I can officially announce what’s been brewing behind the scenes: my chapbook of poetry, This Is How I, was accepted for publication by Bottlecap Press!

About a month or two ago, I put together a chapbook of poems. I had a large handful of love poems I had written to my partner back in 2024-2025, and many of them had titles that started with “This Is How I”; for example, “This Is How I Ask You To Stay,” and “This Is How I Supernova.” I typed up some of the other love poems I had written to him, gave them similar titles, and then put them in the chapbook.

I worked on the chapbook for about a month, maybe a little more, and finally decided it was polished and ready to be sent out. I submitted it to a few places but heard back from Bottlecap Press first. The editor/publisher said that he loved my chapbook and would be honored to work with me, and here we are! The handmade cover is below.

This has been a lesson for me in the ways that I frequently sell myself short. Even though I loved this chapbook and the poems in it, I didn’t think there would be much interest in love poetry. Or, at least, my love poetry. Because even though I put my heart and soul into each poem, I kept hearing this cynical voice in my mind saying, “So what? Only you care about this.” But, never one to be bested by my own insecurities, I chose to submit the chapbook anyway. I reminded myself of the erotic poems by e.e. cummings and the many books on love written by bell hooks; not that I’m a poet/writer anywhere near their caliber, but their writings on love are very popular which means there is an audience for love poetry.

I came extremely close to not submitting this chapbook anywhere, and if I had given in to my insecurities, my self-doubts, my internal monologue of negativity, I wouldn’t have this book in the process of being published right now. And here is the lesson: if our anxieties and insecurities are telling us not to do something, it’s often a sign that that’s exactly what we should be doing. I believed in myself and my work and I sent in my chapbook to an incredible indie publisher in Los Angeles, and the result of that belief in myself was an acceptance letter.

I will have a poetry book published this year.
Because I chose to dare greatly, as Brene Brown would say.

This lit a fire in me. It was the win I needed to get myself into the right headspace. Yesterday I wrote over six new poems, and some of them were the start of a new poetry/cross genre project that I’m sure will take a very long time to write but has been on my mind for years now. We’ll see where the inspiration takes me.

If you want to support a queer poet during Pride month, or if you want to support an indie poet, please check out my chapbook, This Is How I, available now from Bottlecap Press!