I’m hitting pause on my WIP this week for a number of reasons. But one of them is due to this: The more involved and exposure I get to the publishing world (those w/agents not poetry Twitter) the less I actually want to be a part of it. It feels so toxic & racist &

Tokenizing and and and and... I am wondering if that is really where and how I want my work to live. Is that the environment for me and my work and my goals/my stories? This is not a slight or judgement on any other writers out there. Just something I’m going to have to work out

for myself. I’m new here(like they say) and it’s all a bit jarring and disheartening tbh. I’ll say this, I’m “lucky” I probably wouldn’t/won’t need an agent to get my WIP published if I chose to go w/my current publisher. BUT some of me would like a “bigger” publisher so my work

Can reach more people. But at what cost? I know agent author relationships can be great. And I also know they can be difficult. I know an author may change agents several times during their career. I know none of this easy. I know it’s a business at the end of the day...

And I guess I just need to decide what matters most to me and what I really want & how I want this new work that seems to require agents and editors just to get a pass code to let you in the bloody gate) to live in the world. So many middle men/white women just to tell your story

And I’m already tired...