New Acceptance!!...and all of the rejections surrounding it...

Here's an update: Sugar House Review took my poem, "Horizons." This is significant because it's the first in my series of "daddy issues" poems to get published. Also, it's a print publication, so that's +1 for my NEA goal thing in the sidebar. I tried really hard to avoid being sentimental, so this acceptance gave me the confidence to keep going with the heart stuff in my poems which I'm always unsure about. I'm just never quite sure how much of the poem relies on the interesting nature of trauma and how much is whatever makes a poem good lol. My brain isn't interested in self-doubt right now apparently, because I can't whine as coherently as I'd like to in this paragraph about acceptance. So I'll move on.

Recent rejections from: Everywhere else. lol No, not really, but I did still have the opportunity to withdraw it from 3 places.

More specifically, rejections in from: Gulf Coast, MisFit, The Meadowland Review, Linebreak, Indiana Review, Caketrain, Boxcar Poetry Review, Diagram.

I still have poems out there in the slush piles. So we'll see!

Beating June Deadlines

I got some more submissions out, trying to beat the June 1-15 deadlines. Submissions out to: Milk Money, MisFit, The Meadowland Review, Poemeleon, The Nashville Review, New Plains Review, storySouth.

There's a few print mag submits in there, so I'm happy about that.

Los Angeles Review gave me a quick no already lol.

Sending love to everyone's poems in the slush piles!

First Year MFA: Done. New Submissions/Rejections

I'll do a wrap-up post on The MFA Chronicles. I just wanted to mention a few submissions I just did after tweeting with a bunch of people who were so motivated and submitted to Best New Poets (which UVA students can't submit to).

Tonight I submitted to: Diagram, The Boxcar Poetry Review, The Los Angeles Review, Sugar House Review, Caketrain, The Collagist,
Indiana Review, Linebreak

I was recently rejected by: Rattle, Ninth Letter, New York Quarterly. All form-letter rejections.

I'll admit that I was a little shaken by the rejections. But that only spurred me into revision and I'm much happier with the new batch I just sent out.

Gotta keep my poems out in the world!

More later...

Rejection: Cave Canem

I regret to write that you were not selected for admission to Cave Canem’s 2009 retreat. As you know, this year we received an unprecedented number of applications. You may be aware that most fellows attend three retreats; therefore, the number of first-year fellows we can invite is, unfortunately, very small.

I’m sorry to convey disappointing news this year, but hope that your having reached the finalist stage of the invitation process will encourage you to reapply in 2010. Historically, due to limited space, many Cave Canem fellows are accepted only after applying several times.

There are worse things. Carrying on.

Rejection: Waccamaw

Big day on the notification front, I guess:

Thank you for your submission to Waccamaw. We have read your work
carefully, but have decided against publication. We want you to know, however,
that we were very interested in your work and hope that you will consider
Waccamaw for a future submission. Please see our homepage for announcements of
upcoming reading periods and submission guidelines. Thank you very much for your
interest in Waccamaw.

Alright, Waccamaw, so I guess you didn't want the privilege of causing me to scream and jump for joy today. There may have even been little tears of joy on your behalf. I'll give you another chance, Waccamaw. One day...

Indiana bound

So I've accepted at Indiana, that's where I'm headed. I'm so through with the notification process, it's not even funny lol.

So I applied to 16 schools which means I got rejected by A LOT of schools and rejections suck lol.

With only 3 schools left to hear from (NYU, UVA, Arizona State) I have been rejected by 7 schools. I have been accepted to 5 schools and waitlisted at 1. I was accepted to only 1 of the schools in my top 5 and that is the one I am going to. It was my #2 and I am happy.

I can't wait to write more so I can submit more and keep things going from here.

Yes, I feel as flat as this post. I'm ready to move forward.

Half of a Rejection: Michigan

So I got my first rejection by snail mail today...from Michigan...severely damaged in one of those "we're sorry" packages from the post office. So I didn't get the pleasure of the full page rejection. lol

Carrying on...

Rejection: Michener

First official rejection via the website:

Your application has been given careful consideration by the committee on Graduate Studies. On the basis of their recommendation, your application has been denied. If you have questions, please write directly to the Committee in your major department.

Last night it was still under review, this morning, rejected.

Carrying on...

REJECTION: Rattle

This was a quick rejection! I submitted on Jan. 14. But like this post said, I wasn't expecting to be accepted lol. Here's my rejection letter:

Thank you for letting us consider some of your work, but unfortunately we’ve decided not to publish any of these pieces. I want to assure you that your work has been taken under careful consideration—at least two editors read each submission, and I’m always one of them.



With so many poems coming in—thousands each month—the decisions are hard, and often subjective. There’s only room for about 100 poems in each issue, meaning we’re only able to accept less than 1% of the material we receive. However, we enjoy reading poems as much as you enjoy writing them, and we don’t solicit work, so your submissions truly are our lifeblood; we hope you’ll keep sending new work as it’s ready.



Best Wishes,

So...thanks for letting us read some, we don't want any. Something about the way that was worded makes me laugh. And it isn't comforting that multiple editors passed on it! lol Actually, I prefer wordy rejections like this over the one liners I've gotten in the past. I think I'll submit here in the future. That's an experience I haven't had yet and hope to have...sending work to a place that previously rejected me and getting accepted. Then I'll feel like I've grown or something or they changed all the editors lol. Either way...Rattle will hear from me again probably at the end of this year.

And subjective is one of my least favorite words now. This confirms it lol.

Carrying on....

Rejection: Rougarou

Got an emailed rejection today from them. Keepin' it movin'...

Rejection: Dylan Days

Okay so I didn't receive a rejection notice from this one but I checked the website and I wasn't selected. That's cool. Keepin' it movin'.

It's a No

So Cave Canem said it's a no for me this year.

I'm cool.

Moving along :)

Updates!

Mailed in my submission for Crab Orchard Review.

Rejected by Missouri Review.

Waiting to hear back about Cave Canem.

All is well...I need to write more and send out more so that's what I'll be doing.

We shall see!

Rejection: Ploughshares...of course

Concise.  Moving right along...
Dear Writer:

We regret that the manuscript you submitted does not fit
our current editorial needs. Thank you very much for
sending us your work.

Sincerely,

The Editors of Ploughshares

Won't be in New York this summer!

The New York Summer Writer's Institute didn't offer your girl a scholarship. Gonna keep truckin' though. Of course.

The Benefits of Rejection

I revised "The Rough Side". Everyone say hello to "Thelma"

Thelma


Her daughters
wrapped their arms
around a melody first,
cradled the song
against the softness
of their breasts,
infused the harmony
with the rhythm
of their heartbeats,
nurtured a verse
into existence
like a newborn child,
then ripped that song open
on its way past tongue and teeth,
exposed its truth in the open air,
so only the blood of the music was left
dripping in affected ears.
Too many of her daughters
injected, snorted, or swallowed
a new truth for themselves
and for their children; almost all of them,
now, as silent as shadows trembling
under tapping toes that struggle
to keep time.

Rejection: Haruah Breath of Heaven

So I was hoping to hear back on any of my submissions today and I did. It's a rejection but it was the best rejection ever!!! LOL See:

Greetings: Thank you for your submission of "The Rough Side" to Haruah: Breath of Heaven. We regret to inform you that we cannot use your submission at this time.

This response to you is automatically generated. However, it has been and continues to be our practice to share with our contributors parts of the discussion about their works that might help clarify our decision. What follows is/are excerpted from the editorial team's discussion. Each team member's remarks are separated by a row of asterisks. Also, following the last excerpt, there may be additional comments from the team member processing this correspondence.

Specific remarks about your submission:
*****I like what the poet is saying. Just needs a bit of work to pull it together.
*****The two lines about 'dying memories of those girls who used to sing' confused me at first and I had to read it a couple of times to gather the meaning. The image of 'girls dying' made no sense in the context of 'mothers giving birth' to a love of music in their children. Perhaps making clear that this is something that happens only when the women have grown old would have helped.
*****The uneven nature of the piece seems to come from where the lines are broken. IMO, line breaks can be used to separate ideas, to emphasize phrases, or to reveal layers of meaning. For example, I thought this worked well: "the way all of the women she birthed wrapped their arms around a melody first;" As a single sentence, the emphasis falls on "birthed", but breaking the line gives added emphasis to "melody". But in these three lines, the phrases get scattered, and I had troubling keeping a coherent thought. "cradled the song against the softness of their bosoms, infused it with the rhythm of their heartbeats; nurtured it like a newborn child," *****
-----

That was a pretty great critique and I'm so glad that they took the time (35 days isn't bad) to respond and so thoroughly. I'm actually a little touched. I recommend others submit here definitely. They have actually given me energy for the process of revising this poem.

So this is what it is to be a writer. I can handle this.

Rejections!

So I've received my first rejections! African American Review enjoyed my poems and found them "disturbing." I hear that disturbing is a compliment these days.

I was also rejected by the Bat City Review.