2021 Book Goals

Every good writer must also read. Somebody somewhere said something like that, I'm sure. 

So this year I want to be intentional about hitting the books! It's been a long time since college, so I get to chose the shit I want. So I'm going to try to knock out 24 books this year. That's 2 books per month. They can also be graphic novels, because I do heart me a good graphic novel. Big props to all my friend recs! Maybe I'll try to whip out some reviews to share.

My list (Probably not read in sequential order):

1. The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. Children of Virtue & Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi 
3. The Unicorn & The Lady
4. Gender Failure by Ivan E. Coyote
5. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenster
   
6. Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
7. The Kraken Lord and the Eater of the Sun by E.E. Ottoman
8. How Long 'til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin
9. How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
10. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
11. This is How you Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar
12. Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong
13. Naked in Death J.D. Robb
14. Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
15. How to Talk to a Goddess by Emily Croy Barker
16. The Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
17. The City We Became by N.K. Jemison
18. The untitled second novel of Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (coming out 2021)
19. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
20. Aetherbound by E.K. Johnston
21. The Craft of Love by E.E. Ottoman
22. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
23. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 
24. Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York by Elon Green

Also, internet friends, I am no longer active on GoodReads (although this blog auto populates there). You can find me over at the Story Graph. My username is kit_steitz. There are no author pages, just reader pages, and that's cool too!

I love it when y'all throw some bones my way, and normally I would be pimping my work at the end of this blog, but this month I want ya'll (white folks like me) to go buy a book by a Black poet or prose writer (do it every month! But if you need a starting point, choose now). If you haven't read Rita Dove, audre lorde, Nnedi Okorafor, Tracy Deonn, Tomi Adeyemi, or the actual depth and wealth of Black authors that make up the fabric of our literary works past and present, then you need to catch up. You are missing out on whole universes of actual magic. 

Much love and luck on your book goals this year, my dear readers!

Love,

Kit

Twenty Twenty Won

 Howdy All! 

We're well into 2021 and have already had an attempted coup at the White House. It feels a little ridiculous to be blogging about anything besides that, right now, but others have said it more succinct and powerfully .

So I'm going to indulge in some positivity and dedicate this blog to a summary of all the creative things that happened in my 2020. 

Accomplished

• Audible of my chapbook a record of night, produced & narrated by Erin Knowles
• Put out a paper copy of a record of night 💓
• Opened a ko-fi.com/KitSteitz account to work on my hustle
• Started a poetry project for August and completed it
• August project readings in December

So in a year that was one of the darkest in my (our) timeline, I feel pretty good about that shit. 

I don't know what this year will bring. Hopefully not a Fascist takeover. Really got my fingers and toes all crossed we avoid that, y'all. Every year I have to find new things to motivate me, to get me moving and kick me from dreaming to creating. Dreamers create, but also sometimes we just drink coffee and think really hard about it, then wander off and pet our dogs. 

Speaking of pawfect dogs of 2020, this is my dawg Gentle Sir Nugget and he is perfect and wonderful.

Anyway, around this time every year, I create super lofty goals for the year but honestly, I just throw ideas at a wall and see which one sticks. You do what you can do, when you can do it.

Dreams for 2021

• Werk werk werk on my novels (work on my fear about those novels, too)
• Prepare and publish August project Chapbook
• Maybe a few live poetry readings? YT live or FB live? questions, questions
• Collab with at least one fabulous human
• Consume craft-related podcasts & essays etc., etc
• Maybe another poetry-month project?
• Maybe work on that ridiculous queer space opera podcast

IDK, felt cute, might not accomplish any of these later. 

As always, if you like (love) this content and want to support my writing outside of the big bad projects, and read supporter-only content, you can buy me a cuppa at ko.fi. You can also purchase my chapbook & audible of poetry, a record of night at Amazon. If you're so inclined, you can also follow my author page at goodreads or follow me on Twitter. 

Please show me some love and leave a comment, review, or rating on any of these platforms! Have an awesome day, my friends.