Welcome Back (to Texas)

Throughout our travels, I have found myself caressing, even hugging a myriad of trees, wanting to know their names and greeting every waterway we encounter, bathing in it if I can, even if it means just submerging my toes or fingertips in the water.

This impulse is curiosity, is questions, is appreciation, is worship. I will probably never see or touch that particular tree again or listen to the wind on through those woods, or the trickle of water moving through that particular creek. Once I say goodbye, it is relegated to memory. There is comfort in knowing that those trees, that creek, those woods, that mountain range, have been there long before I was born and will be there long after I die. It will change, grow, decay, the creek bed may run dry, but that too is the nature of living.

When we visited Nashville, Tennessee, we went to walk around the whole of Centennial Park, and I was delighted to see a sign with a QR code to the state conversation initiative, If Trees Could Sing, in which local musicians talk about their favorite native trees like Black Walnut and relating it a bit to their experience as musicians or being from Tennessee. I know I will write again about trees once we head West for the next leg of our journey in May.

We also got took a drive along part of the Natchez Trail, stopping to hike to along a few of the walking trails, though we were impeded by several fallen trees after the winter storm that hit most of the area. Still, it was a beautiful drive on a still cool day, the weather oscillating between winter and spring as we drove with the windows down, stopping and taking Tajin with us to explore. There were memorials to settlers and a statue for Andrew Jackson whose genocidal ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples across the US is legendary. We walked around these “monuments” to take in the momentous beauty of ice melting onto soft, verdant moss after the freeze.

As we traveled back home to Texas, we spent a week in the Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, where we got to hike up one of the trails to the top with Tajin, saw the famed hot springs and the strange tourist town that has sprung up over the years around the springs, surrounded by working-class apartments and community members.

We visited Little Rock and walked along part of the River Trail to see the actual “Little Rock” and the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden full of beautiful pieces, where we ate lunch that day.

Here is my ranking of some of the best local markets we’ve visited so far:

1. Nashville Farmers Market TN
2. Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia PA
3. North Market, Columbus OH
4. French Market, New Orleans LA

On our last day before we left to return back to Texas, we took Tajin to the Garvin Woodland Gardens. So many moments of beauty being outside, closing my eyes and letting the sun warm my face and the wind across my skin. Being outdoors in stunning places makes me feel connected to being alive.

Returning to Texas, we crossed the bridge into Texarkana and the landscape became familiar to me. Seeing the domed arches of live oak trees that sit atop them like a beautiful head of curls, I felt grateful that we were making it back safely, and strange at the same time. It feels surreal. I have missed all of my loved ones so much and am very excited to see them, to visit familiar places (HEB I missed you so!) and to celebrate my work with readings and workshops. It feels in moments like no time has passed, and at the same time like we have been gone for ages. Going back to some of my favorite places in Austin and Pflugerville, I feel appreciation for the familiar, the knowable, and still feel myself chafing against the things about my hometowns and my home state that continue to harm, and cause worry.

We are experiencing a heat dome across the Southwest. Pflugerville, Corpus Christi and several other cities in Texas are in water emergencies for a variety of reasons, including severe drought, mismanagement, the threats of AI data center usage and more.I am reminded of how precious it felt to be able to fill some jugs of water at the Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, as well as the urgency with which many folks, visitors and residents alike, were filling huge jugs of water as though it would stop flowing any second, which is a real danger; as the UN report has recently stated, we are entering an era of “water bankruptcy.” Our future access to clean water sometimes keeps me up at night.

Life keeps moving, things are changing, and we are changing along with it. Every day we awake to what feels like a new disaster. Our US government and Israel are at war with Iran, causing more death and destruction while folks here in the US continue to struggle and we are being terrorized by our own government. Many days feels like inhabiting a planet with everyone else moving towards certain doom, or uncertain possibilities. I wake up many days feeling frenetic, my thoughts so disjointed I find it impossible to focus on one task or idea, jumping from chore to chore, book to book, project to project. I have never felt this much energy to write and create in my life, and yet honing in on one thing feels impossible, imbued with an urgency that doesn’t always have an origin, like I am running out of time.

I was scrolling on Instagram the other day when a creator in a video mentioned the idea of creating a digital mind garden. She described using different apps or software to map out the creative rumblings of one’s brain so that they didn’t feel as disparate as they seemed. I went down an internet rabbit hole about how writers and artists will use different methods, from creating digital collages to using software like Obsidian to map out thoughts and ideas they are having that feel connected, but aren’t yet coalescing. Some of what I put there are questions I have, responses to books I am reading that go beyond what I write in my reading journal, and simply overarching thoughts that aren’t necessarily a part of a writing project, but rather are thoughts directing my life. Sometimes this can also look like playlists I am making or a collage on Canva that keeps me sitting in a particular feeling I am drawn to for whatever reason.

Today is March 20th, marking the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Many spiritual practitioners believe that this is the true “new year,” when the earth is thawing, renewing, preparing for warmer weather and spring planting. I got to help my mom water her raised garden beds and fruit trees and choose some plants from the local plant nursery as she maps out what plants are the best companions, if the tomato volunteers will come back this year and how to provide sufficient mulch and water to these new fruit trees, especially with their new rain water catchment barrels. We also spend quite a bit of time watching the birds at the bird feeder, the bold cardinals, newly returning hummingbirds, the hooting of owls in the nearby trees at night, and recording bird calls on the Cornell Lab Bird Academy Merlin ID App.

I’m finding a lot of comfort in seemingly small pleasures and attuning to my embodied sense: cooking and eating good food, including inspiration for seasonal cheese platesfrom Erika Kubick’s book Cheese Magic, listening to new music from Gorillaz new album, The Mountain, especially their collaboration with Kara Jackson, one of my favorite young musicians), Joy Oladokun, and Cain Culto, including all his amazing collaborations with Xuihtezcatl in BASTA YA! and Chisomosa with Jarina de Marco, delighting in new Dropout shows, including the latest season of Dimension 20: Gladlands, which I’m writing an article about. I also got a copy of Austin Bat Cave’s last student anthology, Planting Seeds, which felt like just what I needed to remind me of the silly, great imaginations sprouting from young minds. It’s easy to feel that engaging in these acts is a distraction in times of collective fear and anguish; when that shame comes up, I try to remind myself that this is how I care for my mind garden: planting, watering and mulching it with love, art, laughter and new ideas.

To find more photos and videos of our travels, follow me on Instagram!

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What’s Happening with Leticia?

Now that I am back in Texas, I have started doing more scheduled readings and events to celebrate my poetry chapbook, Offerings to the Tumbled Temple, out now from Purple Ink Press! My heart is very full after reading at BookWoman in Austin on Sunday surrounded by many of the wonderful people who inspired the work in this book. There are still several signed copies there if you want to support your local feminist bookstore!

You can also purchase a copy here. Chapbooks like these make great gifts for your poetry loving friends! You can also order a copy from your local indie bookstore or, if you love your local library, you can request that they stock a copy.

My next horror collection, The Remedy is the Disease, will be in the world on May 15th from Undertaker Books. I will be sharing a pre-order link soon!

Here are some ways that you can help me to promote my book (and other indie poets and writers):

• Buy a copy if you can.
• Share the book with your loved ones.
• If you love your local library or independent bookstore, you can request that they stock a copy.
• Nominate my book(s) for your next book club read!
• If you or anyone you know reviews books, you can request an copy from me to review!
• I am now booking for 2026 events, so if you have a bookstore, community organization or space you would like for me to provide a workshop or reading/event for, comment or reach out via my contact page on my website to plan further!

Here is a recent spotlight that the Letras Latinas Blog 2 and the Writer’s Desk interview with Gemini Ink published about me and my work!

2026 Workshops and Events

I am currently planning my readings, workshops and events for 2026 and will announce more details in soon. Here’s what is on my calendar so far:

1. Climb Inside Other Minds: Exploring Persona Poetry with Leticia Urieta, March 28th from 10am-2pm CST with Gemini Ink (in-person). Register today or share with your poetry loving friends!
2. Reading and Tabling at the Southside Book Festival in San Antonio on Sunday, March 29th
3. Reading at Lark and Owl Bookstore in Georgetown on Saturday, April 25th at 7pm

We will be traveling through New Mexico, Colorado and through the west coast May-December of this year, so if you have any community members or booksellers you suggest I connect with, please let me know!

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I am currently taking on clients ages 16 and up for my services, although if your child would like support honing and publishing their work, I am happy to work with younger clients upon request. Since I write across a variety of genres, I am able to work with folks who are writing poetry, creative nonfiction, short stories, novels and more, with a special place in my heart for horror, speculative fiction and fantasy. If you are working on a comic, that is fantastic. I would love to work with you! Or, please share with other writers you know who might be interested!

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What I’m Reading and Watching: Fantastical Journeys

Last year I wrote a list of Caring Fantasy books I was reading at the time and why I am getting back into reading fantasy. In February I was focusing on folklore, and now when the weather begins to turn warmer in the Northern Hemisphere and our natural world begins to renew in spring, I crave reading fantasy and speculative work. Something about my brain waking up from a long winter makes me crave visionary, imaginative work, from caring, cozy fantasy to sci-fic and speculative work that speaks to the communal struggles that we are all facing right now.

“Science fiction is a simple way to practice the future together.”-adrienne marie brown from Emergent Strategy

Here are some books I have on my TBR for March and April, both Advance Reader Copies, physical books I currently own and books from the library:

• The Spirit’s Curse by AK Ashwick (third book in a series I really love!)
• Somadina by Akwaeke Emezi
• Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers (this is a rollover book from last year)
• Wildseed Witch Series by Marti Dumas
• The Grammar of Fantasy by Gianni Rodari
• Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst on Netgalley (the third book in another fantasy series I love)
• Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife by Deston J. Munden
• The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao
• The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop by Takuya Asakura (from Netgalley)
  • There are several books like this on my list from Japanese and Korean writers who are writing speculative stories on grief, healing and connection. Here are two articles I found that feature from of the works on my TBR list: Healing Fiction from Japanese and Korean writers and Cozy Japanese Fiction.

Since I have also been reading a lot of books about the natural world, here are some I have finished or am still reading:

1. Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
2. Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl (Tennessee author)
3. Chase Me if You Can by Heather Frances
   • I really enjoyed reading the ARC for this debut storm chaser romance! Of course it was full of steamy, romantic, enemies to lovers moments, but it was also surprisingly tender, with attention to setting boundaries with one’s family and putting one’s creative passions first. I also followed Girls Who Chase because of this book, and the photography there is well worth it!
4. Something in the Woods Loves You by Jarod K. Anderson (Ohio author)
   • I’m reading this slowly, and with care as each chapter deals with a different season of the year, and while it does delve into the messiness that is depression, suicidal ideation and the long road to caring for oneself as you live with mental illness, it is an a very beautiful book.
5. Cloud Warriors: Deadly Storms, Climate Chaos—and the Pioneers Creating a Revolution in Weather Forecasting by Thomas E. Weber
   • Ramiro and I have been listening to this book in the car for the last few trips and I really love the way the author breaks down different types of weather events, from tornadoes, heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires and more and illustrates the many people, including meteorologists, climate scientists, storm chasers, engineers, city planners and many more who are meeting these natural disasters head on to prevent loss of life and prepare for a rapidly changing climate. While some chapters can feel heavy, it is a very informative and interesting read, even if you aren’t a weather nerd like me!

Journaling Prompts

What ideas or thoughts are you planting in your mind garden? How will you water it, give it sunlight, help it to grow?

Call to Action: Community Care Spotlight

Going forward, I plan to use this space to spotlight communities, creators and activists who are taking action to resist and do caring things for others. This month, I am highlighting the incredible work of a friend and former Austin Bat Cave colleague, Ali Haider. Here is the description of his work:

Proofreader Bakery is a project that builds community through bread. What began as a way to stay sober grew into a mission: bake a free loaf of bread for every person in Austin. We invite people to join the bread queue where instead of buying bread, you simply wait for it. The only cost is time.

At Proofreader Bakery, baking is an act of service. Our bread is an expression of the radical notion that people deserve something wonderful, made with care for no other reason than they are part of our community. Learn more at www.proofreaderbakery.com (coming soon) and support Ali’s work!

Leticia