Poetry News, Social Media Update, & My Newsletter's Return

For a little while longer, you can head into select bookstores across the U.S. to find copies of Issue 33 Winter 2024 of Door Is a Jar Literary Magazine, which includes my poem "A Moth with Hummingbird Wings." It sounds like this issue will be on newstands through February 2025. You can also order copies on the magazine's website. 

Starting February 1, 2025, you'll be able to pre-order Issue 34 Spring 2025 of Door Is a Jar, in which you'll be able to find four more of my poems, including one that I think my readers of dark fiction will enjoy. It's called "Why Does She Have to Write Such Dark Things?" The official release date is March 3, 2025.  

In other news, I have stopped using Instagram and Facebook. While these sites have allowed me to promote my work and establish ties with so many dear people over the years, I'm uncomfortable using Meta any longer and condemn their newest policies that open the door even wider for disinformation and discrimination. I deleted my Twitter account last fall.

If you typically follow my news through social media, I created a solution: My long-ignored author newsletter is returning this month! Please sign up to receive updates about my upcoming publications and events using the following form:

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You can also find me on Bluesky. Here's my handle: 

catwintersbooks@bsky.social 

All the best to you as we all find our way through 2025! Currently, writing poetry and working in Portland theaters are both helping me cope with everything, but do not expect my poems to be sweet, gentle things. 😏 

Warmest wishes, 

 Cat Winters

"A Moth with Hummingbird Wings" Is Now Available

What a tremendous honor to see my poem "A Moth with Hummingbird Wings" in the pages of Issue 33 Winter 2024 of Door Is A Jar Literary Magazine, which published this week! 

The publication comes in both print and digital formats, and you can find copies in several Barnes & Nobles and other U.S. bookstores. Please visit the Door Is a Jar website for more info. 

Thanks to Door Is a Jar Literary Magazine not only for publishing "A Moth with Hummingbird Wings," but for acquiring four more of my poems, coming in March 2025. 

Winters Poetry Is Coming This Winter

I'm so happy to announce that Door Is a Jar Literary Magazine will be publishing my poem "A Moth with Hummingbird Wings" this December! The piece will appear in Issue 33 Winter 2024, which will be available in print from various Barnes & Nobles, Books-a-millions, and indie bookstores across the U.S. You can subscribe to the Door Is a Jar Newsletter and keep an eye on my website and social media accounts for updates.

I loved writing poems throughout my childhood and teenage years but left poetry behind when I decided to focus primarily on novels in adulthood. Then, from 2017 to 2018, I wrote numerous Edgar Allan Poe-inspired poems for The Raven's Tale and remembered the magic and satisfaction I experienced when crafting poetry in my youth.

In April 2020, shortly after I underwent a lumpectomy for breast cancer, while I awaited the start of my radiation treatments, I began writing poetry by hand in a journal. It was my way of coping with cancer and my separation from many of my loved ones during the terrifying early months of the pandemic. A documentation of the chaos of 2020, chronicled in verse. 

This past April, because it was National Poetry Month, I challenged myself to start submitting some of those poems to literary magazines. I had actually written "A Moth with Hummingbird Wings" shortly before it was accepted, but it was also fueled by my experiences of the past 4+ years. 

We'll see if any of my other pieces find homes in the near future. For now, poetry has been helping me stay in touch with my love of writing while I continue to heal from the novel-writing burnout that I've discussed in a previous post.