Stegner Rejection
Peter Slapnicher
It's not like I'm surprised that Stanford doesn't want to pay me to write there for 2 years. I wasn't going to apply because the deadline snuck up on me and I figured it was pretty much the slimmest chance that ever was anyway, but then they extended the deadline, and I'm a sucker for interpreting coincidences like that as some powerful work of fate.
Here's what does bother me a little: I got an email rejection. How much money did I send them as an application fee? $50 I think. Send me a little souvenir piece of paper of my youthful folly. Then I can put it into the Ruth Bader Ginsburg folder where I keep all of my other rejections, including last year's Stegner rejection which at least featured a photocopy of Eavan Boland's signature.