Rejection 244

Got a nice little slip of paper in the mail from The Pinch saying they weren't interested in what I'm selling.

Rejection 243

West Wind Review: form rejection. Unevent. Today I threw up a vitamin. Lesson learned.

Rejection 242

Kenyon Review apologized for their slow reply, but it only took them 3 weeks.

Rejections 239, 240, and 241 and a new story

Erp.  They're really piling up lately.

This could probably be seen as a shitty thing to say, but quite honestly, I had gotten used to a different submission/ acceptance/ rejection ratio for a little while there.  Which I don't think is a terrible thing to acknowledge.  I'm not discouraged by the increased rate of rejections of late.  I'm just going to buckle down and work harder.  As previously discussed, I think my writing might be in an adolescent period right now, so I'll work.  Plain and simple.

239: Puerto del Sol

240: A really nice note from Chris at Annalemma letting me know more what he's looking for.

241: Five Points

That said, there's a new story of mine up atWunderkammer: Janice-Katie, Both Fruit and Flower. It was a story I wrote for a Rec Room reading in which all the readers used Stacy Levine's fascinating character, Janice-Katie, in a story all their own.  The range is pretty terrific.

Poetry Collection Rejection

A poetry collection I put together was rejected by Octopus Books.  Such is life.  I'm excited about the people who were chosen though, and very eager to see the collections that were finalists - because hopefully I will get to see those collections somewhere else someday.

Here's the lists:

Scheduled for Publication in 2011:

Dear Jenny, We Are All Find by Jenny Zhang The Black Forest by Christopher DeWeese Conception by Rebecca Farivar These manuscripts were finalists:

Off to the Nervous Museum by Claire Donato

The Next Monster by Julie Doxsee

I Write to You from the Sea by Laura Eve Engel

Everything Here is Ok by Sasha Fletcher

Power Ballad by Dan Hoy

Early Linoleum by Brenda Iijima

Kingdom of Throat-stuck Luck, by George Kalamaras

The Dottery by Kirsten Kaschock

Sign You Were Mistaken by Seth Landman

Heart of Palm by Linnea Ogden

Emergency by Caryl Pagel

Lid to the Shadow by Alexandria Peary

The Abilene Paradox by Craig Rebele

Bloom by Rob Schlegel

Parties, by S.E. Smith

Common Birds & Their Songs by Melinda Wilson

There's a lot on the horizon, right?

Rejections 237 and 238

Fake it til you make it.

I received a form slip-of-paper rejection from the Iowa Review in an extremely timely manner and a form-email rejection from Third Coast.

Acceptances have been slow lately.  I will work harder. I think my writing is in a weird spot right now - maybe a "things are happening to the work itself, but haven't actually happened" sort of state, like adolescence.  At least I'm hoping so.

As Samuel Johnson said: "There is nothing uglier than that on the verge of beauty." I'm hoping things improve.

Rejection 236

Lovely rejection from notnostrums, in which they were kind enough to congratulate me on my forthcoming chapbook and novel.

Rejection 235

Anonymous rejection from Black Warrior Review.

Rejections 232, 233, and 234

Triple rejection day.  I guess you can see that I got busy sending work out a month or two ago.

Crazyhorse - An impersonal rejection in which there was also a paragraph saying "If this manuscript was a prize entry..."  I'm glad it wasn't.  If I'd paid an entry fee, I'd at least expect a different form letter.

Boxcar Poetry - A lovely, personal note saying the work didn't fit with their issue and congratulating me on my forthcoming books.

Hotel Amerika - Paper form letter.

That's all.  Good night.

Rejection 231

Willow Springs.  The pattern continues here that a story I think is one of my best of late is being turned down regularly.

I'm interested in people being more up in arms about the rejection blogging of late.  I've noticed a handful of tweets, statuses, posts about what the use is. I can say that when I started this blog, close to two and a half years ago, I wasn't seeing much public talk of rejection at all.  And now people mention it or write about it more often.  Usually they seem to be doing it in a good-natured way.  I don't see the big deal.  It's probably healthy, right? In some weird 70s self-help sort of way that I could care less about.

Anyway, I plan on continuing to log my rejections here.  First of all, the narrative continues as I continue sending work out and receiving word back.  Second, I have another venue to blog more editorial type content: Big Other.  Third, I don't really care if people are as tired of hearing about people's rejections as they are of seeing photos of the meals people make posted to Facebook.  It's just a life-part that's as valid as any other for marking off the days UNTIL WE ALL DIE.

jokes!