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I love that Rejection Whisperer program! I've often been amused by writers wondering what constitutes an "upper tier" rejection. When I started my own journal, Doric Literary, I wanted to make it very clear when writers fell just shy of an acceptance. So, I came up with a themed coding system. Sure, I send out standard rejection letters with the appropriate wording but if a submission was a "near miss" and we'd love to see more work from a writer, my response includes an image of the pediment, or upper tier, of an intact Greek temple. If a submission isn't a fit, but I'd still be willing to take more work from a writer, my response shows the still standing lower tiers of columns from a ruined Greek temple. If a submission is clearly not meant for our journal of literary short fiction (i.e. they send us religious tracts, rape fantasies, or vampire stories, etc.) and I don't care if they ever submit to us again, the response includes a photo of the rubble and collapsed columns of a completely destroyed Greek temple.
Though I deleted your rejection letter right after I read it, Dave Gregory - - - so I don't recall if I got the Greek temple or not - - - I will note that your rejection email from Doric Literary broke the record for "promptitude," arriving within MINUTES after my fiction submission. * * * Impressive * * *
To respond that fast, I must have been sitting at my computer when your submission came in (though on my end, it appears about 11.5 hours passed before I responded). It is just me reading (unless I'm on the fence about something, then I'll ask MJ, our fiction reviewer, to weigh in), so once I've read something, I can respond right away. I am glad you appreciate "promptitude" - 90% of the time I read a piece and know immediately whether I will decline or accept but I have been known to wait a few hours before sending a response because I don't want writers to think I haven't read a submission - but everything definitely gets read by myself, personally.
Now that you've shared this, I went back to check my rejection and it was the upper tier of an intact Greek temple! So I am now emboldened to send you more!
Wow! You save rejection letters, Gargi. My email provider is always telling me I am over-quota with what is worthy of saving - - so rejection emails are tossed ASAP unless they have offered helpful feedback. A handful of wonderful editors still do that - - such as Kinpaurak. (Sigh.)
Now that you mention it, I should delete more of my emails! But TBH I saved this one and I usually save others like it so I can refer back to see which mag liked (or wasn’t disgusted by) which story.
Gargi, I maintain all that info in my daily Writer's Journal. Different colored inks keep helpful info visible in the right categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EX: a rejection email with NO encouragement is highlighted in a certain color ink + a short-cut symbol that means "Never bother here again!" . . . . . . . . . . . This is a real time-saver, I have found. :-)
When Harold Ross started the New Yorker, he famously rejected many advertisers, and was generally known to be strict about which advertisers were allowed in the magazine.
At Authors Publish, we started out with ads provided by Google as our main funding source. We no longer have any ads at all, and that is something I feel much better about. We fund our publication through the sale of courses, which is a straightforward value proposition, and one that people seem happy about.
I don't envy traditional magazines, as news stands have all but disappeared, and distribution is not at all what it used to be. For publications like Poets & Writers, its surprising, really, that they've been able to make it this far.
Also -- thank you Becky, again, for linking to our articles!
It's so great to hear from you, Jacob Jans! I love Authors Publish and often wonder how it can possibly stay funded when it has so many great free offerings and helpful essays and lists and I always thought it was from the beneficence of the Canadian government! I sit corrected. If anyone wants my opinion, check out Authors Publish! They have so much to offer!
Regarding Denver Quarterly: I submitted a short story in February 2024 and finally heard back in April 2025. It was a generic rejection. But maybe some of you who are still waiting will actually hear back.
I'm not sure what's up with them, though.. I've reached out to them several times over the last year to get information about buying issues or subscribing. They never responded.
When I saw the title of this week's newsletter, I thought it would be about the deep cuts in NEA funding that have affected many lit mags and small presses.
Regarding Valerie Stivers' thoughts in Compact...her call for a "new" kind of short story...more accessible to the "general" reader, and more relevant to the "cultural moment." And a story with, God-forgive us...plot.
I assert that what she is calling for does not require a "reinvention" of the story but a return to the way they once were.
My wife and I attended a nice Kentucky Derby party in our neighborhood just Sunday. Discussing the muddy track (dangerous race conditions) with one partygoer I referred to Hemingway's horse race story "My Old Man." Of course they had not read it. Talking with another partygoer, a Vietnam Marine veteran, he mentioned his time in Camp Pendleton. I'm not a marine. Nor have I been to Camp Pendleton. But I have read Andre Dubus, and some of his best stories are from his Marine Corps days...in Camp Pendleton. So, I recommended Andre Dubus, and my new Marine friend left the party anxious to get his hands on some of these stories that are relevant to his Marine "culture."
On these LitMag News discussion boards I have said many times that I "read backwards," meaning I read old stories. That is where the gold is found. Instead of "reinventing" stories, how about returning to the way stories were when they appealed to people in the great age of magazines. The age that existed before MFA editors and literary journals gradually turned story writing into an art instead of a craft.
FYI: Regarding short stories, in her column, Valerie Stivers was quoting myself.
Also, "My Old Man" was Hemingway's most traditional story. (Wasn't it not included in the infamous lost suitcase of his early work because it'd been submitted somewhere?) EH went on to, yes, reinvent the short story to make it less wordy and more striking to the ordinary reader, which is all we at New Pop Lit are arguing for. To do this, we absolutely have to draw on lessons from the past, and from past masters like Hemingway and Andre Dubus. But it won't hurt to throw in a few new tricks as well. No art form can afford to remain static. . .
Karl, I keep reading your post and it is endlessly interesting. Maybe a key to appealing to the "ordinary" reader is openness to stories by "ordinary" writers. When I read the literary journals I always am intrigued to read the contributor bios. It is apparent that much of what they find publishable is written by people who are instructor-writers. The beauty of Hemingway, while we're talking about him, is the fact that he knew the importance of actually having something interesting to write about. Bernard Shaw called this having something to say, "effectiveness of assertion...the alpha and omega of style...."
In his introduction to the 1939 collection Hemingway said:
"In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you'll dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dull and know I had to put it to the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well-oiled in the closet, but unused."
These two masters (Shaw and Hemingway) concur. Style is very much dependent on content. Which is very much dependent on experience. That is what is worth returning to. Writers who have experienced something noteworthy. I think it is great that you're looking for those kind of stories (if I understand you).
Now that is a good point. Thanks so much for what you're doing to open hearts and minds to the story form. I certainly did not mean to imply that all of the great writing has already been done.
The Narrative / Poets & Writers connection just proves that money talks, no matter who’s paying (and, in this case, it appears to be all the ghosted contest entrants who shelled out $28 each).
I have Denver Q. marked as defunct (since 2023). Crazy that they would still accept paid submissions. How can this not be illegal?! ... On that note, anyone want to start a lit mag with me that never publishes anything? We can also have frequent contests with no winners? We'll just collect the proceeds. It'll be fun! And easy! Scam Quarterly Review? Sucker Arts & Letters?
For the next "Whatever happened to...", could you find out what is going on at LIT? I submitted to them over a year ago. After multiple messages on Submittable and a direct email, I cannot get any rrsponse to find out if they are still considering my poems.
Fireworks seems to have gone dark. I was bookmarking the lit mags that have published my stories because I *REALLY* need to get a website up and running and wanted all the links.
* * * Becky Tuch * * * in the paragraph that begins "In other good news," there is a bad link: < We can’t connect to the server at ttps. Did you mean to go to www.ttps.com//www.apjpoetry.org?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email? > . . . . . . . . . . . . After you adjust this, I will delete my comment. Thank you, Becky.
Becky, new lit-mag FOUR TULIPS was delisted by Authors Publish for their predatory language [EX: "perpetual license"] & additional non-alignment with CLMP values - - even though FOUR TULIPS wears the CLMP logo on their site. Via email I will send you the dirty deets of a fruitful conversation with Authors Publish!
You are indefatigable, Becky. Your energy and deep dive into lit mags every week amazes me! Thanks for the round up of all things literary.
Oh, and BTW, next chat/gab, I'll share what my meeting with Aevita agent was like!
I love that Rejection Whisperer program! I've often been amused by writers wondering what constitutes an "upper tier" rejection. When I started my own journal, Doric Literary, I wanted to make it very clear when writers fell just shy of an acceptance. So, I came up with a themed coding system. Sure, I send out standard rejection letters with the appropriate wording but if a submission was a "near miss" and we'd love to see more work from a writer, my response includes an image of the pediment, or upper tier, of an intact Greek temple. If a submission isn't a fit, but I'd still be willing to take more work from a writer, my response shows the still standing lower tiers of columns from a ruined Greek temple. If a submission is clearly not meant for our journal of literary short fiction (i.e. they send us religious tracts, rape fantasies, or vampire stories, etc.) and I don't care if they ever submit to us again, the response includes a photo of the rubble and collapsed columns of a completely destroyed Greek temple.
Though I deleted your rejection letter right after I read it, Dave Gregory - - - so I don't recall if I got the Greek temple or not - - - I will note that your rejection email from Doric Literary broke the record for "promptitude," arriving within MINUTES after my fiction submission. * * * Impressive * * *
To respond that fast, I must have been sitting at my computer when your submission came in (though on my end, it appears about 11.5 hours passed before I responded). It is just me reading (unless I'm on the fence about something, then I'll ask MJ, our fiction reviewer, to weigh in), so once I've read something, I can respond right away. I am glad you appreciate "promptitude" - 90% of the time I read a piece and know immediately whether I will decline or accept but I have been known to wait a few hours before sending a response because I don't want writers to think I haven't read a submission - but everything definitely gets read by myself, personally.
Thank you for reading my submission.
Now that you've shared this, I went back to check my rejection and it was the upper tier of an intact Greek temple! So I am now emboldened to send you more!
Wow! You save rejection letters, Gargi. My email provider is always telling me I am over-quota with what is worthy of saving - - so rejection emails are tossed ASAP unless they have offered helpful feedback. A handful of wonderful editors still do that - - such as Kinpaurak. (Sigh.)
Now that you mention it, I should delete more of my emails! But TBH I saved this one and I usually save others like it so I can refer back to see which mag liked (or wasn’t disgusted by) which story.
Gargi, I maintain all that info in my daily Writer's Journal. Different colored inks keep helpful info visible in the right categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EX: a rejection email with NO encouragement is highlighted in a certain color ink + a short-cut symbol that means "Never bother here again!" . . . . . . . . . . . This is a real time-saver, I have found. :-)
When Harold Ross started the New Yorker, he famously rejected many advertisers, and was generally known to be strict about which advertisers were allowed in the magazine.
At Authors Publish, we started out with ads provided by Google as our main funding source. We no longer have any ads at all, and that is something I feel much better about. We fund our publication through the sale of courses, which is a straightforward value proposition, and one that people seem happy about.
I don't envy traditional magazines, as news stands have all but disappeared, and distribution is not at all what it used to be. For publications like Poets & Writers, its surprising, really, that they've been able to make it this far.
Also -- thank you Becky, again, for linking to our articles!
Authors Publish rocks. Thank you, Jacob and Caitlin Jans!!
It's so great to hear from you, Jacob Jans! I love Authors Publish and often wonder how it can possibly stay funded when it has so many great free offerings and helpful essays and lists and I always thought it was from the beneficence of the Canadian government! I sit corrected. If anyone wants my opinion, check out Authors Publish! They have so much to offer!
Regarding Denver Quarterly: I submitted a short story in February 2024 and finally heard back in April 2025. It was a generic rejection. But maybe some of you who are still waiting will actually hear back.
I'm not sure what's up with them, though.. I've reached out to them several times over the last year to get information about buying issues or subscribing. They never responded.
When I saw the title of this week's newsletter, I thought it would be about the deep cuts in NEA funding that have affected many lit mags and small presses.
Possible Bueller: Has anyone received a response from Alternative Milk Magazine? I submitted back in January 2024. Ugh.
Regarding Valerie Stivers' thoughts in Compact...her call for a "new" kind of short story...more accessible to the "general" reader, and more relevant to the "cultural moment." And a story with, God-forgive us...plot.
I assert that what she is calling for does not require a "reinvention" of the story but a return to the way they once were.
My wife and I attended a nice Kentucky Derby party in our neighborhood just Sunday. Discussing the muddy track (dangerous race conditions) with one partygoer I referred to Hemingway's horse race story "My Old Man." Of course they had not read it. Talking with another partygoer, a Vietnam Marine veteran, he mentioned his time in Camp Pendleton. I'm not a marine. Nor have I been to Camp Pendleton. But I have read Andre Dubus, and some of his best stories are from his Marine Corps days...in Camp Pendleton. So, I recommended Andre Dubus, and my new Marine friend left the party anxious to get his hands on some of these stories that are relevant to his Marine "culture."
On these LitMag News discussion boards I have said many times that I "read backwards," meaning I read old stories. That is where the gold is found. Instead of "reinventing" stories, how about returning to the way stories were when they appealed to people in the great age of magazines. The age that existed before MFA editors and literary journals gradually turned story writing into an art instead of a craft.
FYI: Regarding short stories, in her column, Valerie Stivers was quoting myself.
Also, "My Old Man" was Hemingway's most traditional story. (Wasn't it not included in the infamous lost suitcase of his early work because it'd been submitted somewhere?) EH went on to, yes, reinvent the short story to make it less wordy and more striking to the ordinary reader, which is all we at New Pop Lit are arguing for. To do this, we absolutely have to draw on lessons from the past, and from past masters like Hemingway and Andre Dubus. But it won't hurt to throw in a few new tricks as well. No art form can afford to remain static. . .
Karl, I keep reading your post and it is endlessly interesting. Maybe a key to appealing to the "ordinary" reader is openness to stories by "ordinary" writers. When I read the literary journals I always am intrigued to read the contributor bios. It is apparent that much of what they find publishable is written by people who are instructor-writers. The beauty of Hemingway, while we're talking about him, is the fact that he knew the importance of actually having something interesting to write about. Bernard Shaw called this having something to say, "effectiveness of assertion...the alpha and omega of style...."
In his introduction to the 1939 collection Hemingway said:
"In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you'll dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dull and know I had to put it to the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well-oiled in the closet, but unused."
These two masters (Shaw and Hemingway) concur. Style is very much dependent on content. Which is very much dependent on experience. That is what is worth returning to. Writers who have experienced something noteworthy. I think it is great that you're looking for those kind of stories (if I understand you).
Now that is a good point. Thanks so much for what you're doing to open hearts and minds to the story form. I certainly did not mean to imply that all of the great writing has already been done.
The Narrative / Poets & Writers connection just proves that money talks, no matter who’s paying (and, in this case, it appears to be all the ghosted contest entrants who shelled out $28 each).
Not a full Bueller yet but: The Narrative Winter 2025 Story Contest was supposed to announce the winners and finalists by April 30 and . . . crickets.
I have Denver Q. marked as defunct (since 2023). Crazy that they would still accept paid submissions. How can this not be illegal?! ... On that note, anyone want to start a lit mag with me that never publishes anything? We can also have frequent contests with no winners? We'll just collect the proceeds. It'll be fun! And easy! Scam Quarterly Review? Sucker Arts & Letters?
accept not except.
(Sorry, couldn't help it. I know how typos give you nightmares.)
Awww! Thanks! Fixed! (And I call myself an ehdditer.)
Love the rejection letter interpreter. Perhaps we all need one of those pinned to our desktops...
Thanks much for the shout out. (Also, what The Bee and The Republic of Letters c/o Kahn and Kanakia are doing sounds encouraging!)
And thank you for such a valuable newsletter!
For the next "Whatever happened to...", could you find out what is going on at LIT? I submitted to them over a year ago. After multiple messages on Submittable and a direct email, I cannot get any rrsponse to find out if they are still considering my poems.
Fireworks seems to have gone dark. I was bookmarking the lit mags that have published my stories because I *REALLY* need to get a website up and running and wanted all the links.
* * * Becky Tuch * * * in the paragraph that begins "In other good news," there is a bad link: < We can’t connect to the server at ttps. Did you mean to go to www.ttps.com//www.apjpoetry.org?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email? > . . . . . . . . . . . . After you adjust this, I will delete my comment. Thank you, Becky.
Ah, just made that correction, thanks LindaAnn!
Becky, do you prefer that I delete my message? I'll wait for your royal hand wave - - the all clear! Thank you for all you do.
I have no preference! Leave it, it's fine. Go focus on your writing. :)
Becky, new lit-mag FOUR TULIPS was delisted by Authors Publish for their predatory language [EX: "perpetual license"] & additional non-alignment with CLMP values - - even though FOUR TULIPS wears the CLMP logo on their site. Via email I will send you the dirty deets of a fruitful conversation with Authors Publish!