Welcome back to our newsletter! We’re really excited to see more of you joining us on this adventure. If you’re reading this after clicking through on social media, make sure you’re subscribed so we can land directly in your inbox once a month:

Over the past month, the editors and social team have discussed two main things regarding the newsletter: (1) What should go in this thing? and (2) How can we get more of the OKD-verse involved? While (1) will always be something of a work in progress — we’ve got our basic format, but we’re also staying flexible — we’ve started to answer it through how we’re approaching (2).

First, we’ve recruited a small group from our reading team to contribute to the newsletter! We’re thrilled to have a feature from Fiction Reader Jeanette the Writer this month about approaching your writing goals through the medium of bingo, and we’ve got more perspectives teed up for future newsletters. And second, we recently put out an open call for past Okay Donkey contributors to share anything they’d like to promote, and boy, did they deliver! You’ll see the first batch of promos below and on our social media this week (and, in general, during the first week of each month).

Thanks again for sticking with us — we’re so happy you’re here.

🫏 OKD Updates

Our newsletter readers are the first to know: we’ve got new Poetry Readers.

A big welcome to Sharon Zhang, Mercedes Rodriguez, Steven C. Wright, Liz Kingsley, Amanda Roth, Zoe Reay-Ellers, and Sarosh Nandwani! We’ll be introducing them more formally on our socials soon so you can say hi.

🌟 Kickstart Your Year with Writing Bingo

by Jeanette the Writer, OKD Fiction Reader

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got shiny object syndrome when it comes to your writing goals. Since picking one path and sticking with it is for those resolutioners, I decided to gamify my goals and leave it open to many directions. Introducing: Writer Bingo.

First off, I am NOT going for a total blackout on this card. That would be majorly overwhelming. However, I did make sure to align my goals in ways that would make sense with each bingo line. For example, if I signed up for a writing workshop, I could go for a vertical bingo and use that time to finish editing my novel. It would likely lead me to writing in a new place too. Or I could go horizontal from the workshop and use a cool notebook for that class and write new stories that I can submit to lit mags. You get the idea.

Now, go out and make your own! (I used a template in Canva.) Consider all the different literary paths you’re interested in, and strategically place your goals in lines that make sense for you. Once you start peppering a few on there naturally, you can strategize where you want to go next.

Happy goal setting!

Some (free!) Canva templates Jeanette likes

• Rustic Autumn Bingo Card

• Pink and Red Calligraphy Bingo Card

• Purple Bingo Card

📚 January at OKD

• “After His Mother Throws Him Out, Nicky Spends the Night on the High School Roof,” flash fiction by Kathryn Kulpa

• “Bright Invitations,” poetry by Dani Janae

• “I Found a Stone Under My Skin,” flash fiction by Amanda Parrack

• “They Look Dead, but They are Just Dreaming,” poetry by Amanda Chiado

• “Micros About Marriage,” flash fiction by Amber Burke

• “The Summer I Watched ‘Boyfriend takes care of you while sick’ ASMR Videos on Repeat,” poetry by Danielle Shorr

🔎 Check Us Out

We love when past contributors keep us updated on their lives! If your work has ever appeared in OKD, reach out via our contact form and tell us about your new book, project, album, etc. We’ll give you a shoutout on our socials and here in the newsletter. (If you’ve emailed but don’t see your name here, rest assured you’re in the queue.)

• Best Small Fictions 2024 is out in print! One more shoutout to Avitus B. Carle’s “Like Real Women Do” and Jeffrey Yamaguchi’s “Last Day Cupcakes,” which appear in BSF after originally appearing in OKD.

• Shafguta Mulla won second place in the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards. (OKD: “When I Was a Bearskin Rug,” Oct. 2024)

• Tara Campbell’s book, City of Dancing Gargoyles, was nominated for the 2025 Philip K. Dick Award. First prize will be announced in April! (OKD: “Buzz Drunk,” Sept. 2019)

• Darrin Doyle released a book in July called Let Gravity Seize the Dead. (OKD: “Outline,” Sept. 2018)

• Court Ludwick’s book, These Strange Bodies, came out in October. (OKD: “Body Horror,” Oct. 2023)

• Karan Chambers has a pamphlet out this month called woman | folk! (OKD: “I have an existential crisis on realizing my reading list is finite,” July 2024)

• Kathryn Kulpa’s chapbook A Map of Lost Places is out this month! Kulpa also had a chapbook released in October called For Every Tower, a Princess, and has a piece in Best Small Fictions 2024. (OKD: “After His Mother Throws Him Out, Nicky Spends the Night on the High School Roof,” Jan. 2025; “Fur,” Dec. 2019)

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