rise above (we're gonna rise above)

Dear You—

I don't celebrate Valentine's Day anymore because it's always a disappointing bummer. Instead, I celebrate Henry Rollins's birthday. What have I done to celebrate today? I worked on Bone & Ink Press stuff (fitting, since Henry's old publishing company, 2.13.61, was what made me vow at age 16 that I'd one day start a press of my own), drank a lot of (black) coffee, and reminded myself of the wise words of Travis Fristoe (RIP): There's a reason "Rise Above" is the best Black Flag song.

I was pretty stuck, creatively, for the first month or so of 2020, and wasn't doing great, mental health-wise, either. I'm still not in the happiest place right now (it's winter, & I'm broke as hell, blah blah blah etc.), but I'm pushing through. Trying to rise above. And I have started creating again. See, I've been trying too hard to pigeonhole myself. Thinking if I wanted to "make it" and be serious about my career I had to focus mostly on writing, and not just on writing, but mostly on poetry. But my creativity has always been polymorphous, and when I'm working on several projects across several mediums, I tend to get stuck less—and when I do get stuck on one thing, well, I can just play around with something else. So right now I’m still working on poetry, of course, but I’m also writing fiction and nonfiction again, and I’ve started doing xerox/collage art again, and I’m even working on a musical project.

The other thing that was keeping me stuck also involved ideas of career & being professional & making it. I’ve been holding back on self-publishing/DIY stuff, because of that whole “previously published/self-published stuff is ineligible for...” mindset in the lit-world at large. But I’m happier when I just get my stuff out into the world, whether that’s on my blog, in zine-form, or in a more traditionally-published format. So I’m going to start sharing some of my newer and/or unpublished stuff here and on my blog, and I’m going to try and publish more zines this year than I have in the past few.

—

My book, The Loneliest Show On Earth, comes out in five days—February 18, baby! Joanna C. Valente put it on a list of five books to watch out for in 2020, which made me so happy I can’t even. And I’m having an online release party for it. I’ll be going live, reading some excerpts, answering some questions, doing a giveaway, and who knows what else I may get up to?

I’ll be going live on YouTube. (And if you can’t make it to the party, the video will be saved to my page so you can watch it later.)

In the meantime, check out the companion playlist I made: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7m1cznCdL54nnfy0onJD0r?si=7kF6_28nSGafdULjwtosgQ

& if we never meet again, remember this—
all the world is a stage dive // we’re gonna rise above,
Jessie Lynn