National Poetry Writing Month Has Been My Most Productive Time of the Year (Thus Far) 📖✨
my thoughts on themes, poems, & my fourth chapbook - welcome to The Slush Pile!
Issue 45 of the Slush Pile finds me at perhaps my most productive yet in terms of my writing process and practice. Now, I don’t like measuring myself and my worth by how much writing I produce in a single season. As I’ve written about before, we are all writers and are still writers regardless of how much (or how little) the work gets done. We have to learn to forgive ourselves when life happens. The state of our mental or physical health might require us to rest. We have so many responsibilities to our loved ones, our jobs, our school and academic lives, our partners and spouses and young ones. The to-do list piles up and never seems to end, and we can become overwhelmed, then guilty for not allowing our writing the time it needs to thrive and get done.
It’s no wonder why NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) is often a source of stress or contempt for so many. Much like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), the former is an annual challenge for poets to write a poem every day. Poets share themes and prompts, and by the end of the month, you should have 30 drafts of 30 new poems, almost the length of a full-length collection. Easy, right? Well, unless you don’t have a million other things going on, it can be a daunting, intimidating, and nearly impossible task.
For a long time, I have felt this way. But it wasn’t until I actually started trying to do it for the first time in April 2022 that I found a sense of epiphany, power, and satisfaction. Like I said earlier, I don’t like tying my sense of worth and my productivity so tightly together because all it does is make me miserable and listless when I haven’t written much of anything. But I found myself having fun and when I was stuck for ideas or themes, I would turn to the prompts that poet friends of mine posted on social media. I ended up completing the challenge and most, if not all, of the poems ended up being the manuscript of my second chapbook, STREAMING SERVICE: season two, which I published two months later in June.
In many ways, it made me more creative and committed to my work. I was no longer just waiting around for inspiration to strike, which had been my previous approach. Instead, I was seeking it for myself and writing even when the poem turned out “bad” or mediocre. At least there was something on paper, on the page that I could fix and revise rather than nothing at all for me to do something with. It’s true after all—the writing doesn’t get done unless it gets done.
After 2022, I decided to take a long break from poetry altogether. Publishing a book takes a lot out of you and sometimes moving on to the next thing right away isn’t always possible. So I threw myself into my journalism. I applied for my MFA and was rejected from every single school. I started an Instagram Live podcast. I joined a writing group. When I did play with poetry, I wrote slowly, carefully and worked on a single poem for months at a time until I decided to submit it for publication to a small lit mag. I applied to grad school for my MLIS degree. I was more intentional about how I filled my time.
Fast forward to April 2025 and I literally can’t be pried away from NaPoWriMo, from poetry, from writing anywhere from one to four poems a day (yes, that has happened once so far). Perhaps this is cheating the rules of the challenge (and it definitely is, to work and write ahead) but I’m too obsessed with my work to care.
I wake up at 3 in the morning to write a poem and don’t get on with my day until 7am. I hear snippets of lines while I’m in the shower or on a walk with my dog. The beginnings of poems come so easily now because of how often I write and exercise my writing muscles, not to mention all the poetry collections I’ve been reading lately. I’m constantly outdoing myself, writing a draft of a poem than the one I wrote the day before. We’re a little over halfway into the challenge and I’m *this* close to finishing the first draft of my fourth poetry chapbook manuscript way ahead of my self-imposed deadline.
Yes, you read that right, y’all. My fourth poetry chapbook that I’m almost done with is STREAMING SERVICE: the series finale, the third/final installment of my STREAMING SERVICE series and the sequel to STREAMING SERVICE: season two! It is slated to come out next year in spring 2026 (to give myself enough time to revise, finalize, market, pitch, and plan) and I couldn’t be more excited for y’all to read this new iteration of golden shovel poems inspired by TV show dialogue. It is some of my best work yet, heavily influenced by the rhythms of my life, a testament to my consistent writing practice, a building up of the foundation I laid down in SSS2, and an exciting evolution of my craft and the themes I’ve been meditating on. As with the other installments, I address a variety of different topics but ensure that they are all in conversation with one another in some way.
If you’re not subscribed already, be sure to do so today so you can keep up to date and be the first in line to see the cover and synopsis reveal of SSTSF, receive event news, as well as take advantage of special discounts and deals on my books!
I know NaPoWriMo isn’t for everyone and I definitely don’t do it every year. But both times I have done it, I have found a new part of myself that is hungry to write and excited to write every day and motivated to meet, even exceed deadlines. Two of my poetry collections have been conceived and born this way, and I couldn’t be more grateful to this challenge for encouraging me to get off my behind and just do it, get the work done. This is probably my most productive writing year yet and I look forward to all the projects I’ll be putting out into the world in the future.
Before you go, as another special subscriber-only surprise, please use the code STREAM25 to get 25% off on all physical copies of my books in my BigCartel shop from now until May 6, 2025! This includes the LOS ANGELES zine that I published with my dear friend Paula Macena to support incarcerated firefighters in LA! Shop now and get ready for STREAMING SERVICE: the series finale!
notes from the writer’s desk ✍️
my favorite recently pub’d pieces:
boyhood, The Garlic Press
updates:
⭐️AVAILABLE TO ORDER!⭐️ amor. is my third poetry chapbook and it’s out NOW and available to purchase from Bottlecap Press! This project was born out of a need to document the origins of my relationship with my partner and subsequent life together. It’s about love, honesty, respect, healing, and longing, and I hope you enjoy it whether you’re in love yourself or just love reading works about love. Purchase your copy here!
⭐️AVAILABLE TO ORDER!⭐️ LOS ANGELES, the zine anthology I co-edited with my friend and poet Paula Macena is officially out! Please place your orders here! All proceeds from the zine go towards the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, which supports incarcerated fire crews through scholarships, training, certification, and job acquisition upon release, with the ultimate goal of ending mass incarceration across California. Order today and get 25% off with the code STREAM25, along with my poetry chapbooks!
⭐️AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER!⭐️ I’m so excited to announce that my debut children’s book, Queer Latine Heroes, is now available for preorder!! The book spotlights past and present queer heroes from Latin America and the U.S. and is forthcoming from Jessica Kingsley Publishers on September 18, 2025. Find all the options to preorder here!
⭐️WATCH MY TEDXTALK!⭐️ I’m thrilled to share that my TEDx talk, “The Power of Stories in Representing Our World” is now LIVE on YouTube! It would mean the world to me if you could watch, like, comment, and share with your classrooms, group chats, and everyone you know. Thank you for your support! Watch the talk here!
resources:
Looking for book recommendations? Check out my Bookstagram and TikTok to keep up with what I’m reading and loving right now! On TikTok, you’ll also get more snippets of my everyday writing life and lifestyle/fashion content. See you there!
other stories i’m loving 📖
currently reading:
Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz
currently watching:
The Residence, S1
currently listening to:
“Push 2 Start” by Tyla
all my love,
sofía xx