In 2010, PANK Magazine was the first literary journal I ever submitted to. Seven years later, I am damn excited to say my story, “I Dream of Jeannie,”* is on their homepage (direct link here)! And damn thankful this writerly dream has become reality.
*tw sexual violence
2014 has been such an amazing year — one of the most exciting and surprising of my life. In it, I finished up my first term in UNLV’s MFA program & started my second, traveled my ass off, and got a few stories/essays published, too.
January: Published the essay “in an effort to resist leaving every piece ‘untitled'” in Gravel Magazine and the story “Love Letter to Lady Lazarus” in the Winter Issue of Five [Quarterly]. Road-tripped with Ms. FILA to Los Angeles, California to read at Five [Quarterly]‘s Winter Issue launch party. Saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
February: Published the story “When the Animals Turned on You” in the “Monsters” special issue of Gesture Literary Journal and read at the Fort Collins, Colorado issue launch party digitally via Skype.
March: Visited the Pacific Northwest for the first time to attend AWP in Seattle, Washington. Road-tripped to present a creative reading at the University of Nevada, Reno’s interdisciplinary conference on the material implications of risk. Visited Lake Tahoe while in Reno.
April: Presented a creative reading at the Far West Popular Culture Association’s conference in Las Vegas.
May – June: Traveled to Spain! After being awarded the University of Memphis’ Talbot International Scholarship, I spent over a month writing in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, and Alicante, Spain.
Also in June: Won Five [Quarterly]‘s second-annual E-Chapbook competition with my short collection of stories, See & Be Seen & Be Scene. Was interviewed by the Las Vegas affiliate of NPR, KNPR news, regarding the contest & publication.
July: The essay “Coronation of Mrs. Presley” was published in the print journal Soundings Review.
August – September: Visited the Grand Canyon for the first time! Also, started my second term at UNLV.
October: Published the essay “Still Writing About Grief” in The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review and completed their “Selfie Interview.”
November: Friendsgiving, finals, FILA.
December: Published “Chimp” in Tahoma Literary Review, in print and online, in addition to a digital reading of the work.
This final day of 2014 just so happens to denote the launch of Tahoma Literary Review volume 1 issue 2, which includes my short story, “Chimp,” on page 75! There’s also a recorded reading of the story.
Not a bad way to end the year, I gotta say.
kaylamillerwrites.com 