Ashley Guerrero

Thanks to the opportunity granted to me by Sigma Tau Delta this summer, I was awarded the Stemmler/Dennis LGBT& Award by Lambda Literary, an organization that advocates for queer writers, and they've generously posted my piece Grime on their website  available for public viewing. Moreover, I was selected to attend this year's workshop held by them! It’s a huge honor that I've only been able to dream about. Because I write fiction, I was placed into the Fiction cohort, headed by author Alejandro Varela (it's been a pleasure getting acquainted with his work- I highly recommend his short story collection The People Who Report More Stress .). Hopefully with this workshop I will be able go develop a few projects I've had hidden away. Again, major thank you to Sigma Tau Delta and Lambda Literary for uplifting young, marginalized writers like myself.

Today, I found out I was chosen to attend the Sigma Tau Delta Convention in NOLA. It's a great privilege to be able to share my work on this level. The theme for this year is "Second Lines & New Beginnings." I realized I wanted to write something inspired by my culture, Mexican culture, and I remembered my poem "Dirt." Things just kind of clicked for me from there. In total, I spent about four days on this piece, with about three rounds of editing to make sure everything was the way I wanted it.  Grime Papá, now that I'm looking at your hands for the last time, I noticed that the space under your fingernails is clean for the first time since I've known you. Your job as a mechanic was unkind to your body, but especially your hands. I remember how motor oil and dirt clung even to the creases of your calluses following a long day of work, as if it came from beneath your skin. I wonder what the morticians did to get it out. They've laid you in a coff...

This is a short writing exercise from an advanced creative writing course I am taking with one of my favorite professors at UTA. The prompt was "take yourself on a date." It was really unique and I ended up having a lot of fun with it.  Taking Myself to Dinner  She was ten minutes late. I was standing against one of the restaurant’s walls, tapping my foot and nibbling my thumbnail out of habit. “Hey. Did you get lost?” I asked, hoping my smile looked genuine. This girl had misted into my life one day and I’d hardly noticed. What exactly was I doing here, on a date with her?      ”Kind of. I’ve never been here.”      “What, did you just get out of the office?” I wondered if she could feel her glasses slipping down her face. She didn’t bother fixing them. We work in the same building, but our schedules are incongruent. It’s a miracle this date even made it out of the planning phase at all.       “No, I came down from the courth...

I wrote this piece for a creative writing class. I went out of my comfort zone and tried to write about a difficult subject. I think the word limit got in the way! I'm looking forward to exploring these kinds of issues further in (longer!) future works. Outlet I stepped out of Phillip’s truck, watching where my feet landed; the new wheels he’d gotten for it were much too tall. I got the feeling I’d end up breaking my face because of it someday. We drove out for an hour to get to a dumpy furniture outlet. There were plenty of them near my house, but once we’d gotten there, I realized why he chose this one. It looked like the kind of place that was kept open through money that it laundered, not money it brought in; a place untouched since the 80s, with huge, dusty windows coated in a thin layer of dust whose purpose was to block out the sun along with posters advertising their liquidation sale. We had gotten everything we needed to move in together, thanks to mother A bed, a dining...

I'm proud to announce that a poem of mine has been published in a collection created by the It Gets Better Project, a non-profit dedicated to LGBT empowerment for young people globally. The book features amazing work from other writers and artists; it was such a treat to read through and see it all. The theme is "queer utopia." In a perfect world, queerness would be another element of the world, of nature itself. Thank you to the It Gets Better Project for this opportunity.   My Colors I want to show the sun my colors Every one between pink, white and blue I want to stand in an open field And let the light shine through I want my stained-glass shadow To be cast down below On the ground that birthed me The ground that loves me so I want the warmth's kiss And the wind's passing caress I want to know, deeply Who I am, then effloresce  I want to have no doubts, no fear As I change and change again  Flowing like a heavy rain Between masculine and femme I want to show t...

I've never once Seen my father's nails  Cleansed, under them lies  A layer of undisclosed grime  Maybe it's some motor oil  Hopes he had clung into  Like dirt, fresh

This was my first foray into writing articles as a copyeditor! It was a challenging experience having to match a journalistic tone, but I'm feeling proud nonetheless.