Rejection 200 & 201

Nothing to take the wind out of the sails of Rejection 200, like getting Rejection 201 at the same time.  I think it's darn well apropos.

The first rejection was a form rejection from The Kenyon Review.

The second was an email form rejection from Aufgabe, for a paper submission.  I am wondering where my SASE is. Granted I'd withdrawn four of the five poems via email, but still.

Maybe they plan on sending me a secret surprise in my SASE.  Maybe they saw that the rejection was going to be a birthday of sorts, and decided to send me a card instead.  I bet that is it.

The Big Other!

I'm very excited about the new site The Big Other launching today.  It's an online forum discussing art, literature, music, and whatever.

The people contributing are numerous and wonderful: Leni Zumas, John Dermot Woods, Sean Lovelace, Michael Leong, Jac Jemc, Christopher Higgs, Greg Gerke, Molly Gaudry, Luca Dipierro, Kim Chinquee, and Ryan W. Bradley.

My first post is about text that shows up in non-paper based art.

Check it out! Often!

Rejection 199

I think maybe getting to rejection 199 is more exciting than getting to rejection 200.  It's like the boat ride in Willy Wonka..."not a speck of light is showing so the danger must be growing and the rowers KEEP ON ROWING"...  I love that scene.

Anyway.

Bat City Review rejected a story today.  This story is getting rejected a lot and I think it's really one of my favorite stories I've ever written, so, ya know, there's no accounting for taste.

200 should be here any day now.  I think I want pizza.  Good pizza.  Pequod's.

Rejection 198

Another pretty quick paper rejection: Gulf Coast in about 6 weeks.

Sometimes, to convince myself to go to the trouble of making some paper submissions, and also to make spending $8 on a sheet of stamps seem more fun, I go to the post office and ask the lady to show me the "special stamps."  The lady always seems delighted to do this.

I ran out of special stamps today.  I probably won't make more paper submissions for  a while.

October Issue of Pank

The October issue of Pank is live with rad work from: Amye Archer, Jimmy Chen, Katie Cortese, Karen Dietrich, Neil de la Flor, Travis Fortney, Karen Gentry, Steve Gibbon, Joseph Goosey, Derek Henderson, Sarah Hilary, Jac Jemc (with audio!), Jennifer Juneau, P.H. Madore,  Pauline Mason, Eric McKinley, Jen Michalski, Gary Moshimer, David Peak, Richey Piiparinen, Dan Portincaso, and J.R. Salling.

Check it out.  They hit this one out of the ballpark.

Quickies Fundraiser: TUESDAY OCTOBER 13!

I have to leave for the Scorch Atlas Release Part in 5 minutes, which you already know about, I'm sure, and hopefully I will see you at No Coast at 7PM,

BUT

really I'm writing to remind you that Quickies is tomorrow at 7:30 at the Innertown and the the readers are get-out-of-here awesome.

First of all there will be something of a Dollar Store Summer Tour reunion with Aaron Burch, Blake Butler, Zach Dodson, Amelia Gray, Jac
Jemc, Caroline Picard, and hosts Mary Hamilton and Lindsay Hunter,

BUT ALSO THE SPECTACULAR:

Elizabeth Wylder, Ben Tanzer, Kate Duva, Aaron Plasek,
Casey Bye, Tim Racine, and Richard Thomas.

I know.  Get there.
1935 W. Thomas, Chicago
http://quickieschicago.blogspot.com/

Poetry Contest Rejection

Last night, I was checking up on some older submissions I'd made and realized, the Poetry Center's Juried Prize had still not been announced.  I entered in January.  Their website has finally been updated to list the winners, though I have yet to receive my SASE back.

Here are the luckies:

1st place: Lina ramona Vitkauskas

2nd place: Carrie Oeding

3rd place: Richard Fox

I think that was the last contest I entered on that weird binge last winter.  Praise the lord.  My sins are behind me.

Rejection 197

Is anyone else sending out paper rejections right now and receiving back rejections quicker than you ever dreamed?  Prairie Schooner just noped me in less than a month, too.

Is it that everyone has online submissions now, so that when you think about the hassle of getting together physical papers and two envelopes of different sizes and stamps and paperclips, it just doesn't even seem worth it, so the good people of the archaic paper submissions are getting a nice little break in the speed of the slush pile?  Or are my stories just getting that much worse that they can tell from the look of the return address that I'm not the writer I'm looking for?

Rejection 196

Whoa.  200 rejections feels damn close all of a sudden.

I think probably something should happen. Maybe I'll light something on fire and blow it out.

I got a rejection from Diagram which was anonymous except for the subject line which reads as:

"re: your submission to DIAGRAM: this disturbed little evening, (sorry!)" There's a '(sorry!)' tacked onto the end of my submission subject line.

Are they trying to amuse me?  It's woooorking.

Rejection 195

I got a lightning fast rejection from Conjunctions: less than a month.  Considering I waited almost a year the last time I sent them work, I suppose this is a step up.

Man oh man, I love Conjunctions.  And, ricocheting off that hmtlgiant discussion, I think i might even like their web stuff more.  Some day, Web Conjunctions, someday...