I am a feral little sister who must be fended off
(but I got to wear that dress as a hand-me-down a few years later)
photos
Fences talk, books win
It is still dark when I walk home from the bus, evenings. I was not expecting a glowing rabbit on Harold Street.
I like January’s honest cold, better than the frequent chilly setbacks of springtime that start in February around here. Still, the last several photos I took on neighborhood walks seem to be of fences with a certain aesthetic:
when Halloween decorations are too good to take down
not sure which holiday this was for
strange…how exactly?
Turns out The Bread Book is an anarcho-communist manual. I tried the first few pages but it wasn’t for me.
On a brighter note, this morning I checked Twitter and remembered it was ALA Youth Media Awards day! I live on the west coast and am not a librarian, so I will probably always experience it in silence, sipping coffee in my bathrobe while feeling celebratory bursts.
My favorite book of 2019, Sal and Gaby Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez, won the Pura Belpré Author Award! 
I don’t read a lot of picture books, but one I loved, Infinite Hope by Ashley Bryan, won a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. It’s autobiographical, with many excerpts from Bryan’s letters home during World War II, when he was in an all-Black company stationed on Omaha Beach during D-Day, burying fallen soldiers and shuttling out to the ships to unload gear as a stevedore. It’s also about how he stayed alive as an artist in the face of racism and war. A treasure. 
And this was the first year that the American Indian Youth Literature awards got announced at this event, instead of separately a month or two later. The Middle Grade Book winner is Indian No More, written by the late Charlene Willing McManis (Umpqua/Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde) with Traci Sorell (Cherokee), and with this beautiful cover art by Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota, Mohegan, Muscogee Creek): 
In it, Regina is a kid when her nation loses federal recognition in the 1950s, and her family ends up moving away to LA, where the other kids only know about Plains Indians, through the distortion of TV and movies (so they think she’s weird and fake). Its publication was a collaborative labor of love among several Native and POC women, and seeing a kids’ book about disenrollment (and near where I live) feels important.
Stonewall honor!
my Christmas Eve book won an Alex award!
Newbery Honor: I haven’t read this one yet but asked the library to buy it and they said yes!
#commutegraffiti
![Stenciled poster “THE END IS [Bill Nye’s face]](https://hollyhein.com/wp-content/uploads/endisnye-e1560011312362.jpg)
Last day of spring break
Campus errands took me past a belated Holi dance party today.
On the way back, another plaza was strewn with Wilderness First Aid practice subjects, each with two or three people trying to revive them. I tried to take a photo of that too, but it Failed to Save. :-O
Chapbook photos
I can see I had better add product photography to my list of independent publishing skills to learn… but here are a few shots of Non-Nutritive Boyfriend.
The story is submitted to one literary magazine. I couldn’t resist: I’d be so tickled to see it in One Story! So I won’t be distributing or selling any chapbooks until I get a rejection or until the story has been published and rights have reverted to me. Either way, that will give me some weeks to rejuvenate and then go back to folding and binding, build up an inventory. I think I can still send a copy to my mom and dad in the meantime, though. :)
Next up is applying for an Oregon Literary Fellowship. Consider it if you’re a writer living in Oregon! There’s no entry fee, you don’t have to chase down letters of recommendation, and if you don’t win you can apply again next year. I haven’t found a down side yet. Though I am staring at question B: “Describe the main concerns of your work, or something about your process or intent.” So reasonable…so hard.