My 2020 writing round-up

Happy New Year! Every January, I try to pull together a round-up of projects I accomplished over the last year and set goals for the following. But here we are at the end of January, and I’m still processing all the peaks and valleys of 2020. One thing I learned last year was not to set personal or professional goals during a pandemic, aside from survival. So this list will mostly focus on the things that did happen in 2020 rather than lay out goals that probably won’t happen in 2021.

I wrote a book! Equus Rising: How the Horse Shaped U.S. History (illustrated by Montana artist Robert Spannring) hit the shelves in May 2020. I’m going to admit it: I’m really proud of this book. It’s not a bestseller. The monetary reward has not exactly been impressive. But the responses I’ve received from strangers, friends, and family all over the country have blown me away. Knowing that people have spent some of their precious time reading my work is extremely humbling. Knowing that they have enjoyed it and learned from it is, to a writer, an unfathomable privilege. I’ll never stop saying this: we cannot make progress as a country if we ignore the realities of our past. I hope Equus Rising adds to your knowledge of our history.

I (accidentally secretly) launched a publishing company called Hill Press. It wasn’t meant to be a secret, but, as you’re well aware, the year didn’t go quite as planned. As for many of you, family obligations largely relegated my professional life to the back burner as 2020 progressed. Hill Press doesn’t even have a shingle up on the internet yet (besides our new Instagram account), but we’ll get there. I look forward to sharing more with you about the company and our mission in a more official way this year. In the meantime, here’s a hint about where we’re headed: we’ll focus on identifying new voices and publishing perspective-shifting work.

Hill Press published our first short story collection, Stray Dogs and Saviors: Stories, by Erin Connors, in December 2020. You can learn more about Erin’s fantastic debut collection here.

I wrote several shorter pieces throughout the year. Here are a few of my favorites from around the web:

Most of us won’t die from COVID-19. But looking beyond the basic statistics can help us to better assess and mitigate the virus’ risk to our personal health.

We’ve been having the wrong conversation about abortion. Let’s change it.

Our country has long excluded people of color from accessing the power of the horse

Becoming a more responsible consumer of health and science news in the age of COVID-19

I also became a volunteer for an incredible nonprofit, CORRAL Riding Academy, over the summer and started contributing to their blog. Here are a few of my favorite posts for CORRAL:

Teaching the process of resilience

The adultification of Black girls

Health disparities illustrate the heavy burden of structural racism

Thank you for all your support of my creative endeavors this year. Your readership and encouragement make it all worthwhile. As you gear up for the uncertainty of Pandemic Year 2, I encourage you to set low expectations and celebrate small successes as if they were major victories—because if we’ve learned anything in the last year, it’s that in a pandemic, small success are major victories.