Rejection 308

n+1 does not want the essay I sent. 

Rejection 306 and 307, Residency Waitlist and Rec in Post Road

That's me!

Lots to report! 

The Iowa Review and Southern Review rejected the same essay. 

Jentel put me on their waitlist for spring. 

I recommend Edouard Leve's Suicide in Post Road Issue 29. 

Rejection 305

The Indiana Review kindly turned down a story I sent them with some personal notes. Very well! No love lost. They gave My Only Wife a very kind review a few years back and I'm thankful for their consideration.

Residency Rejection

This is where I won't be going. So beautiful!

Headlands Center for the Arts let me know that I wasn't a finalist for this round of residencies, but I saw that coming. I'd seen people posting about how to prep for the finalist interview so I knew I hadn't made it that far. 

I did go in to talk to Story Studio Chicago this week though, and I should be teaching a class or two in the spring/summer, so that's exciting!

And I'm prepping to interview Meghan Daum at the Chicago Humanities Festival this coming Saturday! Tickets are only $12!

Residency Acceptance and Waitlist!

I visited a psychic who told me, as a Gemini, I was actually more like 4 or 5 people. Happy Halloween!

I confirmed today that I'll be spending the month of April (post-AWP) the Hambidge Center in the Blue Mountains near Rabun, Georgia. It's much smaller than the VSC - I believe there are only 9 people there at a time, but bigger than the other residency I'll be attending in February, Thicket, in which I think I might be the only resident on a farm in the lowlands of Georgia. (Yes, both residencies are in Georgia. When I realized this, I thought, "Well, that will be confusing to explain to people," and felt like it somehow injured my credibility. Such are my neuroses.) 

I was also waitlisted for the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center. 

Also, last night I shared a boat of sushi with Tom McCarthy, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, and Elizabeth Evans, as well as the company of Steve Tomasula and Matt Wilkens, at an Asian fusion restaurant decorated with every shade of flashing rope lights. It was an entirely enjoyable evening. 

Happy Halloween!

Poetry Book Rejection

Octopus Books don't want it.

Residency Rejection and Encouragement

I was bummed to receive a rejection from Yaddo again (only my second application in about 6 years, but I was still hoping that I might have progressed enough to make it this time). I want to talk about a feeling I have that's maybe a little vain, but hopefully helpful to other people dealing with rejection regularly.

When I started this blog back in 2008, it was very much for "internet presence" and "shtick-type" purposes. I wanted some semi-regular blog content that would be easy to keep up that might cause people to take a look at the blog every once in a while. Mostly, though, I wanted a website where people could find links to my work and hear about readings and generally get some info about me. I liked the idea of a publicity website that was self-deprecating. "Come look at my successes with a side of schadenfreude/solidarity."

Seven years later I feel like I've both come pretty far in my writing trajectory and also that I'm still treading water in a lot of the same ways, and this rejection is a pretty clear example of that. I feel especially humbled by sharing this rejection, honestly a little bit embarrassed. Maybe because I had to ask two lovely people for recommendation letters for this application and I have nothing to show for their hard work? Maybe because our dear friend Social Media is so good at touting people's successes, and so I assume that everyone I know who has applied to Yaddo has gotten in and I'm still missing the mark? Maybe because I'm trying to figure out if I'd like to continue teaching, and considering job opportunities for next fall, and wondering if this transparency can hurt me in the long run, allowing people to see how much failure lies in my wake in addition to the successes my CV projects?

In any case, I'm sticking with this MO of transparency, and will continue to because it feels like a healthy, political act that breaks rules and continues to prove useful to at least a handful of people (myself included). 

After I received the unedited version of the letter above, my lovely partner disappeared for a few minutes, and returned with the scribbled copy insisting that I'd read the letter wrong. I love him for this act of generosity and humor and I laughed harder than I had in days at the HORRIBLE syntax and kindness of his gesture. 

A day later, I received an encouragement from Willapa Bay AIR, telling me was on the list of alternates for their summer residencies, so we'll see if that pans out, but in the mean time, I remain tenacious and only temporarily humiliated. It's good for the soul, I hear.

Rejections 303 & 304

Rejection high!

Fourteen Hills didn't want the story I sent them and The Laurel Review was very encouraging. I feel like I'm hitting a nice rejection stride these days. 

Rejection 302

Teeth of the River. 

River Teeth is not interested in the essay I sent them, unfortunately. Lots of submissions sent out this weekend though!

Rejection 301

Still slipping through my fingers.

The New South sent a very nice, encouraging rejection for the poems I sent them.

On a related note: I've finished my first week of teaching this semester and I really love it. More to come as things progress, but it's really exciting and energizing (if not a bit nerve-wracking at times) and I'm getting lots of time to write at the moment which is monstrously huge for me. I still feel frantic and like I don't have ENOUGH time, but it's a huge increase, nevertheless.