Friends, family, fellow authors, and cherished readers,
I have fantastic news to share. It’s been a while since my first international publication – with the poem “Blizzard” in the UK-based literary journal, Sylvia Magazine. I am happy to share that my second international publication recently came out, in Samjoko Magazine, which is based in South Korea.
“The Archer,” “The Names of Love,” and “Sweet Summertime” are, at their heart, love poems. They explore the boundaries, the edges, the end, and the aftermath of love – from the things we carry with us when a relationship ends to that which is left behind.
They are extremely personal poems. I feel that as an author, I cannot express the nuances of my truth without being willing to become incredibly vulnerable before an audience. The poems named above are incredibly close to my heart, perhaps because they speak of my lived experiences of what is left behind upon the death of love. I am always searching for some great and lasting truth to impart unto the world – but these poems contain small truths both mundane and profound. Perhaps they don’t need to hold great and lasting truths, so long as they uphold my truth.
I am incredibly honored to be part of an international literary community, to have my words spread across the English-speaking world, and to watch as my practice grows, develops, and deepens.
I am also humbled to have an audience. I still remember the days in my youth when I would write and my only audience was my beautiful, talented Mother, who also writes and continues to encourage me to this day and remains the first to hear my work – and my beloved Grandma, who printed out everything I wrote and who left us far too soon. May she rest in peace.
I wouldn’t be half the writer I am today without these two strong, savvy women, who both believed in me before I believed in myself.
In that vein, I would like to reveal – especially for the new writers who might be reading – that “The Archer” was rejected 27 separate times before finding a home in Samjoko. But I believed in it, so I kept submitting and filing away the rejection letters and updating my Excel document until it landed on the right desk. Thank you to the editors at Samjoko for believing in my work, and for believing in me.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank long-time readers and supporters of my literary practice and welcome those of you who are just discovering my work for the first time. Please be sure to stop by my updated Publications Page to see more poems and essays of mine as well as interviews with me.
I wish each of you all the very best.
May inspiration find you in unexpected places,
Caitlin Cacciatore
