NEA Rejection and Little Bits of Good News
Jac Jemc
Let's all dress up like giant poinsettias and get our priorities straight.
I don't know why the NEA wouldn't like to give me gobs of money this year, but they don't. I'm going to go ahead and blame the sequester and Obamacare,for distracting the judges from the incredible merits of my work. I did, however really like how on Facebook there were a slew of people making posts about being rejected. I'm so glad so many people are trying for it and smart enough not to take the rejection the least bit personally.
I recently also learned that one of my (only) essays ("Notes on a Definition of Luck" from Hobart 13) was included on the "Notables" list in the Best American Essays 2013. I'm floored by this news because I generally consider myself to be a lousy essayist, but I'm very excited about trying to improve my meager skills.
The lovely Sandra Allen just let me know that she nominated my story, "Filch and Rot," featured in Wag's Revue this year, for the Best American Short Stories 2014, and, to my knowledge, that's the first time I've been nominated for one of those, so that's fun.
Trying to get back on the regular writing horse. Wrote a new story for this Revenge Reading tonight at the Upstairs Gallery: https://www.facebook.com/events/654767331229472/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming. Hoping to get to work revising the new novel by Christmas at the latest. Finished editing the forthcoming story collection. Trying to think about reviewing some things. Trying to meditate on how to make some mini-essays on compassion. Picked up reading subs for decomP again (I was on hiatus) and reading subs for Hobart for the month of December. Happy holidays, fools!