So appreciative to Reckoning for nominating “A Move to New Country” for the Pushcart Prize. Ever since I heard about the first issue of this Environmental Justice focused Speculative Fiction magazine, I’ve wanted to be a part of it. I feel so fortunate that this is the piece that made that a reality and I am eternally grateful to the editors at Reckoning for their compassion and support. It couldn’t have been published in a more fitting venue.

I wrote this story in the wake of my Iko’s passing. It was during Covid and I was in Miami while she was in a care facility in my hometown in Kansas. After she passed, I had a ticket to return and speak at her memorial service with the multitudes of now-adults who had once been her elementary school students. But, within an hour of take-off, my flight was cancelled. This story was born after I paid my respects in the same way depicted in the story, with cedar at the dawning of a new day.