom, I head back to my apartment. My partner and I decide to make a quick dinner of pasta and salad before heading to sleep.

9:37 p.m. — The day is finally over, and I have work tomorrow, so I make sure to head to bed not too late; that way I won’t be tired in the morning. Overall, this was a rewarding and exciting day in a writer’s life!

Sofía Aguilar (she/they) is a Chicana writer, editor, teaching artist, community organizer, and library professional based on the traditional homelands of the Tongva, Kizh, and Chumash peoples (Los Angeles, California). Her work has appeared in the L.A. Times, Latino Book Review, Acentos Review, and New Orleans Review, among other publications. She is the author of amor. (Bottlecap Press) and Queer Latine Heroes: 25 Changemakers from Latin America and the U.S. from History and Today (Jessica Kingsley Publishers). Her debut full-length poetry collection STREAMING SERVICE: the series finale is slated to release in March 2026. She is currently at work on her first novel and fifth poetry chapbook.

In recent weeks, we’ve been struck and horrified by the violence and destruction wreaked by ICE on immigrant communities and protesters. We know that we’re stronger together, and in addition to coming together in a creative community, we wanted to share some resources for helping those affected most right now.

• Immigration Advocates offers a national legal services directory.

• The Immigrant Defense Project provides lots of community trainings.

• The L.A. Street Vendor Solidarity Fund provides economic resources to street vendors who are affected.

Pluto’s is also fundraising for protesters and immigrants affected by ICE through our upcoming zine and house show event at the end of the month. Read on for more details.

Stay strong, stay creative, stay together in community. 🌟

February 28th, 5-10pm: Make Poetry Punk Again

A fundraiser for protesters and immigrants affected by ICE. Bands, poets, vendors, and more. House show in Orange, CA, and you can RSVP at welcometoplutos.com to get more details.

February 15th @ 10am: Pluto’s Virtual Writing Sprint

Once a month, Pluto’s holds an hour-long virtual writing sprint in our Substack chat. Subscribe and join us for a cozy hour of getting words on the page and bonding with fellow writers.

• Pluto’s is publishing our next zine! HEAVEN IS A MOSH PIT is a zine about punk, protest, and poetry that celebrates immigration, family, and community. Whether you are an immigrant yourself or are first, second, or third-gen and beyond, we want your voices - loud, proud, angry, longing, and everything in between. To us, heaven is a place with no borders, where all walks of life are embraced, and we dance together. Tell us what your version of heaven looks like.

  We are accepting poetry, flash fiction, essays, letters, journal entries, photographs, collages, digital art, paintings, and more. Anyone is welcome to submit but immigrant writers and those who have ties to immigration/migration practices/stories will be prioritized.

  Submission details and more info here.

• Waye Small Press is accepting poetry submissions for their third issue. Deadline is February 8th. Submit your work here.

• Little Fruits Magazine wants stories about romance “drowning in syrupy love or choked up with heartbreak.” They’re accepting flash fiction, short fiction, and non-fiction until February 8th. Details here.

• Plentitudes Prizes awards writers in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and flash fiction. Their deadline is February 15th, and you can find out more here.

• The James Welch Prize is open to Indigenous U.S. poets. Deadline for submission is February 15th, and you can learn more here.

• Furious Flower Poetry is accepting submissions from emerging poets until February 15th. You can learn more and submit your work here.

• The Rebis is looking for writing on the theme of The Moon tarot archetype. Details are here, and submissions are due February 17th.

• Sundress Publications is accepting full-length prose manuscript submissions now until February 28th. They’re especially interested in “prose collections that value genre hybridization, especially speculative memoir; strange or fractured narratives; flash fiction; experimental work; or work with strong attention to lyricism and language.” More details here.

• Ploughshares is accepting fiction, non-fiction, and poetry submissions for their Emerging Writers’ Contest now through March 31st. Details here.

• Made in L.A. is accepting short story submissions, specifically stories with themes of contemporary noir, nightlight, animals of L.A., and social justice. More info here.

• Joyland Magazine accepts fiction submissions year-round. Find out how to submit here.

• LA Poet Society is holding an open mic February 6th in Eagle Rock at 7pm.

• The Pop-Hop is hosting a trash art Valentine-making workshop on February 7th at 6pm in Highland Park. Make trashy Valentines for the people you love!

• Café Con Libros in Pomona is hosting a Poetry After Dark reading on February 7th at 6:30pm.

• Stories in Echo Park is hosting “an evening of beyond baroque poetics” on February 8th at 7pm.

• East Los Soul holds weekly gatherings of poetry, art, and community in Boyle Heights. After a little break, they’re back on February 12th at 8pm.

• Village Well Books and Allison Kumar are teaming up for a Galentine’s romance book swap on February 12th at 7pm in Culver City.

• Underdog Bookstore in Monrovia is hosting a dialogue writing class on February 12th at 7pm.

• Silver Lake Reading Club is hosting a special Valentine’s Day event with author readings and chocolate treats on February 14th at 12pm in Silver Lake.

• The Narrative Nest and Tree People are co-hosting a community journaling event in Coldwater Canyon Park on February 14th at 3pm.

• Heavy Manners Library is also getting in the romantic spirit with a Valentine’s Day Poetry reading in Echo Park on February 14th at 6pm.

• The Wende Museum is hosting the FREE Culver City Book Festival for the second year in a row, all day on February 22nd. Featuring poetry readings, zine-making, and author panels.

• The Writers Circle is hosting a virtual workshop on how to stay creative during tough times on February 22nd at 2pm.

• Scribble is celebrating Valentine’s Day late with a creative vendor-filled fundraiser for arts and education programs on February 26th at 7:30pm in Highland Park.

• The 6th annual LibroMobile Literary Arts Festival is all day in Fullerton on March 3rd. The event features local and visiting artists, food vendors, and book lovers, and includes live readings and musical performances.

Respect writer’s block. Sometimes it makes sense to push through, but other times, writer’s block is actually your gut telling you it’s not quite right yet. The great Toni Morrison gave the advice, “It’s blocked because it ought to be blocked.”

All creatives come to a point where a blank piece of paper seems impossible to fill with originality, and creativity can’t always be switched on and off. There’s peace in learning to go with the flow of your own creative cycles. During these times, it can be a good idea to allow yourself to take a break from creating and live life! Go to concerts, travel, pick up a new hobby. Follow the instincts within you that crave joy and curiosity and growth, because these experiences will inevitably spark the desire to convey all that you observe and feel.

A Hymn to the Evening

By Phyllis Wheatley

Soon as the sun forsook the eastern main
The pealing thunder shook the heav'nly plain;
Majestic grandeur! From the zephyr's wing,
Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.
Soft purl the streams, the birds renew their notes,
And through the air their mingled music floats.
Through all the heav'ns what beauteous dies are spread!
But the west glories in the deepest red:
So may our breasts with ev'ry virtue glow,
The living temples of our God below!
Fill'd with the praise of him who gives the light,
And draws the sable curtains of the night,
Let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind,
At morn to wake more heav'nly, more refin'd;
So shall the labours of the day begin
More pure, more guarded from the snares of sin.
Night's leaden sceptre seals my drowsy eyes,
Then cease, my song, till fair Aurora rise.

There was a time after my nagypapa’s passing when I was left alone in his room and found myself looking through a drawer full of VHS tapes. I saw two with handwritten labels reading “Gilmore Girls.” I would later learn that he had taped a handful of episodes for my Aunt Monica and cousin Kelsey, who had watched the show together throughout Kelsey’s teen years before DVR. Like many mothers and teenage girls in the early 2000s, Gilmore Girls had been an almost weekly ritual of bonding between the two. But I had no idea what the long off-air show was, as I had never heard of it, and was unable to tell whose handwriting was on the tape.

I would remain completely unaware of the show until 2016. The arrival of the 2016 miniseries Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life suddenly put the show back into the LA scene, as everyone was trying to audition for it. With the show back in the cultural forefront, people started comparing me to both the main characters, Lorelai and Rory, at every opportunity. Sometimes lovingly, sometimes insultingly. Even in my acting class, I was handed scenes from Gilmore Girls, and I often found myself recreating scenes from the show, not just because I was a teen at the time and the same age as the characters, but also because of the vibe people picked up from me. But I was stubborn, and the more people compared me to the Gilmores, the less I wanted to watch the show. I never looked further and wrote Gilmore Girls off.

Until summer 2025, when my own private life was spun on its head.

Unexpectedly and quite suddenly, my Aunt Monica (the OG Gilmore Girls fan of the family) died. Within a month of her passing, my 96-year-old nagymama decided to leave her senior home in Portland to move in with my parents, my sister, and me in Los Angeles.

There was something about being an adult woman, unexpectedly thrust into the role of caregiver in a three-generation household of grandmother, mother, and daughter, that struck a chord for a friend, who very kindly said, “I think you and your mom would find Gilmore Girls helpful during this transition.” That’s all it took to melt my years-long stalemate with the show, and with the characters.

So one fateful night, my mom and I sat down to watch. I think a significant motivation for my mom was trying to connect with a show her sister had loved so dearly. We agreed to give it a two, maybe three-episode chance. But by episode one, we were hooked. Despite my years of resistance, I found that all my Lorelai and Rory comparisons made sense.

Just like the characters, my internal world, humor, and Type B/Type C personality are shiny, offbeat, and welcoming. I adore an eclectic mix of movies and music. I love having absurd conversations about the most random thoughts in my head and forcing the people around me to discuss them at length. Any child left in my care can attest to my Lorelai Gilmore-style parenting, which is chock-full of strange wisdom, unusual life advice, and more love than you could hold in your hands.

But despite having so much Lorelai in me, my youth was pure Rory. I was a bookish girl with a sweet face, who fell for the same archetype of boys that she did. I’d often smuggle books to parties (let’s be honest, I still do). Just as the Gilmores did for Rory, my family made major sacrifices during my teen years to support my future goals. As a teen, my whole family moved from our small, misfit, tourist-trap ski town (very similar to Stars Hollow) to LA so I could jump-start my career as an actress and writer. I gave all that I had to a single goal, much like Rory with her Ivy League college mission.

As I watched all of Gilmore Girls with my mom and saw Rory grow up on the show, I had these strange moments that felt like a chance to see parts of my younger self I had failed to show compassion in the past. While, as an audience member, I found many of Rory’s choices annoying, as a human, I found them relatable. I understood what it must have been like for friends and family to watch me try to squish myself into my equivalent of Rory’s boyfriend Logan’s world via a man I dated. Not kidding, we had the same “did we/did we not break up and did you cheat on me” fight. I almost gave up on all my creative passions at the hands of his world and the firm belief from his circle that I wasn’t cut out for my dreams. Definitely a romantic low point for me.

These messiest, most shame-filled parts of my younger self now had a loving spotlight shone upon them through the words of Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, which felt so powerful. It was like this show found me as a writer when I needed it most. The part of me who needed the most attention in 2025 was teenage me, who moved heaven and earth to live and work in LA.

I’ve pounded pavement and poured myself out creatively for as long as I can remember, giving all I had to odd jobs, long days, classes, workshops, you name it, because no matter what, I had to be a writer. Of all my careers, writing has always been the one that makes me feel the most confident because the nature of writing as a medium removes all walls between the reader and me. As an actor, you have to spend years winning over agents, managers, casting, producers, directors, and networks. As a writer, I’ve always felt all I have to do is share a real feeling with another person, to tell a story fearlessly and with integrity. All I needed to do was write every second I could. From that, talent, skill, and all the rest would come simply because I had a mission. I gave all I had, from 12 years old onward, to the pursuit of writing. Yet, on paper, none of my achievements resulted in the life I thought I had promised to myself.

Yes, I wrote a book of poetry that has done very well, but it didn’t change my quality of life. I have written many scripts that have been received well, but remain unproduced. I work as a writer and screenwriter, but I’m stuck in a time when everyone says the entertainment industry is dead, very similar to Rory clinging to a life in journalism amid the industry’s decline in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.

Perhaps the most significant parallel between Rory and me is that we both fell down the rabbit hole of burnout and crash-landed into former gifted child syndrome as adults.

I’m not unhappy, but I am not living the life 16-year-old me thought I would, based on all my reading, writing, and socializing. It is a strange paradox of emotions. I don’t get sad or defeated anymore, but in my very early 20s, I did. Like Rory, I had a wayward phase where the Jess of my life brought me back on track. He saw through the cloud of self-doubt, burnout, and critical voices to remind me not just why my writing had always mattered to people like him, but also why my writing used to matter so much to me. He allowed me to feel safe, rather than shameful, admitting how rattled I was by the state of my life, how heavy things like living at home and feeling like the path I’d chosen had kicked me off.

Like Rory, all those feelings of disappointment and unfulfilled life plans will always sit on the back burner because I am so hyper-aware and grateful for all the love I had. Most of all, to have such excellent examples of women in my mother and my nagymama. My nagymama came to the United States as a refugee and gave everything she could to build a better life for her children, despite surviving the Nazi occupation of her country and being a part of the resistance against the Soviets. She, without a question, has been the classy, cliche, knowledgeable, bail-me-out constant in my life for as long as I can remember. Like Emily Gilmore, the matriarch of Gilmore Girls, outward appearances and the keeping of traditions have been a part of how she forms her role in the family. She doesn’t always show love and care through words, but instead through ensuring that our favorite foods were waiting for us at family dinners. She’s tried to impart her wisdom and ways upon us in the form of rules, dress codes, and sometimes way overstepping, but that has always been her trying to help us the only way she knew how. She has always filled the role of second mother, even if the weight of her traditional views feels heavy, the same way I interpret Rory’s relationship with Emily.

As for my mother, she has lived a life like no other as a figure skating coach, a world traveler, and a small business owner. I watched her battle cancer with little to no support while homeschooling two small, active children. And like Lorelai, she found her own ways to push against her parents’ tough ways to raise my sister and me as individuals. Most of all, she is and always will be the first fan of my writing. Much like Rory had fantastic examples within her own mother and grandmother, so have I, in these relationships full of compassion and self-discovery, which have impacted my voice as a writer.

Recently, the deep love and comfort my mom and I found in the show came to life even more when I gifted her tickets to attend the Warner Bros. Holidays Made Here Trip to Stars Hollow. We got to visit the Stars Hollow set on the Warner Bros. lot, and we spent the night eating our way through the iconic sites, celebrating our joy, and, most of all, stepping into the town we had spent our nights escaping. There was a deep moment of peace as I walked through the lot, and the show’s iconic score and dialogue played all around me. I might not be the writer I thought I would be, but I am the type of person I always wanted to be. That could be enough to someday make my own version of Stars Hollow real for me. Gilmore Girls found me when I needed it most, in a season of my life when I was filled with family commitments, generational trauma popping up at family dinners, and a struggle to make progress as a writer, all while being filled with a desire to run away back to my own hometown.

In a time of grief hanging over myself and loved ones, the optimism and joy of Gilmore Girls became a nightly ritual to relieve personal and professional stressors.

And now, when people try to tell me if I am a Lorelai or a Rory, I laugh. As a writer, I will always be a Rory, and that is empowering to me. And if that isn’t a testament to the Gilmore Girls writing, I don’t know what else is.

Noelle Cope is an actress, writer, and producer currently living in Los Angeles. Her debut collection of poetry Notes From The In-Between was released in 2024. To read more of her writing, please check out her Substack newsletter 26 Letters By Noelle.

If you want to take this little journal metaphor literally, Pluto’s has a ton of upcoming writing opportunities to help inspire you to fill your 2026 journals. Plus, we’re hosting a journal launch/workshop on February 1st. So grab your pen and get ready: there’s a brand new year of creativity ahead of us.

February 1st: Pluto’s x Unlucky Wishes Journal Launch & Workshop

Pluto’s is teaming up with Unlucky Wishes for a journal launch and workshop in Fullerton. A $35 ticket gets you a spot in the workshop, a journal, a drink, a pastry, and some cute poetry magnets. Stay tuned on Pluto’s socials for more info!

January 18th @ 10am: Pluto’s Virtual Writing Sprint

Once a month, Pluto’s holds an hour-long virtual writing sprint in our Substack chat. Subscribe and join us for a cozy hour of getting words on the page and bonding with fellow writers.

• The Oxbelly Retreat is accepting applications now through January 14th for the 2026 program, which will focus on screenwriting and fiction. More info here.

• Eaton Fire Collective is organizing a Black History Month exhibit to uplift the Altadena and Pasadena communities and celebrate Black History. Deadline for submissions is January 15th, and you can learn more here.

• Pencil Magazine is accepting handwritten writing submissions that fit the theme of “letter-writing” for their third issue until January 15th. More details here.

• Womanly Magazine is accepting pitches and submissions on the topics of loss, grief, and healing. Learn more here.

• The Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing is offering a number of fellowships for their summer conference. Check out a full list of opportunities and learn how to apply here.

• Narratively is accepting first-person stories “that focus on one moment, one day, one week, one season.” More details here.

• Poets & Writers has a bunch of online courses starting soon, including “Multilingual Linguistics” and “Starting and Finishing Stories and Novels.” Check them out here.

• The Burbank Library is holding its first-ever story slam at the Buena Vista branch on January 10th at 5pm.

• Local writers are reading at an evening of poetry at Heavy Manners Library in Echo Park on January 16th at 7pm.

• Also on January 16th, Underdog Bookstore in Monrovia is hosting their monthly open mic night.

• Be Nice Have Fun is hosting a silent book club for introverts on January 14th, and their monthly book club (reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf this month!) on January 18th.

Trusting your creative instinct! It can be easy to overthink and talk yourself out of an idea before you even get started with it, especially if you worry about how it might be perceived by an audience. But when you’re first starting a project, it’s important to put those pesky thoughts (both your own, and the ones that might come from other people) to the side so you can listen to your own creative instinct. Oftentimes, if you’re able to push through the overthinking and complete a project, you’ll be proud of what you’ve made — and it’ll probably resonate with other people, too.

How Dark the Beginning

By Maggie Smith

All we ever talk of is light–
let there be light, there was light then,

good light–but what I consider
dawn is darker than all that.

So many hours between the day
receding and what we recognize

as morning, the sun cresting
like a wave that won't break

over us–as if light were protective,
as if no hearts were flayed,

no bodies broken on a day
like today. In any film,

the sunrise tells us everything
will be all right. Danger wouldn't

dare show up now, dragging
its shadow across the screen.

We talk so much of light, please
let me speak on behalf

of the good dark. Let us
talk more of how dark

the beginning of a day is.

And, there are so many types of gifts and ways to give them. Gifts for others, and gifts for yourself. Gifts you buy at a store, and gifts that are far less tangible. So we put together a cozy gift guide of stuff perfect for writers, all sourced from local Los Angeles businesses. But we also want to give you all an extra gift that’s extra important to us: the gift of creativity. So mixed into our LA writers’ gift guide, you’ll find some special cozy season writing prompts to spark your creative light.

Whether you’re looking for gifts for your loved ones or a little creative inspiration for yourself, Pluto’s has got you covered.

Pluto’s Gifts for Writers

Writing Prompt #1: How does the end-of-the-year make you feel? Are you filled with relief, content, gratitude, regret, loneliness, hope…?

A journal for brainstorming a new novel idea, from Be Nice Have Fun

Writing Prompt #2: What is the color of December?

Beautiful pens worthy of documenting all your brilliant thoughts, from The Social Type

Writing Prompt #3: Imagine a glowing light that has the power to spark a transformation. What is that light, and what does it transform?

Ceremonial-grade matcha powder for a creative energy boost, from Sachi LA

Writing Prompt #4: What does comfort mean to you? What does your most comforting setting look like?

A mug to hold your matcha (or cozy drink of choice) while showing some LA bookstore pride, from The Last Bookstore

Writing Prompt #5: Imagine the world inside a snowflake. What magic does it contain?

An all-natural candle to help set the writing mood, from Glassell Candle Co.

Writing Prompt #6: Has the meaning of the holidays changed for you from your past to your present? What did it used to be and what is it now? What caused the shift?

Air plants to make your writing space feel even more alive, from Lundeen’s Gifts

Writing Prompt #7: Write a scene about an unlikely group of friends coming together to connect on a cold night.

A super-moisturizing balm to give your working hands some care during writing breaks, from Xēba Botánica.

Writing Prompt #8: What would be the perfect gift to you?

A bookish bandana, from the LA Public Library

Writing Prompt #9: What do you want to leave behind in 2025?

A writing class to get your creative juices flowing even more, from LA Writers Group

Writing Prompt #10: What is one New Year’s tradition that sets the tone of the year for you or starts the year off intentionally?

The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands to remind you that are magical worlds everywhere, from Stories Books & Cafe

Looking for more cozy writing time? Pluto’s is holding an hour-long virtual writing sprint in our Substack chat on Sunday, December 21st @ 10 am. Subscribe and join us for an hour of getting words on the page and bonding with fellow writers. We hope to see you there.

December 14th: Pluto’s End of Year Event

Pluto’s is hosting an end-of-the-year event in Pomona along with Poetry Peace LA. Stop by for poetry, music, community, and a special look at Pluto’s latest zine!

December 21 @ 10am: Pluto’s Virtual Writing Sprint

Once a month, Pluto’s holds an hour-long virtual writing sprint in our Substack chat. Subscribe and join us for a cozy hour of getting words on the page and bonding with fellow writers.

• The Button Poetry Chapbook Contest is open now through January 5th. Submit chapbook-length manuscripts here.

• Electric Literatur is accepting personal essays for their Personal Narrative contest now until December 14th. More info here.

• The Kenyon Review is offering a developmental editorial fellowship for both poetry and prose. The application is open until December 15th, and details can be found here.

• The CRAFT Memoir Excerpt and Essay Contest is open now through January 25th, and guest judge Rozane Gay will be reading submissions. More info here.

• Livina Press is accepting poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for their “Fairytales, Myths, and Legends” issue. The deadline is December 30th, and you can submit here.

• MCC Zines is accepting submissions for their “Holidays and Horns” digital zine. Submit prose here.

• Stories Books in Echo Park is hosting a reading of stories, essays, memoir, and more on December 7th.

• Also on December 7th, A Good Used Book in Glendale is hosting a Sunday Funday Market with food, crafts… and lots and lots of new and used books.

• Heavy Manners Library in Echo Park is hosting an open writing studio on December 5th and December 19th. Drop in and write alongside other writers!

• Writers Bloc is presenting a night of Shirley Jackson readings at The Ebell of Los Angeles Lounge on December 15th.

• Heavy Manners Library is also hosting an evening of poetry on December 15th.

Push through your first draft. Sometimes the scariest thing is a blank page, but all you need to do is start by getting some words down. You can’t edit a blank page, so you just need to treat that first draft like a mind dump. Get it all out with no pressure, and then you can refine it once you edit your next drafts.

Pluto’s began as a one-off event; I’d just moved to California on June 1st, 2023, and released a book later that month. I knew a handful of people here, but wanted to do a book launch event anyway. Some amazing people helped me put it together, and I fell in love with what we did. So I thought to myself, What if I do this again? And I did.

I first stepped into different creative scenes while in college: I wrote for local magazines, vended at markets, attended house shows and local festivals, student-led fashion shows and parties. Although I love all of these things, and still go out of my way to attend and support these, I found that little to none of these community offerings had anything to do with writers. Writers would often be the exception, one of the few creative practices excluded from being involved. I knew this wasn’t due to malice or intentional exclusivity; it’s just the way it was, the way it’s always been. Writing is a lonely practice that you do in the dark and quiet of your bedroom, don’t you know this?

When I moved to California and became involved in various creative scenes, this became my inspiration and driving force to shove my foot in the door. I sought out communities specifically dedicated to writers, hoping to find someone who was trying to carve the same path as me. I was honored by the number of open arms that reached out to embrace me and what I was trying to do. Yes, there is a great need for this, they’d tell me. I met and worked with other writers and organizers who offered me connections and ideas, invited me to read my own work at their events, became passionately entangled with the art I’d stumbled upon thousands of miles away from home. In the midst of this, I was disappointed with other places I’d find that claimed to be a safe space for writers, that posted open calls and public gatherings, only to shoo away any outsiders or beginners and have a high price barring entry to those who can’t afford their cost.

Pluto’s grew, and I vowed to be different, driven by the writers I’d met, who inspired and supported me. I told everyone what I wanted: affordability. Accessibility. Community. Creativity. A place for beginners and experts alike. A non-intimidating environment to hone your practice. Events that don’t cost hours of your hard-earned money. Opportunities for publication, resources, and more on a free or sliding-scale basis. Here, I told myself, there will be no barriers. There will just be people and art.

Whenever people would ask who runs Pluto’s, I’d smile and put my hands up, as if surrendering, and admit, It’s just me! Up until now, I’ve been behind the social media, the events, the flyers, pouring my soul and savings into creating these spaces, but I hesitate to say I’ve done it entirely on my own. I’ve learned the hard way that it really does take a village, and I’ve had my share of passersby throughout the years. Volunteers, friends, and lovers lending their hands for one event or another, collaborating with organizations that I’d cross my fingers and hope I align with, ships in the night that helped me build beautiful experiences before moving on. But things are different now; the truth is, I need you to stay.

One of my core beliefs, which has extended and echoed into Pluto’s, is that writing is not a solitary practice. We do not need to do this alone, nor should we. Although I implemented this in every event and workshop I’ve hosted, I hesitated to put it into practice when it came to my own work, to raising this baby. As Pluto’s has grown over the years, it reached a point where I knew I would not succeed if I kept going down this path alone and I wouldn’t be doing justice to the writers and communities that inspired me along the way. If it takes a village, I need to build one that will last.

Pluto’s was born from the desire and passion to showcase writers in a way that’s engaging, accessible, and affordable for any level in their creative and writing journeys, inspired by every hand I’ve held while creating this organization. I’ve laid the foundation and am still building what we are, what we can be, but now I don’t have to do it alone. I have a team to lean on, the same way you have Pluto’s to lean on for your work. Things are different now. I hope you’ll stay.

Paula Macena is a writer, author, and the founder and director of Pluto’s, a creative collective that highlights local poetry and music. Aside from also being featured in publications, her most recent poetry chapbook, When the World Ends This Time, was released in November 2025.

November 23rd @ 10am: Pluto’s First Writing Sprint

This Sunday, Pluto’s is holding an hour-long virtual writing sprint in our Substack chat. Subscribe and join us for a cozy hour of getting words on the page and bonding with fellow writers. We hope to see you there.

Beginning Pluto’s over two years ago was my attempt at reaching community, although I didn’t know it at the time. My intention with that first event was just an excuse for celebration— wanting to be around people, in a new place, during a new era of my life, having just moved across the country from East to West. I had no idea what it would turn into, what the fire ignited under me would lead me to build.

Now, we’ve reached the point where we’re ticking off a list of goals, all revolving around accessibility, inclusivity, and community. One of the big things on this list was beginning this newsletter, a place where writers and other creatives can turn to for resources, inspiration, and more.

All my life, I’ve wanted to be a writer, and I’ve heard a thousand excuses on why this is a bad idea, primarily relating to the lack of stability and the loneliness that comes with it. Pluto’s combats that. This is not a solitary practice; we lean on each other, we look to each other, we hold each other’s hands and guide our pens to a better story.

Welcome to another little piece of what makes Pluto’s a community by writers, for writers. We’re happy you found us.

— Paula Macena, Pluto’s Founder & Director

November 23rd @ 10am: Pluto’s First Writing Sprint

Once a month, Pluto’s is holding an hour-long virtual writing sprint in our Substack chat. Subscribe and join us for a cozy hour of getting words on the page and bonding with fellow writers.

November: Pluto’s Zine Release

Our next zine is coming out later this month. More to come soon!

December 14th: Pluto’s End of Year Event

More details soon! Stay tuned on our Instagram!

• Bottlecap Press is currently accepting submissions for their ongoing multi-genre chapbook series, Bottlecap Features. More info here.

• LitMag is open for submissions for poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Submit here.

• The Perugia Press Prize contest is open to poets who identify as women or gender-expansive, now through November 15th. More info here.

• The Gunpowder Press Alta California Chapbook Prize is accepting submissions from Latinx poets now through November 17th. Submit here.

• The Fall 2025 Story Contest from Narrative Magazine is open now through November 21st. It’s open to fiction and nonfiction writers, and you can submit here.

• The Meadowlark Press Birdy Poetry Prize is accepting full-length poetry manuscripts until December 1st. More info here.

• The Slipstream Press Annual Poetry Chapbook Contest is accepting submissions until December 1st. You can submit here.

• The Narratively Memoir Prize is open for personal essay submissions now through December 7th. More details here.

• November is the time of year when lots of writers try to write novels, and although the organization National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) isn’t running anymore, there’s no reason we all can’t still do our best to get words on the page this month. If you want a little extra nudge to help you get 50,000 words written in November, the Reedsy Novel Sprint has a challenge you can sign up for here to help you keep your writing goals on track and have the chance to earn some cash prizes for your writing, too.

• Interested in playwriting and theatrical writing? The Hollywood Fringe is hosting a free creative workshop series on November 9th. More info here.

• Village Well Books in Culver City regularly holds morning writing sessions with Lit Angels Writing Studio. Check out the next session and more info here.

• Da Poetry Lounge in Leimert Park holds an open mic every Tuesday. Check out the details here.

• Beyond Baroque in Venice holds free fiction and poetry workshops on Zoom every week. More info here.

Did you know it can take up to two months for your brain to recognize something as a habit? That’s why the age-old advice of writing every day is so valuable. Even if it’s just for a few minutes at a time, if you build that muscle memory of writing every day, soon it will become second nature for you.

An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire

By Gwendolyn Brooks

In a package of minutes there is this We.

How beautiful.

Merry foreigners in our morning,

we laugh, we touch each other,

are responsible props and posts.

A physical light is in the room.

Because the world is at the window

we cannot wonder very long.

You rise. Although

genial, you are in yourself again.

I observe

your direct and respectable stride.

You are direct and self-accepting as a lion

in Afrikan velvet. You are level, lean,

remote.

There is a moment in Camaraderie

when interruption is not to be understood.

I cannot bear an interruption.

This is the shining joy;

the time of not-to-end.

On the street we smile.

We go

in different directions

down the imperturbable street.