And just like that, my magnificent friends, we have toiled, struggled, climbed, fought, clawed, rolled, tumbled, cartwheeled and otherwise maneuvered ourselves into another end of another month.
If you are a longtime reader of Lit Mag News, then you already know what this weekend is all about. If not, let me tell you: We are here to celebrate each and every one of you! Your hard work, your efforts, your refusal to give up, your belief in your words, your beautiful hunger, and all that you’ve achieved now and always.
On a personal note, I got two rejections this past week. It has been a while since I sought opportunities that I really deeply wanted down in the marrow of my bones. I cannot tell a lie: receiving rejections from both of these places absolutely sucked. What a feeling! I had forgotten how unpleasant that experience is.
One letter was very sweet and tended gently to all my emotions. The other was a simple “Nope. Pass. Bye.” Both hit me like a sucker punch.
In those moments, I thought of all of you, how persistent you are with your work, and how we are all approaching this process together, from our many different corners of the world. I also thought of how normal it is to get rejected, how much a regular occurrence rejection truly is. I thought, too, of how you just can’t know what it is those gatekeepers are seeking, or thinking, or wanting, at any particular moment. How it’s really not a reflection of the quality of your work and has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on whether or not you are a writer and will continue to write. How it’s okay to feel sad, and disappointed, and let your gut do that yucky-knotty thing for as long as it needs to. But then, it’s okay, too, to move past it. To still call yourself a writer. To go back to your desk the next morning and keep working and keep looking for more opportunities and, above all else, keep recognizing the rewards writing already brings to your life, each and every single day.
(Got your own favorite post-rejection power anthem? Please share it below!)
In more positive news, though, I also have a story live now in Inscape Journal. This magazine is produced by MFA students at Brigham Young University. The print issue appeared in Fall 2022. Sadly, it was their last print issue. The story then took a loooooooong time to get up on their website. Editor Mikayla Johnson was very responsive and communicative every step of the way.
I had the best month of my entire writing life this month, as far as acceptances. I received an acceptance from my top favorite poetry journal— Rattle! And an acceptance from my top CNF journal— Brevity! It felt like years of work paying off all at once— like a major breakthrough in my writing/ publishing journey. And I’m just really grateful and excited about whatever comes next! And I want to encourage everyone— do NOT give up. Rattle rejected me 23 times before accepting me. And Brevity, I first submitted there when I was 19 & I’m 32 now!!! Do not give up submitting and pursing excellence in your craft!
Congrats, Bethany - both of those acceptances must feel like amazing achievements. Definitely signs that if we're working at our craft, we're growing as writers. Well, I'm up to about rejection #4 for Rattle - lol! Your story is a reminder to not take a "no for now" as a "no forever".
Inspirational - I will look forward to seeing your work pop up in my inbox! Just got a rejection from Rattle today (poets respond poem about Opening Day)...
Hi Melissa! I remember connecting with you on Medium as both of our pieces were published on the same issue of Exist Otherwise. Glad to see you on Substack!
Earlier in the week, I clicked on a website that had just published a poem by a friend of mine and noticed that a certain John Kucera also had a poem there. I immediately contacted the editor to alert him to the fact that JK was a notorious serial plagiarist, and it was more than likely that the poem published under his name had probably been stolen from somebody else (after having changed the title, of course.) I was proved right. It turned out that he had taken a poem written about 10 years ago by George Bilgere and passed it off as his own. The editor took the poem down immediately and thanked me profusely for drawing attention to the matter. So, that’s my first brag! I’m pretty sure that JK does what he does simply to embarrass editors who don’t recognize the work of poets of note.
Another poem, “Paris is Always a Good Idea” has been accepted for publication in June by Syncopation Literary Journal and “A Signal Failure”, also in June, by Impspired. Matt Potter, the editor of Pure Slush, has accepted a flash fiction piece, “Wanted, Preferably Dead”, my satire on bureaucrats who constantly ask pensioners to prove that they are still alive if they want to continue receiving their pension. It will be published in print in Pure Slush’s Lifespan series. Finally, the editor of Impspired is preparing a hybrid collection of my latest poems and short fiction, entitled “Reflections in a Dirty Mirror” to be published soon.
I like this... it's like a Neighborhood Watch... without the tall cans of beer and baseball bats, but effective nonetheless. "Kucera" probably decided to go back in time for their "inspiration" hoping not to be so easily caught. Next up, Walt Whitman.
A very witty response, young man (everybody on here is younger than me). I made me chuckle. Here in the heart of Seville they don't have any official nehbourhood watches, but neighbours do, informally, look out for each other.
You're on fire, Tony -all the while doing your bit to put out plagiarism fires. Congrats on all your individual acceptances - & for your forthcoming hybrid collection - how exciting! I love the history of Sheela-na-gig, so that's bookmarked to read.
He's been submitting recently under another pen-name, Liz - - but the editors realized that "Franz" was sending his submission in via the familiar Kucera-email. :-)
As Mae West would say, "The nerve of a brass monkey."
Hi Doug. Matt Potter has published a number of my poems and flash fiction pieces over the last few years and when he made a trip to Europe last year my wife and I met him and his partner for lunch in Seville where I regaled him with a copy of my very first collection, “Afterthoughts”, poor chap!
I was very gratified to find that I had three acceptances to Witcraft -- a site that publishes humor. One piece has already been published and the other two coming up in April. Looking for humor? That's a great site. They respond within a day after submitting. Also, another piece of mine has been accepted to Chicken Soup for the Soul - Just Say Yes. My piece entitled, I Got Swiped, will be out in their publication in July 2024. And finally, two poems of mine have been accepted and will be published in Qua Literary and Fine Arts Journal in Winter 2024. March was a great month for me. Only a couple of rejections.
Congratulations, Nancy - what an excellent month, indeed! I hear CSFTS pays quite well, too! That poetry journal sounds lovely - will have to check it out (PS- I am replying to your email soon.)
Suzanne -- Chicken Soup takes a while to respond. They pay $250 per story. Check out their website for themes. They are great to work with. It was my second story with them.
Well done, Nancy. I tried looking up that website and a great many things came up. Could you possibly provide a little more info so I land in the right place? Thanks.
Congrats, LA, for getting 3 accepted at once - especially if you've been sending them out for a while. Doesn't it feel good to finally find homes for poems? & Especially enjoyed the last poem of the trio - how those shorter lines in two stanzas conveyed the presure underwater, the effort to breathe: "pressed by atmospheres / I paused at intervals / pressured per square inch / I paused to vent excess..." Lovely work!
If I may ask a question, what software /app do you use for audio recording.? As a former thespian, I really want to start getting into performing my work more.
Thanks - think I might already have that one on my phone. Did you do anything special to help the sound - a professional actress / voice-over artist friend told me she builds a blanket-table fort to do her recordings! :D I'm not sure I want to go to that effort, though!
Since the February brag, I had a poem accepted for publication this summer by Hyacinth Review. I only submitted "Night Visitor" there for a themed issue. No revisions yet. My nonfiction piece, "Selections from My Academic Planner, 1977-1978," was accepted by The Vassar Review and should be online soon. I didn't expect this piece would be accepted, perhaps due to its hermit crab form. I didn't think that highly of it and I had already completely rewritten it as a straight essay (which I'll send out next year). It was rejected by one lit mag and I withdrew it from another. The Vassar student editors took their jobs seriously and it took me too full days over my spring break to revise. I do think the piece is better for it. But one editor did not understand the difference between West Germany in the 1970s and Germany now and she for sure didn't understand acts of antisemitism.
Thanks, Carol. This is the second time the editors told me it was the form that "sold" the piece. I have another CNF piece on submission now that takes the form of an SAT reading comprehension test.
Whenever I visit the Hyacinth Review online submissions page (including today), it says that the journal is closed for submissions. How on earth can anyone submit to this publication?
I would appreciate any insights on this mysterious journal. Happy Passover! Janet
Congrats, Barabara on your poem and essay being accepted. Love the title of your poem. It can be tricky when you sense an editor doesn't know much about the form or subject of your submission! Had a similar experience recently with a student-run faculty journal out of Melbourne Uni. After receiving edit suggestions that made me scratch my head, the editor later admitted in email correspondence she really didn't know anything about prose poems.
Gary, I love this phrase: "once ran gin clear." I learned a lot reading your article. I'm a Chicago transplant now renting a home in Asheville. Been here 2 1/2 years. I can't bear the thought of building and all that would entail, so renting it will be. I first visited Asheville in 1985 and wanted to move here ever since. It took a while, but 36 years later my dream finally came true. I too feel the call of these ancient mountains, not those youngsters out West.
That part of the country is so pretty! I spent two summers in high school going to a sleep away camp near Brevard and was so gobsmacked over the beauty of it all.
My story, A PENNY’S WORTH, was published in The Ekphrastic Review—the only magazine I submitted it to, and my second piece to be accepted there. I love that magazine!
Ah, Donna, a beautiful ekphrastic imagining. You conjured up such a vivid story from that gorgeous painting. I loved "the escaped flame that devoured the thatch" as an image for her hair, & the image of her practicing her letters in the flour. Enjoyed the ways you played with "penelope/ penny". Congratulations for another wonderful story! I'm waiting to hear back about my next submission to TER.
PS: I actually wrote a micro-review (my first ever) for your Milk Candy Review story "AfterWords" & submitted it to Split Lip. It came back with a personalised note, saying it had made several rounds with the editorial team & an invitation to submit again. It was a delight to spend extra time with your story. :)
Thank you so much for reading my story and for your kind comments on it. I’m blown away that you wrote a micro-review of After-Words; I take that as a great compliment coming from an author of your creativity and accomplishment. I’m sorry that Split Lip didn’t take it, but glad that they were so encouraging. Good luck for your latest submission to TER; I hope you hear from them soon.
You're most welcome, Donna. As I said in another Lit Mag forum, your story really stayed with me. If ever I can assist with a review, let me know! BTW - what did you think of Jeanette Winterson as a writer? Can't recall which books you said you found - but I really recommend "Lighthouse-Keeping" & "Sexing the Cherry".
Thank you for the kind offer of a review, Melissa. I am honoured. Thank you, too, for suggesting Jeanette Winterson to me. So far, I’ve read her “Christmas Days: 12 stories and 12 feasts for 12 days.” I liked all the stories, but the one I adored and read several times was titled “The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me.” Hilarious and poignant at the same time. She is so good! I'll be giving that book as a gift next Christmas.
Yes, Winterson manages to be both a lyrical writer & surprisingly, sharply wry with her humor at times. So pleased you're enjoying her work. My email is ask.the.seeds@gmail.com should you want to get in touch. (I'm not sure if my "message" option is enabled here - I really struggle with Substack's interface - it just isn't clear for me. One of these days, I'll get the hang of it & actually have a newsletter!)
Yes, lyrical and wry—that describes her style so well. “The Lion the Unicorn and Me” actually tips over into slapstick comedy at times, part of what I loved about it. Thank you for your email! I'm donnashan@hotmail.com
Such gorgeous sorrow, Donna! I've been reading this sentence over and over because it's just so delicious: "It was the amber of ale overflowing the barrel, the scarlet of the strutting rooster’s comb, the escaped flame that devoured the thatch." The words and painting make great partners and I'm glad they appear together in that excellent pub. Congratulations!
What a perfect painting for that story, or did the painting inspire the story. You've captured historical fiction perfectly. Beautiful language. Congratulations.
Thank you so much, Polly! The story was inspired by the painting. As it is titled “Thoughts of the Past,” I wanted to imagine what the woman’s past and future might be.
45 (?) rejections, 3 lit mags ghosted me (I reached out twice and got crickets and then withdrew the stories and politely said why), one piece paid for xtra feed back and said piece was ripped to shreds, no acceptences.
Well. THAT was a fun month!
Seriously, it's ok. I finally put up the money to hire an editor through the EFA and she is going over some of my most rejected stories (about 10) for line edits, copy edits, some developmental edits and if even one of those pieces gets the WE WANT YOU email, it will have been worth it.
I'm just going to keep on writing. Baseball on the Northside of Chicago starts up on Monday, so there's my day job for the next six months.
I've been submitting stories since last summer. While I have had 4 pieces published (nothing recent), I've had A LOT more than just those 45 rejects. Probably closer to well over 100. And yes it's a numbers game and a luck game.
You just have to have a good sense of humor and thick skin.
I'm brain farting on the exact name but I know there's info there. Hive also does writer's block meetups in Evanston a few times a month, I've been to a couple of those.
Congratulations to everyone on acceptances and rejections! I'm doing the 100 rejections a year challenge through Flash Fiction Magazine so I count rejections as positives these days. Here is a story of mine that came out in March after 19 rejections. I did a few revisions between groups of rejections but nothing major.
Congratulations, Joan! I am also doing the 100 rejections a year challenge, and am trending well at 30 rejections so far. 😅 But I’ve also had a decent number of acceptances along the way. I am glad your story found a home with Isele Magazine after a long trek!
Wow, love seeing the wins celebrated here :) so glad to be part of this community. I'm thrilled to have published the second issue of my literary magazine, Big Wing Review. Lots of amazing writers - some well-known, some emerging! Check it out - would love to hear what you all think. https://www.bigwingreview.com/shop
My poem "indelicate flower" was published by Invisible City and two previously published poems appeared, as reprints, in The Field Guide Poetry Magazine. They are "lagger tag" and "Mackinaw". I think it's pretty sweet to find opportunities where one can reshare these 'golden oldies'!
Congratulations, Julie! I so enjoyed these pieces: especially loved “the hopscotch in me” echo of childhood, in lagger tag, and the "troglodyte femme fatale"’s transition to fading rose in Indelicate Flower.
“Zoo,” a flash fiction piece about my conflicting feelings about immigration in America was published by Writers Resist in their special “Amplified Voices” issue this month: https://www.writersresist.com/2024/03/27/zoo-2/
The guest editor and I collaborated on revisions together, and I’m thrilled about how the final product ended up!
Great story, Nicola—as coolly told as your protag is portrayed. Thanks for sharing!
US Immigration is so Kafkaesque. My husband always carries a folder of papers (many original papers, including our marriage certificate) when we enter the States. The last time, he was pulled aside and taken away. I wasn't allowed to go with him (I'm a US citizen). An officer (after 1+ hours) then bullied him for not having me and/or my passport with him. "You can't prove that your wife is with you, that she's a US citizen, or that you're still married," the office said.
"She's right outside the door, waiting for me."
This went on in a windowless "holding pen" where officers pointed, joked, and laughed about the detainees from an elevated balcony. No one seemed to be in a hurry to process the detainees.
Meanwhile, I waited outside the pen, not a chair in sight, officers demanding to know why I was "hanging around." My husband's European—so he's not subjected to the racist and sexist treatment others must endure.
I’m sorry to hear about what happened to your husband, Meredith. That sounds awful. I think all of us internationals can relate to having a folio of paperwork ready *just in case* immigration officers deem the valid visa in our passport insufficient. It is stressful and frustrating.
I went to Moscow once and was pulled aside for closer examination. That's not a country you want to get stopped in so I related to your story. Loved the irony of seeing the Welcome sign and her coping mechanism. Great stuff.
I placed a flash fiction piece I wrote in a workshop 15 years ago! It had been edited to within an inch of its life and is 500 words. I submitted this piece to about three places and got rejected. Freedom Fiction accepted it this past week and it’s up on the site now! Www.freedomfiction.com, it’s called Glenna, and it’s a fantasy/superhero story that is unique and was hard to place. My first fiction publication!
Learned last week that North American Review wanted a piece I’d submitted. They are high on my list of places I wanted to publish bc I think they put out such a beautiful product and I like the fiction they choose so much.
March has been a hard working month. I'm writing a novella with a fellow writer and we've been obsessing about it. Not much time to come up for air...
Anyway, I was invited to Offer Kuban's Podcast "The Speakeasy" and it was a fun experience (even if I'm still not used to hearing my Belgian accent on a recording, lol). Here's the link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6b0rFUOv5HsdC7LaiXPBPA
Biggest news is the publication of the "Motel" anthology from Cowboy Jamboree. 28 stories, 28 writers and it's a magnificent book. My story "A Redhead and a Green Car" is in Room 11 - I guess it's a lucky number! It's a piece of retro noir, San Francisco 1950 - I love to do these hardboiled cigarette-smoking guys! https://www.amazon.com/MOTEL-anthology-Barbara-Byar-ebook/dp/B0CXHSC8T3/ - authors are doing a reading today to launch the book.
15 things out this month, year to date 62 out, 31 declines. About 4 declines this month. My historical ratio is about `1 acceptance to 12 declines, so I am fully expecting a tardy avalanche of accepted stuff to come crashing through the walls any time now. On the work front, I've revised and much improved two graphic books from last year and are sending those out anew; have started a new graphic novel that is uncharacteristically fun as hell to write; secured a movie-review gig with our local community radio station (where I have a book reading show) for a boatload of new movies at the Wisconsin Film Festival, and have a new drawing exhibition on display at our Art and Literature Lab, so things are hopping!
Ditto to the WOW. I've just started paying more attention to acceptance rates through Duotrope. I set a 2024 goal of increasing my rates in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry (as separate genres) by 10%. I've already beat that goal. YTD 62, Gregg, is most impressive!
I had two long stories come out within a week of each other. They're part of a series I seem to be writing about a guy named Chuck narrated by women at various times of his life. I haven't decided yet whether I'll allow him his own story.
Very much enjoyed "Sorry" and spit my coffee when I got to this hilarious line: “Swell,” Lissa said. “A roommate whose poop I have to scoop.” And Strange Cat--wonderful character. Looking forward to the second piece, too. Congratulations!
"The Deal" is a reprint, originally published in April 2022 in October Hill Magazine, this time in Issue 2 of The Argyle Literary Magazine, a really nice newer site if you haven't seen it. Before the first acceptance, the story got 25 rejections, starting in 2014. I tweaked it along the way of course, but the basic story never changed. So, yeah, as usual, go figure. Or go read...
And yesterday, "The Reincarnation of Herb McWeed" came out on Fiction on the Web. A humorous tale. This one took on the load of 10 rejections, first sent out in 2021. Again, the story didn't change much. Is it all in the targeting? Who knows. Fiction on the Web is a real warhorse, around since 1996, and takes a couple of stories a week. Here is "Herb":
After taking several years off of the submission merry-go-round, I hopped back on recently and placed one I am really proud of, but thought may not see the light of day, at the perfect mag for it:
Find “rain dance” as the penultimate piece there. The editor was responsive and the magazine is lovely. Highly suggested if you also have work centered on the classics.
Last note: I got another acceptance just yesterday from The Pierian, which I believe I found here. Thanks! Another placement I love; will link when it’s out.
Normally, I don’t rush to submit to new litmags, but I was immediately intrigued by the aesthetic at Gooseberry Pie (“Tart, Messy, and Satisfying”) and its unique requirement (six sentences). EiC Jeff Harvey responded quickly and was a pleasure to work with.
Congratulations, Lisa! I loved the story. “wearing her mannered upbringing:” what a great image, so much hinted at in so few words—the perfect microfiction.
March has been "anthology month" for me. Improbable Press has released "Anna Karenina Isn't Dead", an anthology re-writing female literary characters . My Pandora re-imagining "The Price for Fire" is hanging out with some fabulous stories. It was a year from acceptance to publication. The proof process went smoothly & it was very nice to be paid a decent amount. I received my glossy contributor quite quickly! It's available via Barnes & Noble in hardback & via Improbable Press in digital / paperback (sharing link in case anyone's interested):
And "The Ekphrastic Review" has just sent through our digital copies of their first print anthology "The Memory Palace". I was thrilled to have my prose poem from Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" selected in a blind reading process. Lorette, TER's founder co-edited the anthology with Clare MacQueen of MacQueen's Quinterly. I can't wait to read this one! (The links don't quite appear to be up yet on TER's website).
Huge congratulations, Melissa, on your pieces in both anthologies (I do have a special fondness for The Ekphrastic Review—Lorette and Clare are both wonderful solo, a power couple together!)
Thanks so much, Donna! Yes, I love TER too. My jaw kind of dropped when I realized my prose poem is appearing in an anthology with Cassandra Atherton and Paul Hetherington, co-authors of "The Anthology of Australian Prose Poems" (thankfully, mine is not appearing directly before or after them - lol!).
Melissa, the anthology is up on TER’s website! I’ve just read your colourful and complex story, and so admired the ways in which you make visible the invisible: time. I loved the images of the “nostalgic sun,” the “ants of ancestry swarming at the edges of genetic memory,” (wow!) and the “antique fob watch in the breast-pocket of a sepia forbear,” so beautifully and vividly visualizing the connection between time and memory, and reminding us that neither exists without the other. (I read Atherton and Hetherington’s fine stories too; your work absolutely belongs alongside theirs!) Brava!
Donna, thank you so much for reading it & for these lovely comments. Surrealist art really inspires me... I could look at it all day - especially now I've discovered more of the female surrealists like Remedios Varo, Dorothea Tanning. I know this is crazy, but I can't find it! What page is it advertised on?
Ah ... found it ... all the way down on the E-Books page. I'm surprised as a new release it doesn't have a feature page announcement. Maybe they're waiting for the print antho to be ready before an official announcement. Love the cover art, though - was excited to see what Lorette would do with that!
Thanks, Lisa - for the congrats and for downloading. From the proof copy, I recall it's quite a big anthology! Can you believe I've been so busy writing articles, I haven't had a moment to open the anthology yet!
Thanks so much, Dave. It's nice to see them in their final homes - & there's something very old-school exciting seeing your story and name in an actual book. :)
My ekphrastic poem "Wonderstuck" appears in volume 40 of Pink Panther Magazine https://pinkpanthermagazine.com/, which is a quite attractive print and online publication. I met editor Jennifer DeBellis at a 2023 workshop at the Theodore Roethke House in Saginaw, MI. The Pulitzer-prize-winning poet grew up in Saginaw, and his home has been converted to a museum and writer space. The Friends of Theodore Roethke organization offers many in-person, hybrid, and Zoom-only events that range from scholarship to generative poetry and spoken word workshops. DeBellis specializes in cathartic poetry, and while I didn't write "Wonderstuck" as a result of her workshop, getting introduced to DeBellis's concept of "force of nature" poetry may impact future work. Learning about Pink Panther Magazine was certainly useful. The response time from submission was within a week, and the placement of my poem next to a visual that works as well as the painting that originally inspired it is wonderful.
First of all, thanks, Becky, for your heartfelt share about getting those rejections. Reading your comments helps me to see the reality of the situation, which is, I am a good writer and will find a home for my work if I keep knocking on doors. Secondly, not a publication, but I was longlisted for SmokeLong's Micro March Marathon 400-word contest. I didn't get on the the shortlist, but I'll take the nod.
Harness Magazine.. took about 3 days to be approved. But this is the 11th time they've published one of my pieces. I just love what Genesis the owner has done with it. My first time about 4 years ago, it was owned by a women who had about 2000 subscribers. This young girl took it to over 38000 since she bought it! No submission fees ever, fast response I just love them. They published two of mine in the last month!
thank you so much for reading but please don't hold me to that time. I think they go much quicker for writers who have been with them awhile. but even 2-3 weeks is not much at all for a lit mag.
I honestly cannot remember if I posted this previously so apologies if I have— it’s an interview from February I did when the author’s EXCELLENT debut novel came out here’s the link https://www.massreview.org/node/11735 but the story to publication is a sort of circuitous interesting one and perhaps helpful:
I pitched an interview w an interesting (LGBTQ) bent of another book to a BIG DEAL pub who liked my pitch but said the book had been out too long (6 months)
So they (the BIG DEAL pub) offered me a different review if I had someone with a book coming out THIS spring — I asked a friend of mine who happens to be a BIG DEAL author for suggestions of folks with big deal books coming out whom I could structure an interview around — they looped in their publisher (Tin House) who suggested the author of the pub in this above interview—
I read the galley, LOVED IT, conducted the interview, but the BIG DEAL pub needed a later release date book— so I had a completed interview to “sell” and still an author with an upcoming book to do another interview with for the BIG DEAL pub (not a bad problem to have) — I returned to my BIG DEAL author friend who suggested himself and his spring release book for the interview (so my BIG DEAL author interview will get published in BIG DEAL pub in May)
I hit up a few pubs for the existing above interview and a TERRIFIC pub I love accepted it — GREAT! As for the original book that had been out 6 months, I hit up another pub without strict publishing deadlines (Streetlight)where I have a relationship and they published it —
So I got the original interview published, an acceptance of the above interview to be published, and an upcoming interview coming out in May…
Then, in an unrelated event, a long (too long for most pubs) essay of mine I had wanted to find a great home for got into the hands of the EIC of the TERRIFIC pub who really “got it” and committed to publishing it this spring (yay)… only issue was they bumped the above interview as their policy prohibits two works by one writer (me) within the same calendar year. In a desperation move I contacted the AMAZING Mass Review, told them the entire truth of the above story, and they were willing to publish this author on their website, coordinating with his book publication.
I guess the moral is, follow every thread and try to do the right thing by authors with upcoming work in terms of reviews/interviews (if you’re so inclined — I LOVE writing / editing reviews and interviews— I know it’s not for everyone…) I have 4 things being published this year JUST from my initial interview pitch…
Sorry for going on so long, hope this proves helpful to someone. And if you have a book coming out, maybe hit me up for an interview ;) …
I had two poems appear in Synkroniciti's Family issue released on March 1st. This is a beautifully designed litmag, the editor is an absolute delight to work with, and she posted an insightful and very well-written review of my work, but the issues are behind a paywall. I have mixed feelings about this. It's a way to fund the litmag, but it limits who might see and read it.
Witcraft recently opened to poetry submissions, and one of mine was the first poem he published, on March 10th. It's in the archives on witcraft.org. A great editor here, Doug Jacquier (who is part of this group), and one who responds very quickly to submissions.
I have a pair of linked sonnets that came out on Innisfree Poetry Journal on March 1st: https://www.innisfreepoetry.org/innisfree-38/cynthia-bernard/. These are "true" to my childhood experiences in their tone, but not in all of the specific details.
A poem of mine was published in Carmina Magazine on March 1st: http://carminamagazine.com/road-trip.html. The editor here is friendly but there was a long time (7 months) between acceptance and appearance.
Sage-ing: The Journal of Creative Aging has an issue they intend to publish online tomorrow. The editor here is thoughtful and helpful, but the tech person who did the layout made a lot of errors. Fortunately they sent out proofs, though it took several rounds of email to get the corrections made. I will have 4 poems in the issue, plus a full page with my photo, bio, and my comments about how writing poetry deepens my self-knowledge and understanding of others and of life.
I have one poem in this month's Verse-Virtual: https://www.verse-virtual.org/2024/March/bernard-cynthia-2024-march.html. In the past I've had multiple pieces there each time (submissions are limited to once every three months), but I prefer for this piece to stand alone. As always, I recommend this journal-plus-community as a great place to read excellent writing and connect with other writers. I've made several delightful friendships with folks I "met" there.
I recently began sending out flash fiction and flash CNF pieces. Several rejections, so far, and a couple of places where pieces have been "In Process" for several weeks, and so, I tell myself, not rejected immediately. :-)
It's been a rough month for me, with several health challenges including rampant insomnia leaving me beyond exhausted. Thanks for this opportunity, Becky, to revisit and share the good news, and also to read about what's been happening for others.
After an arid 2023, when I had a number of near misses but no acceptances, a couple of my stories recently broke through. One, "Charon.com," appeared in The Berlin Literary Review and the other, "Bystanders," was published in Twelve Winters. The latter, which I consider my best piece, had been rejected over 60 times. It garnered its share of encouraging rejections (I love that term) which sustained my faith in the story. “Charon.com” ONLY had 20 rejections. Occasionally, I think a piece has a really good shot with a particular magazine and getting the ax hurts; however, most of the time they roll off my back. Sometimes the accumulation of rejections gets me down, especially those that don’t even mention the name of my story. But those nice, personalized ones can be sustaining, letting me know I’m not crazy for doing this.
I could also mention getting a form, impersonal rejection letter accompanied by a suggestion that I buy a subscription to their magazine. If I took up every journal that sent me one of those letters up on their suggestion, I'd be behind on my mortgage.
I discovered them a couple of years ago and they stuck out to me because their niche at the time was older women writers.
They first published my work in 2022, which was a first for me. Yay! Thrilled to have them support me again. They showcase excellent writers and I like what they do.
I work with their main editor to get the piece ready for their site and she is great to collaborate with. Her input is often wise and she will listen when you do not agree with a suggestion.
Loved this piece, Tara! Your dad put me in mind of my dad and what times might have been with him had I not lost him when I was 30 (& he was 60). Your reaction to the race also put me in mind of being at a rodeo once and how so suddenly I realized that it would be my last rodeo; something felt so off. I really love it when a piece transports me into my own memories like yours does. Well done! And thanks for sharing. GTK about Grand Dame, too!
Meredith, thank you so much for your kind words! I'm touched my piece spoke to you and kindled your own memories. Naturally, I'm sorry you lost your father so young, that must have been devastating. Yes, rodeos are rough. As a child I always liked to think the horses had the upper hand, and I think that some did, but it's not exactly an easy life.
Do check out Grande Dame! I bet they would love your writing. :)
I started the month with a rejection for a prose poem, but was happy to receive feedback from the editor. It came close, but it reminded him of a song that he couldn't get out of his head. I reworked it a bit for clarity but kept what could be a reference to that song. I am ready to submit it again.
I ended the month with an acceptance from Full House Literary (https://www.fullhouseliterary.com/). I am very excited my poem, Self-Portrait as Make-Believe, found a home with them. One feature I love about their platform is that they publish your piece and include a recording of you reading it. A reader can choose to read and listen online, listen to the whole issue, or download it to a PDF. Very nice!!
I had one of those rejections too. My betas seemed to love the story, thought it was a good fit for a contest. The pub specifically stated they don't send rejections for contests...but they sent one to ME. LOL <insert crying emoji here>
I had subTerrain on my radar for ages, but ultimately self-rejected a piece years ago. I kept the envelope I intended to mail that story in, stamped and everything, and finally decided to give them a go in October. "Fifty Eyes: Murmur and Sunburst" is my first surrealist story. I'm really proud of it and this magazine is so cool, y'all.
I recently did a workshop with Nicole Breit, who spoke about the more unusual forms she used for a number of essays that did well. I'm playing with new forms now, and it's wonderfully stimulating whether or not it results in higher chances of publication. Please let us know when the Vassar piece goes on line...and good luck with the SAT reading comp test piece—what memories just those words bring back!!! : )
I took the workshop, too. I'm enamored now with finding a form for my CNF and fiction. I'm working on a short story told through emails. If you ever want to brainstorm, just let me know!
I'd love to brainstorm—thank you! I have a CNF short-ish 'collection' that was to be published as a verse CNF that I pulled from publishing with a tiny press because at the last minute they wanted to add a disclaimer that implied it was fiction...I no longer think the verse (not all of which I'm thrilled with) is the most accessible way to share this story and I'm thinking about experimenting with form—not certain what feels right yet.
I have a story, The Sixth Bullet, coming out in a League of Utah Writers anthology, "Ghost Town." One publication I shopped it to earlier sent me a polite rejection saying how much they liked my writing (having published an earlier story) but said they'd seen too many stories featuring "bullets." Say what? Who knew?
I generally treat rejections as merely "information." Sort of like an alert my gas tank is approaching Empty. There's always another gas station.
It hasn't come out yet, but I got an acceptance that means the world to me, my first personal essay, about a topic extremely close to my heart. Huge! I had sent it out to about a dozen places or so. Most I hadn't heard back from but this is really my dream publication, a perfect home for my piece. I still can't believe it!
I just want to say thank you to everyone who has listed places they've been accepted to. You've given me a bunch of new lit mags to explore and bookmark for submissions!
I sent it out under a different title to several places last year. Rejected all around. Then I revised and resent several months later and it got accepted pretty quickly!
Last week an agent emailed me to say she’d read & liked it and asked to look at my novel-in-progress!! It’s basically my dream scenario. And a good affirmation that agents are out there reading these publications too.
Hi Lacy. I just read your challenging story, The Other Son. It had a poignancy that's normally hard to convey in words that you master beautifully.
I live in Utah (SLC area) so I was wondering how you settled on the St. George area for his retirement. If you have a moment, drop me a note at pat.partridge124@gmail.com
The perfect story! Very uplifting. Thanks for sharing Lacy. And good luck securing an agent, and finishing and placing your nove-in-progress! Congrats!
Becky, "Summer of the Sharks" was brilliant and moving. Sorry about the rejections, but their loss! :)
It's not a literary accomplishment but my first grandchild, Zahava, was born February 11. I am always in awe of young parents who write around their children's schedules. And she's definitely disrupted mine, but more than worth it.
I've had a few successes thus far this year. My essay, "No Regrets", was accepted by the Bucket. It references Abigail Thomas and I understand she has had an essay published in this journal, so that's cool!
Two more essays were accepted "Searching for Cranberries in February" by Remington Review and "My Father--a song" in Syncopation, Paris issue. I think each will be published in the late spring.
"keep recognizing the rewards writing already brings to your life" -- Truly inspiring words, Becky. I'm glad you came to that response. Congratulations on "The Summer of the Sharks." I had one poem published this month, "In the twilight deep," in NonBinary Review (https://www.zoeticpress.com/nonbinary-review). This poem is in a special issue on Old Friends. My daughter had me watch a David Attenborough special on creatures that live in the deepest part of the ocean, and that scene suggested the setting of my poem exploring the loss of a best friend -- lives drifting apart. The editors asked for changes -- cuts mostly, but as you know, that involves reworking. I was relieved when they said they loved the revision. I had another poem accepted for "Of Our Own Accord," a women's poetry anthology. My poem was an old one, resurrected for this submission, "Woman at the Edge."
Hi Karen, congrats for both of these acceptances. I enjoy connecting with women-identifying authors who write through a feminist lens or target women-centred journals / projects. You might be interested in the anthology I've just had a story published in -feminist reimaginings of female literay figures (see my "brag" for purchase link). The editors at Nonbinary Review just contacted me with an offer to enter an editing process for a shape prose poem they're interested in accepting for their next theme "Heredity". Never had this "pre-acceptance" editing offer before but I'm going for it as I love their vision. Is the poetry antho print-only? I'll be keeping an eye out for that. (A bit disappointed I didn't see the submission call).
Good luck with Nonbinary. They were generous with me. I believe Of Our Own Accord will be print and PDF, but I'll know more later. The press is Flying Ketchup Press. They organized an online reading for the last anthology I was part of, and I really appreciated and enjoyed that.
I've been getting many kind comments about my last post. I hope I wasn't misunderstood: I have 63 things OUT, not accepted! And 31 DECLINES this year, and NOTHING accepted. That I suppose is a kind of honorable defeat---like how a washed up boxer used to make money by being beat up royally by up and comers to build up their record of wins. They lost and bled good and were called "tomato cans."
I'm brand new at this, so my "brag" for March is: 4 rejections and 8 outstanding submissions. Don't worry, I'm fine, I'm still in the naive optimist phase.
I do have a question for you all: what is your experience with the paid feedback options some lit mags offer? The fees seem reasonable given the value of an editor's time, but does this sort of feedback really help?
I have found paid feedback options very hit and miss. Some were helpful and made me think about the piece differently, but some just showed (IMHO) they didn't know much about how to provide feedback that was helpful. I'm a member of a critique group and have found that a much more supportive form of helpful criticism.
The Madison Review has good feedback and they offer lit mags where the piece they reject might be a better fit. It's how Corner Bar got the honor of being the first lit mag to accept my work.
As been said, it can be very hit or miss. I had one place trash a story. Like ripped to shreds. Whatever. 🤷♀️
Thanks! I just took a look at their website and I think my work could fit there. They are closed for subs until August 1, but I'll note them in my running list of possibilities.
My mistake, it's actually The Master's Review that offers the feedback I mentioned above, but the Madison Review has a good rep as well, as far as I know.
Yep. Worth it, in my opinion. The feedback I got was clear, good constructive critisim but they also pointed out the strengths of the stories, what worked and what (in the editor's pov) didn't. In both cases, the editor loved the story, it just wasn't what the Master's Review was looking for.
I had the best month of my entire writing life this month, as far as acceptances. I received an acceptance from my top favorite poetry journal— Rattle! And an acceptance from my top CNF journal— Brevity! It felt like years of work paying off all at once— like a major breakthrough in my writing/ publishing journey. And I’m just really grateful and excited about whatever comes next! And I want to encourage everyone— do NOT give up. Rattle rejected me 23 times before accepting me. And Brevity, I first submitted there when I was 19 & I’m 32 now!!! Do not give up submitting and pursing excellence in your craft!
That's great Bethany. Way to hang in there. Congratulations. Dennis
Thank you!
Thanks for the encouragement to keep submitting. Congratulations on those acceptances.
You’re welcome. And thank you!
Great news! Bethany!
Thank you, Meredith!
I'm on about Rattle rejection 20, so my day might be coming soon! Congratulations!!!
Thank you, Mark! Yes, don’t give up!
Congratulations on both acceptances and hooray for Rattle submission #24!
Thank you, Lisa! ☺️
Congrats, Bethany - both of those acceptances must feel like amazing achievements. Definitely signs that if we're working at our craft, we're growing as writers. Well, I'm up to about rejection #4 for Rattle - lol! Your story is a reminder to not take a "no for now" as a "no forever".
Thank you! Yes, we must keep working on our craft and keep submitting to reach our goals!
Congrats, Bethany! When I was writing poetry, Rattle was my dream journal. Tim sent the nicest rejection letters--heh!
Thank you! He does! Ha!
Terrific, Bethany! Persistence is (almost) everything!
Thank you! Yes!
You're always an inspiration, Bethany.
Thank you, Kresha!
Congrats, Bethany.
Thank you, Nancy!
Congratulations, Bethany!
Thanks, Dave! ☺️
Inspirational - I will look forward to seeing your work pop up in my inbox! Just got a rejection from Rattle today (poets respond poem about Opening Day)...
Thank you! ☺️
Congrats, Bethany! You are an inspiration for perseverance! Both these publications are on my dream list. Someday!
Thank you, Barbara! Yes, keep going!
Two of my favorite journals!! Congratulations, Bethany!!
Thank you so much, Kathi!
After not sending out a story in a year, I finally did and was accepted 5 days later at Litbreak. My story comes out 4/23.
Don't you love those little affirmations from the Universe that you're on the right path? :) Congrats!
What a fantastic way to return, Sylvia! Congratulations!
Hi Nicola, fellow "Exist Otherwise" contributor here. Nice to see you! :)
Hi Melissa! I remember connecting with you on Medium as both of our pieces were published on the same issue of Exist Otherwise. Glad to see you on Substack!
Yes - actually I think I recommended Lit Mag News to you as a great place to meet other submitting writers, as on Medium they're a bit scarce!
PS: I love your Substack newsletter name - catchy!
Thank you!
Congratulations, Sylvia!
Thank you!
Excellent!
Thank you!
Love this. Congratulations. Dennis
Earlier in the week, I clicked on a website that had just published a poem by a friend of mine and noticed that a certain John Kucera also had a poem there. I immediately contacted the editor to alert him to the fact that JK was a notorious serial plagiarist, and it was more than likely that the poem published under his name had probably been stolen from somebody else (after having changed the title, of course.) I was proved right. It turned out that he had taken a poem written about 10 years ago by George Bilgere and passed it off as his own. The editor took the poem down immediately and thanked me profusely for drawing attention to the matter. So, that’s my first brag! I’m pretty sure that JK does what he does simply to embarrass editors who don’t recognize the work of poets of note.
Apart from that, HST published “The Medieval Mind”, my interpretation of Sheela-na-gigs. It can be found here: https://horrorsleazetrash.com/2024/03/16/tony-dawson-7/
Another poem, “Paris is Always a Good Idea” has been accepted for publication in June by Syncopation Literary Journal and “A Signal Failure”, also in June, by Impspired. Matt Potter, the editor of Pure Slush, has accepted a flash fiction piece, “Wanted, Preferably Dead”, my satire on bureaucrats who constantly ask pensioners to prove that they are still alive if they want to continue receiving their pension. It will be published in print in Pure Slush’s Lifespan series. Finally, the editor of Impspired is preparing a hybrid collection of my latest poems and short fiction, entitled “Reflections in a Dirty Mirror” to be published soon.
I like this... it's like a Neighborhood Watch... without the tall cans of beer and baseball bats, but effective nonetheless. "Kucera" probably decided to go back in time for their "inspiration" hoping not to be so easily caught. Next up, Walt Whitman.
A very witty response, young man (everybody on here is younger than me). I made me chuckle. Here in the heart of Seville they don't have any official nehbourhood watches, but neighbours do, informally, look out for each other.
"John Kucera" -- the porch pirate of the Lit Mag community -- was nabbed by one of our own sleuths, Tony Dawson. Hooray! Good work there.
You're on fire, Tony -all the while doing your bit to put out plagiarism fires. Congrats on all your individual acceptances - & for your forthcoming hybrid collection - how exciting! I love the history of Sheela-na-gig, so that's bookmarked to read.
When you've read it, Melissa, and recovered your breath, :-) don't forget to tell me whether you think it is horror, sleaze or trash!
Congrats on the acceptances and publications! Also, I like the neighbor-concept and you've been a good one. Glad you were well thanked.
Congratulations, Tony! It's unreal that JK continues to plagiarism after he was outed.
He's been submitting recently under another pen-name, Liz - - but the editors realized that "Franz" was sending his submission in via the familiar Kucera-email. :-)
As Mae West would say, "The nerve of a brass monkey."
Despicable.
It is despicable, Liz, and a total waste of everyone's time.
But can "Kucera" be the ONLY lit mag culprit??? What do you think?
Cynic that I am, I doubt t "Kucera" is the only serial litmag plagiarist.
Two cynics raise their jaded voices, Becky Tuch!
Well done Tony - on multiple counts. Dennis
Thank you for the sleuthing, Tony, and congratulations on the acceptances! A fine month for you.
Well done. My first ever publisher was Matt Potter at Pure Slush, a fellow South Australian.
Hi Doug. Matt Potter has published a number of my poems and flash fiction pieces over the last few years and when he made a trip to Europe last year my wife and I met him and his partner for lunch in Seville where I regaled him with a copy of my very first collection, “Afterthoughts”, poor chap!
Yes, I met him and his partner locally, rather than in Europe, you lucky dog. :-)
I was very gratified to find that I had three acceptances to Witcraft -- a site that publishes humor. One piece has already been published and the other two coming up in April. Looking for humor? That's a great site. They respond within a day after submitting. Also, another piece of mine has been accepted to Chicken Soup for the Soul - Just Say Yes. My piece entitled, I Got Swiped, will be out in their publication in July 2024. And finally, two poems of mine have been accepted and will be published in Qua Literary and Fine Arts Journal in Winter 2024. March was a great month for me. Only a couple of rejections.
Thank you for the mention, Nancy, and great to have your work with us.
Congratulations, Nancy--what a great month!
Congratulations, Nancy!
Love Witcraft. Well done Nancy on all your achievements.
Congratulations, Nancy - what an excellent month, indeed! I hear CSFTS pays quite well, too! That poetry journal sounds lovely - will have to check it out (PS- I am replying to your email soon.)
Congrats! Gonna check out Witcraft.
Congrats! How long did it take CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL to respond?
Suzanne -- Chicken Soup takes a while to respond. They pay $250 per story. Check out their website for themes. They are great to work with. It was my second story with them.
I've submitted to two or three of their themes. I recall it takes a while. Months? Years?
It was about 9 months
Well done, Nancy. I tried looking up that website and a great many things came up. Could you possibly provide a little more info so I land in the right place? Thanks.
Matthew -- witcraft.org. They have a super fast turnaround and great writing.
That’s an amazing accomplishment, Nancy! Congratulations!
Congratulations!
I' had four poems published since our last brag session! Three at The Wave https://www.kelpjournal.com/post/poetry-three-poems-by-la-fellman and one at The Post Grad Journal https://www.thepostgradjournal.com/issue-6/la-felleman. The process at The Wave involved a poetry editor and a copy editor.. The Post Grad team requested an audio recording of the poem. All of these poems had a long journey to final acceptance.
Congrats, LA, for getting 3 accepted at once - especially if you've been sending them out for a while. Doesn't it feel good to finally find homes for poems? & Especially enjoyed the last poem of the trio - how those shorter lines in two stanzas conveyed the presure underwater, the effort to breathe: "pressed by atmospheres / I paused at intervals / pressured per square inch / I paused to vent excess..." Lovely work!
If I may ask a question, what software /app do you use for audio recording.? As a former thespian, I really want to start getting into performing my work more.
I used the Voice Recorder app. It was free at Google Play, had great reviews, and was simple to operate. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.media.bestrecorder.audiorecorder&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
Thanks - think I might already have that one on my phone. Did you do anything special to help the sound - a professional actress / voice-over artist friend told me she builds a blanket-table fort to do her recordings! :D I'm not sure I want to go to that effort, though!
No, nothing special. Just me and my phone-- holding it close to my mouth and trying to breath quietly.
Congratulations, LA! Glad these are finally out in the world after a long journey!
Congratuations on your great March!
I’m very excited that my CNF essay “Life Lessons” is just out on Marathon Literary Review.
http://marathonlitreview.com/2024/03/23/life-lessons-kate-levin/
It was rejected about 30 times before this acceptance (and I revised it several times along the way).
Thanks for creating this community to support and encourage each other Becky! I look forward to reading your piece.
It is a wonderful feeling of affirmation when you stuck by something for a long time and a lot of rejections and it finally gets picked up!
For sure, Liz!
Congratulations, Kate!
Your resilience is admirable, Kate! Congratulations on this hard-earned acceptance!
Thanks Nicola
Encouraging! I look forward to reading shortly!
persistence pays off
Congratulations on both publication and persistence!
Thanks Lisa!
Since the February brag, I had a poem accepted for publication this summer by Hyacinth Review. I only submitted "Night Visitor" there for a themed issue. No revisions yet. My nonfiction piece, "Selections from My Academic Planner, 1977-1978," was accepted by The Vassar Review and should be online soon. I didn't expect this piece would be accepted, perhaps due to its hermit crab form. I didn't think that highly of it and I had already completely rewritten it as a straight essay (which I'll send out next year). It was rejected by one lit mag and I withdrew it from another. The Vassar student editors took their jobs seriously and it took me too full days over my spring break to revise. I do think the piece is better for it. But one editor did not understand the difference between West Germany in the 1970s and Germany now and she for sure didn't understand acts of antisemitism.
Congratulations on your two acceptances, Barbara!
Thank you, Nicola!
Congratulations, Barbara....and interesting side info. I've been learning about the hermit crab form - will look forward to reading!
Thanks, Carol. This is the second time the editors told me it was the form that "sold" the piece. I have another CNF piece on submission now that takes the form of an SAT reading comprehension test.
Dear Barbara Krasner,
Whenever I visit the Hyacinth Review online submissions page (including today), it says that the journal is closed for submissions. How on earth can anyone submit to this publication?
I would appreciate any insights on this mysterious journal. Happy Passover! Janet
Congrats, Barabara on your poem and essay being accepted. Love the title of your poem. It can be tricky when you sense an editor doesn't know much about the form or subject of your submission! Had a similar experience recently with a student-run faculty journal out of Melbourne Uni. After receiving edit suggestions that made me scratch my head, the editor later admitted in email correspondence she really didn't know anything about prose poems.
Had a CNR piece on rivers come out in Salvation South that I'm very proud of https://www.salvationsouth.com/will-the-rivers-still-run-blue-ridge-mountain-rivers-essay-gary-grossman/ and a poem as well https://www.salvationsouth.com/all-the-promise-leaf-out-poem-gary-grossman/ . Poems in Poetry Breakfast https://poetrybreakfast.com/2024/03/18/recollections-a-poem-by-gary-grossman/ and The Prose Poem https://theprosepoem.com/truth-matters/ . Finally, two poems accepted in both MacQueen's Quinterly and Verse-Virtual. A good month.
Gary, I love this phrase: "once ran gin clear." I learned a lot reading your article. I'm a Chicago transplant now renting a home in Asheville. Been here 2 1/2 years. I can't bear the thought of building and all that would entail, so renting it will be. I first visited Asheville in 1985 and wanted to move here ever since. It took a while, but 36 years later my dream finally came true. I too feel the call of these ancient mountains, not those youngsters out West.
Thank you Polly, I'm so glad the piece resonated with you!
That part of the country is so pretty! I spent two summers in high school going to a sleep away camp near Brevard and was so gobsmacked over the beauty of it all.
I really enjoyed your essay about the rivers!
Thanks Karen as a fellow writer I'm sure you know comments like yours are music to our ears.
What a great month for you, Gary! Congratulations on all of these pieces!
Congratulations, Gary! I'm a fan of MacQueen's Quinterly.
I love Clare and the review. So much good writing. She is a talented and dedicated editor, and her comments always improve my work.
Clare is a gem, indeed!
Agreed.
Congratulations, Gary!! Your poem, Truth Matters, is excellent! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks so much Kathi!
Gary, I loved your stream-traipsing, South Brookie piece. I think I was looking at things bass-ackwards too. Congrats!
Thanks Dave, always so nice to hear that someone enjoyed a piece!
My story, A PENNY’S WORTH, was published in The Ekphrastic Review—the only magazine I submitted it to, and my second piece to be accepted there. I love that magazine!
https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/a-pennys-worth-by-donna-shanley
Congratulations on your story in Inscape Journal, Becky!
Wonderful story! Amazing pacing - and I'm generally a slow reader! That first paragraph grabbed and held on!
Thanks so much, Carol, for reading the story and for this lovely comment!
Ah, Donna, a beautiful ekphrastic imagining. You conjured up such a vivid story from that gorgeous painting. I loved "the escaped flame that devoured the thatch" as an image for her hair, & the image of her practicing her letters in the flour. Enjoyed the ways you played with "penelope/ penny". Congratulations for another wonderful story! I'm waiting to hear back about my next submission to TER.
PS: I actually wrote a micro-review (my first ever) for your Milk Candy Review story "AfterWords" & submitted it to Split Lip. It came back with a personalised note, saying it had made several rounds with the editorial team & an invitation to submit again. It was a delight to spend extra time with your story. :)
Hi Melissa,
Thank you so much for reading my story and for your kind comments on it. I’m blown away that you wrote a micro-review of After-Words; I take that as a great compliment coming from an author of your creativity and accomplishment. I’m sorry that Split Lip didn’t take it, but glad that they were so encouraging. Good luck for your latest submission to TER; I hope you hear from them soon.
You're most welcome, Donna. As I said in another Lit Mag forum, your story really stayed with me. If ever I can assist with a review, let me know! BTW - what did you think of Jeanette Winterson as a writer? Can't recall which books you said you found - but I really recommend "Lighthouse-Keeping" & "Sexing the Cherry".
Thank you for the kind offer of a review, Melissa. I am honoured. Thank you, too, for suggesting Jeanette Winterson to me. So far, I’ve read her “Christmas Days: 12 stories and 12 feasts for 12 days.” I liked all the stories, but the one I adored and read several times was titled “The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me.” Hilarious and poignant at the same time. She is so good! I'll be giving that book as a gift next Christmas.
Yes, Winterson manages to be both a lyrical writer & surprisingly, sharply wry with her humor at times. So pleased you're enjoying her work. My email is ask.the.seeds@gmail.com should you want to get in touch. (I'm not sure if my "message" option is enabled here - I really struggle with Substack's interface - it just isn't clear for me. One of these days, I'll get the hang of it & actually have a newsletter!)
Yes, lyrical and wry—that describes her style so well. “The Lion the Unicorn and Me” actually tips over into slapstick comedy at times, part of what I loved about it. Thank you for your email! I'm donnashan@hotmail.com
A brilliant, magnificent story Donna. I am in awe of your talent.
Thank you, Tony. I’m touched and humbled by your comment.
Congratulations, Donna! I'm also a big fan of The Ekphrastic Review.
Thank you, Liz!
Excellent. Congratulations.
Thank you, Dennis!
A lovely, poetic read, Donna! Congrats!
Thank you, Meredith! I'm so glad that you liked the story.
Such gorgeous sorrow, Donna! I've been reading this sentence over and over because it's just so delicious: "It was the amber of ale overflowing the barrel, the scarlet of the strutting rooster’s comb, the escaped flame that devoured the thatch." The words and painting make great partners and I'm glad they appear together in that excellent pub. Congratulations!
Thank you so much, Lisa. Your comments are always so kind, and appreciated!
What a great story to go with that painting!!
Thank you so much, Joan!
Congrats, Donna. Super impressive how you packed almost a whole life into it from a painting. The start grabbed me too.
Thank you so much, Dave! I'm glad that you liked the story.
What a perfect painting for that story, or did the painting inspire the story. You've captured historical fiction perfectly. Beautiful language. Congratulations.
Thank you so much, Polly! The story was inspired by the painting. As it is titled “Thoughts of the Past,” I wanted to imagine what the woman’s past and future might be.
Congratulations, Donna! I love your 100% batting average for this story!
Thank you, Nicola!
Congratulations!
45 (?) rejections, 3 lit mags ghosted me (I reached out twice and got crickets and then withdrew the stories and politely said why), one piece paid for xtra feed back and said piece was ripped to shreds, no acceptences.
Well. THAT was a fun month!
Seriously, it's ok. I finally put up the money to hire an editor through the EFA and she is going over some of my most rejected stories (about 10) for line edits, copy edits, some developmental edits and if even one of those pieces gets the WE WANT YOU email, it will have been worth it.
I'm just going to keep on writing. Baseball on the Northside of Chicago starts up on Monday, so there's my day job for the next six months.
There are four stanzas in this poem but substack won't let me get the spacing right--but y'all get the point, right?
Babe Ruth Struck Out 1330 times
Who remembers that?
Walt Disney,
Fired from the
Kansas City Star
“Lack of imagination…”
Stephen King’s
Carrie, was rejected
30+ times. Now a
Best seller.
Richard Nixon’s
Political career
Over in ‘62
Okay, bad example.
Holding my 86th
Rejection letter,
I repeat, “Babe Ruth
Struck out 1330 times”
Gary Grossman
Verse-Virtual, October 2021
... on a PC, holding down the Shift key, while hitting "Enter (Return) at the end of each line gives single spacing in comments here. :)
Thanks,
Ha. Love the Richard Nixon stanza! I've never counted my rejections, but just keeping subbing, and enjoy the ones that click.
Thanks for the kind words Carol. I don't count rejections either but I had to put something in that line. Ha!
Substack is maybe like Canvas--reads a hard return like a double space. Do a soft return in Word and it should single space.
Thanks
45 submissions is impressive, Kim! I admire your tenacity. So much of this is a numbers game and you’re on the right track.
I've been submitting stories since last summer. While I have had 4 pieces published (nothing recent), I've had A LOT more than just those 45 rejects. Probably closer to well over 100. And yes it's a numbers game and a luck game.
You just have to have a good sense of humor and thick skin.
That’s great! I have found joining writing critique groups very helpful too.
There's one in the Chicagoland area that I sat in on via Zoom recently. If their meetups agree with my work schedule I'll go to some more.
May I ask which meet-up? I'm in Skokie, may be interested.
I found them through here - https://www.hivebookarts.org/
I'm brain farting on the exact name but I know there's info there. Hive also does writer's block meetups in Evanston a few times a month, I've been to a couple of those.
Go, Kim! I had a somewhat similar month. And Go, Cubbies!
Congratulations to everyone on acceptances and rejections! I'm doing the 100 rejections a year challenge through Flash Fiction Magazine so I count rejections as positives these days. Here is a story of mine that came out in March after 19 rejections. I did a few revisions between groups of rejections but nothing major.
https://iselemagazine.com/2024/03/15/the-innocents-joan-slatoff/
Congratulations, Joan! I am also doing the 100 rejections a year challenge, and am trending well at 30 rejections so far. 😅 But I’ve also had a decent number of acceptances along the way. I am glad your story found a home with Isele Magazine after a long trek!
Just finished your story. No words. It's difficult to imagine the hardships far too many endure in their lives. Congratulations on your publication.
Thanks so much for reading!!
Congrats, Joan. What a sad, lovely read—beautiful restraint in leaving what happens to the blue fairy and his mother open.
I was thrilled to have my review of DeWitt Henry's poetry collection Restless for Words published by Black Fox Literary Magazine. https://blackfoxlitmag.com/2024/02/29/a-review-of-dewitt-henrys-restless-for-words-by-elizabeth-gauffreau/
Congratulations, Liz!
Thank you, Nicola! The collection is outstanding.
Congratulations, Liz!
Thank you, Donna! I hope my published review gets the book more readers.
Wow, love seeing the wins celebrated here :) so glad to be part of this community. I'm thrilled to have published the second issue of my literary magazine, Big Wing Review. Lots of amazing writers - some well-known, some emerging! Check it out - would love to hear what you all think. https://www.bigwingreview.com/shop
Bookmarked for later poking around. Always on the lookout for new places to submit to!
Starting your own lit mag is a big deal! Congrats on your second issue.
Congratulations, Kat!
My poem "indelicate flower" was published by Invisible City and two previously published poems appeared, as reprints, in The Field Guide Poetry Magazine. They are "lagger tag" and "Mackinaw". I think it's pretty sweet to find opportunities where one can reshare these 'golden oldies'!
https://www.invisiblecitylit.com/poetry/indelicate-flower/
https://thefieldguidemagazine.com/julie-allyn-johnson/
Congratulations, Julie! I so enjoyed these pieces: especially loved “the hopscotch in me” echo of childhood, in lagger tag, and the "troglodyte femme fatale"’s transition to fading rose in Indelicate Flower.
Thank you!! So glad you liked them.
I'm not generally a reader of poetry, but I loved these poems, especially indelicate flower and lagger tag. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed them.
I enjoyed those very much. Your Dad's name wasn't Tom by any chance? :-)
Glad you liked the poems!
Nope. It was Richard.
Congratulations, Julie! So inspiring to hear about old pieces finding new homes and audiences!
Thank you!!!
“Zoo,” a flash fiction piece about my conflicting feelings about immigration in America was published by Writers Resist in their special “Amplified Voices” issue this month: https://www.writersresist.com/2024/03/27/zoo-2/
The guest editor and I collaborated on revisions together, and I’m thrilled about how the final product ended up!
Great story, Nicola—as coolly told as your protag is portrayed. Thanks for sharing!
US Immigration is so Kafkaesque. My husband always carries a folder of papers (many original papers, including our marriage certificate) when we enter the States. The last time, he was pulled aside and taken away. I wasn't allowed to go with him (I'm a US citizen). An officer (after 1+ hours) then bullied him for not having me and/or my passport with him. "You can't prove that your wife is with you, that she's a US citizen, or that you're still married," the office said.
"She's right outside the door, waiting for me."
This went on in a windowless "holding pen" where officers pointed, joked, and laughed about the detainees from an elevated balcony. No one seemed to be in a hurry to process the detainees.
Meanwhile, I waited outside the pen, not a chair in sight, officers demanding to know why I was "hanging around." My husband's European—so he's not subjected to the racist and sexist treatment others must endure.
I’m sorry to hear about what happened to your husband, Meredith. That sounds awful. I think all of us internationals can relate to having a folio of paperwork ready *just in case* immigration officers deem the valid visa in our passport insufficient. It is stressful and frustrating.
A really powerful and well-done piece, Nicola. Glad you could find such an appropriate venue to place it.
I appreciate it, Jon! Thank you so much!
Wow! Very powerful. Thank you for sharing it.
Thank you so much for reading, Sylvia!
I went to Moscow once and was pulled aside for closer examination. That's not a country you want to get stopped in so I related to your story. Loved the irony of seeing the Welcome sign and her coping mechanism. Great stuff.
I placed a flash fiction piece I wrote in a workshop 15 years ago! It had been edited to within an inch of its life and is 500 words. I submitted this piece to about three places and got rejected. Freedom Fiction accepted it this past week and it’s up on the site now! Www.freedomfiction.com, it’s called Glenna, and it’s a fantasy/superhero story that is unique and was hard to place. My first fiction publication!
Woohoo! First fiction publication. How thrilling. Congrats!
Thank you so much!
Great story, Lara! Congratulations!!
Omgosh, thank you!! 🙂
Congrats, Lara!
Learned last week that North American Review wanted a piece I’d submitted. They are high on my list of places I wanted to publish bc I think they put out such a beautiful product and I like the fiction they choose so much.
Congratulations!
Congratulations! It's lovely when a lit mag we really admire, admires our work.
Oh my, that's huge. Congratulations!
March has been a hard working month. I'm writing a novella with a fellow writer and we've been obsessing about it. Not much time to come up for air...
Anyway, I was invited to Offer Kuban's Podcast "The Speakeasy" and it was a fun experience (even if I'm still not used to hearing my Belgian accent on a recording, lol). Here's the link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6b0rFUOv5HsdC7LaiXPBPA
Biggest news is the publication of the "Motel" anthology from Cowboy Jamboree. 28 stories, 28 writers and it's a magnificent book. My story "A Redhead and a Green Car" is in Room 11 - I guess it's a lucky number! It's a piece of retro noir, San Francisco 1950 - I love to do these hardboiled cigarette-smoking guys! https://www.amazon.com/MOTEL-anthology-Barbara-Byar-ebook/dp/B0CXHSC8T3/ - authors are doing a reading today to launch the book.
Congratulations, Martine!
15 things out this month, year to date 62 out, 31 declines. About 4 declines this month. My historical ratio is about `1 acceptance to 12 declines, so I am fully expecting a tardy avalanche of accepted stuff to come crashing through the walls any time now. On the work front, I've revised and much improved two graphic books from last year and are sending those out anew; have started a new graphic novel that is uncharacteristically fun as hell to write; secured a movie-review gig with our local community radio station (where I have a book reading show) for a boatload of new movies at the Wisconsin Film Festival, and have a new drawing exhibition on display at our Art and Literature Lab, so things are hopping!
Ditto to the WOW. I've just started paying more attention to acceptance rates through Duotrope. I set a 2024 goal of increasing my rates in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry (as separate genres) by 10%. I've already beat that goal. YTD 62, Gregg, is most impressive!
Wow, Gregg, congratulations!
I had two long stories come out within a week of each other. They're part of a series I seem to be writing about a guy named Chuck narrated by women at various times of his life. I haven't decided yet whether I'll allow him his own story.
"Sorry" in Five South
https://fivesouth.net/sorry-by-sarah-freligh/
"As Beauty Does" in swamp pink
https://swamp-pink.cofc.edu/featured/as-beauty-does/
Great homes for your work!
Very much enjoyed "Sorry" and spit my coffee when I got to this hilarious line: “Swell,” Lissa said. “A roommate whose poop I have to scoop.” And Strange Cat--wonderful character. Looking forward to the second piece, too. Congratulations!
So kind, Lisa! A coffee spit is the highest form of approval, IMO.
Swamp Pink. That used to be Crazy Horse, right? Congratulations.
Right. I have snail mail rejections from them.
This is a really cool series, Sarah! Congratulations on the two published pieces! I wouldn’t mind hearing from more women before Chuck. ✨
Up next: his daughter.
Love that!
Nice work Sarah.
Congrats, Sarah. I was happy to see you had a piece out at Five South and swap pink is wonderful.
Thanks, Dave! Swamp Pink is a white whale I chased for a very long time.
I had two short stories come out this month.
"The Deal" is a reprint, originally published in April 2022 in October Hill Magazine, this time in Issue 2 of The Argyle Literary Magazine, a really nice newer site if you haven't seen it. Before the first acceptance, the story got 25 rejections, starting in 2014. I tweaked it along the way of course, but the basic story never changed. So, yeah, as usual, go figure. Or go read...
https://www.theargylelitmag.com/fiction/the-deal
And yesterday, "The Reincarnation of Herb McWeed" came out on Fiction on the Web. A humorous tale. This one took on the load of 10 rejections, first sent out in 2021. Again, the story didn't change much. Is it all in the targeting? Who knows. Fiction on the Web is a real warhorse, around since 1996, and takes a couple of stories a week. Here is "Herb":
https://www.fictionontheweb.co.uk/2024/03/the-reincarnation-of-herb-mcweed-by-jon.html
Charlie at Fiction on the Web is such a lovely guy.
He's got a nice community built up... unlike most places that offer such things, you can always count on a few reader comments.
Congratulations on the two published stories, Jon!
Great accomplishment.
Nice to see Summer of Sharks online, Becky! Yes, we’re still here!
I had two pieces a flash and a poem published the first week of March I’m happy with both. Everyone was a pleasure to work with.
Catching the Next Train to Nowhere - Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2024/03/catching-next-train-to-nowhere-flash.html
Doo-Wop - Masque and Spectacle
https://masqueandspectaclejournal.wordpress.com/2024/03/01/doo-wop-dave-nash/
The last week featured some tough rejection for me. Hopefully April starts like March instead of how it finished.
I admire the way "Next Train to Nowhere" asks which one is the stranger. Congratulations, Dave!
Thanks for reading, Lisa!
After taking several years off of the submission merry-go-round, I hopped back on recently and placed one I am really proud of, but thought may not see the light of day, at the perfect mag for it:
https://aothenmagazine.com/#issue6
Find “rain dance” as the penultimate piece there. The editor was responsive and the magazine is lovely. Highly suggested if you also have work centered on the classics.
Last note: I got another acceptance just yesterday from The Pierian, which I believe I found here. Thanks! Another placement I love; will link when it’s out.
I have gotten a couple of publications after a dry spell:
A poem called The Other Cousin coming in Purple Ink Press’s anthology
A poem called Massacre of the Unseen in Mosspuppy Magazine
And my very first ever haiku publication in Cicada Creative Magazine!
And a couple of cat poems upcoming in Twoheaded Press Zine’s upcoming zine “Daily Horrors”
Terrific! Congratulations!
Thanks!!
Congratulations, Nona! Excited that the dry spell is over and you have all these new poems out in the world!
Thank you! I'm very excited about it.
Normally, I don’t rush to submit to new litmags, but I was immediately intrigued by the aesthetic at Gooseberry Pie (“Tart, Messy, and Satisfying”) and its unique requirement (six sentences). EiC Jeff Harvey responded quickly and was a pleasure to work with.
https://gooseberry-pie.com/what-your-guest-tells-herself-while-gushing-about-your-home/
I liked the story! Congrats on the acceptance.
Thank you, Jackie!
Congratulations, Lisa. Your title pulled me in.
Thank you, Dave--great to know!
Congratulations, Lisa! I loved the story. “wearing her mannered upbringing:” what a great image, so much hinted at in so few words—the perfect microfiction.
Thanks, Donna, for reading and commenting--much appreciated!
March has been "anthology month" for me. Improbable Press has released "Anna Karenina Isn't Dead", an anthology re-writing female literary characters . My Pandora re-imagining "The Price for Fire" is hanging out with some fabulous stories. It was a year from acceptance to publication. The proof process went smoothly & it was very nice to be paid a decent amount. I received my glossy contributor quite quickly! It's available via Barnes & Noble in hardback & via Improbable Press in digital / paperback (sharing link in case anyone's interested):
https://improbablepress.com/products/anna-karenina-isnt-dead
And "The Ekphrastic Review" has just sent through our digital copies of their first print anthology "The Memory Palace". I was thrilled to have my prose poem from Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" selected in a blind reading process. Lorette, TER's founder co-edited the anthology with Clare MacQueen of MacQueen's Quinterly. I can't wait to read this one! (The links don't quite appear to be up yet on TER's website).
Congrats everyone for your acceptances!
UPDATE: Link to "The Memory Palace", which is free to download as a PDF. (Scroll down a bit!) - https://www.ekphrastic.net/ebooks.html
Huge congratulations, Melissa, on your pieces in both anthologies (I do have a special fondness for The Ekphrastic Review—Lorette and Clare are both wonderful solo, a power couple together!)
Thanks so much, Donna! Yes, I love TER too. My jaw kind of dropped when I realized my prose poem is appearing in an anthology with Cassandra Atherton and Paul Hetherington, co-authors of "The Anthology of Australian Prose Poems" (thankfully, mine is not appearing directly before or after them - lol!).
Melissa, the anthology is up on TER’s website! I’ve just read your colourful and complex story, and so admired the ways in which you make visible the invisible: time. I loved the images of the “nostalgic sun,” the “ants of ancestry swarming at the edges of genetic memory,” (wow!) and the “antique fob watch in the breast-pocket of a sepia forbear,” so beautifully and vividly visualizing the connection between time and memory, and reminding us that neither exists without the other. (I read Atherton and Hetherington’s fine stories too; your work absolutely belongs alongside theirs!) Brava!
Donna, thank you so much for reading it & for these lovely comments. Surrealist art really inspires me... I could look at it all day - especially now I've discovered more of the female surrealists like Remedios Varo, Dorothea Tanning. I know this is crazy, but I can't find it! What page is it advertised on?
Ah ... found it ... all the way down on the E-Books page. I'm surprised as a new release it doesn't have a feature page announcement. Maybe they're waiting for the print antho to be ready before an official announcement. Love the cover art, though - was excited to see what Lorette would do with that!
Ah, good, I was just about to send you the link! Yes, it wasn't easy to find. I love the cover too—so whimsical and evocative!
Congratulations, Melissa, on both! I downloaded The Memory Palace and am eager to read your piece!
Thanks, Lisa - for the congrats and for downloading. From the proof copy, I recall it's quite a big anthology! Can you believe I've been so busy writing articles, I haven't had a moment to open the anthology yet!
Congratulations, Melissa. That’s amazing!
Thanks so much, Dave. It's nice to see them in their final homes - & there's something very old-school exciting seeing your story and name in an actual book. :)
My ekphrastic poem "Wonderstuck" appears in volume 40 of Pink Panther Magazine https://pinkpanthermagazine.com/, which is a quite attractive print and online publication. I met editor Jennifer DeBellis at a 2023 workshop at the Theodore Roethke House in Saginaw, MI. The Pulitzer-prize-winning poet grew up in Saginaw, and his home has been converted to a museum and writer space. The Friends of Theodore Roethke organization offers many in-person, hybrid, and Zoom-only events that range from scholarship to generative poetry and spoken word workshops. DeBellis specializes in cathartic poetry, and while I didn't write "Wonderstuck" as a result of her workshop, getting introduced to DeBellis's concept of "force of nature" poetry may impact future work. Learning about Pink Panther Magazine was certainly useful. The response time from submission was within a week, and the placement of my poem next to a visual that works as well as the painting that originally inspired it is wonderful.
First of all, thanks, Becky, for your heartfelt share about getting those rejections. Reading your comments helps me to see the reality of the situation, which is, I am a good writer and will find a home for my work if I keep knocking on doors. Secondly, not a publication, but I was longlisted for SmokeLong's Micro March Marathon 400-word contest. I didn't get on the the shortlist, but I'll take the nod.
Longlist is great, a worthy nod from a premier magazine! Congratulations!
Harness Magazine.. took about 3 days to be approved. But this is the 11th time they've published one of my pieces. I just love what Genesis the owner has done with it. My first time about 4 years ago, it was owned by a women who had about 2000 subscribers. This young girl took it to over 38000 since she bought it! No submission fees ever, fast response I just love them. They published two of mine in the last month!
https://www.harnessmagazine.com/table-for-one/
https://www.harnessmagazine.com/to-yoli-with-love/
Congratulations on these two published pieces, Maddalena!
thank you!
thank you so much for reading but please don't hold me to that time. I think they go much quicker for writers who have been with them awhile. but even 2-3 weeks is not much at all for a lit mag.
I honestly cannot remember if I posted this previously so apologies if I have— it’s an interview from February I did when the author’s EXCELLENT debut novel came out here’s the link https://www.massreview.org/node/11735 but the story to publication is a sort of circuitous interesting one and perhaps helpful:
I pitched an interview w an interesting (LGBTQ) bent of another book to a BIG DEAL pub who liked my pitch but said the book had been out too long (6 months)
So they (the BIG DEAL pub) offered me a different review if I had someone with a book coming out THIS spring — I asked a friend of mine who happens to be a BIG DEAL author for suggestions of folks with big deal books coming out whom I could structure an interview around — they looped in their publisher (Tin House) who suggested the author of the pub in this above interview—
I read the galley, LOVED IT, conducted the interview, but the BIG DEAL pub needed a later release date book— so I had a completed interview to “sell” and still an author with an upcoming book to do another interview with for the BIG DEAL pub (not a bad problem to have) — I returned to my BIG DEAL author friend who suggested himself and his spring release book for the interview (so my BIG DEAL author interview will get published in BIG DEAL pub in May)
I hit up a few pubs for the existing above interview and a TERRIFIC pub I love accepted it — GREAT! As for the original book that had been out 6 months, I hit up another pub without strict publishing deadlines (Streetlight)where I have a relationship and they published it —
So I got the original interview published, an acceptance of the above interview to be published, and an upcoming interview coming out in May…
Then, in an unrelated event, a long (too long for most pubs) essay of mine I had wanted to find a great home for got into the hands of the EIC of the TERRIFIC pub who really “got it” and committed to publishing it this spring (yay)… only issue was they bumped the above interview as their policy prohibits two works by one writer (me) within the same calendar year. In a desperation move I contacted the AMAZING Mass Review, told them the entire truth of the above story, and they were willing to publish this author on their website, coordinating with his book publication.
I guess the moral is, follow every thread and try to do the right thing by authors with upcoming work in terms of reviews/interviews (if you’re so inclined — I LOVE writing / editing reviews and interviews— I know it’s not for everyone…) I have 4 things being published this year JUST from my initial interview pitch…
Sorry for going on so long, hope this proves helpful to someone. And if you have a book coming out, maybe hit me up for an interview ;) …
No apologies for "going on so long"—I found your experience fascinating! Thanks for sharing. Now, on to your interview! :)
I had two poems appear in Synkroniciti's Family issue released on March 1st. This is a beautifully designed litmag, the editor is an absolute delight to work with, and she posted an insightful and very well-written review of my work, but the issues are behind a paywall. I have mixed feelings about this. It's a way to fund the litmag, but it limits who might see and read it.
I have a poem in the Spring issue of Black Coffee Review: https://www.blackcoffeereview.com/spring-2024/being-the-eldest-by-roger-campdirty-laundry-by-cynthia-bernard. The editor was friendly but slow to respond to email.
Witcraft recently opened to poetry submissions, and one of mine was the first poem he published, on March 10th. It's in the archives on witcraft.org. A great editor here, Doug Jacquier (who is part of this group), and one who responds very quickly to submissions.
I have a pair of linked sonnets that came out on Innisfree Poetry Journal on March 1st: https://www.innisfreepoetry.org/innisfree-38/cynthia-bernard/. These are "true" to my childhood experiences in their tone, but not in all of the specific details.
A poem of mine was published in Carmina Magazine on March 1st: http://carminamagazine.com/road-trip.html. The editor here is friendly but there was a long time (7 months) between acceptance and appearance.
Sage-ing: The Journal of Creative Aging has an issue they intend to publish online tomorrow. The editor here is thoughtful and helpful, but the tech person who did the layout made a lot of errors. Fortunately they sent out proofs, though it took several rounds of email to get the corrections made. I will have 4 poems in the issue, plus a full page with my photo, bio, and my comments about how writing poetry deepens my self-knowledge and understanding of others and of life.
I have one poem in this month's Verse-Virtual: https://www.verse-virtual.org/2024/March/bernard-cynthia-2024-march.html. In the past I've had multiple pieces there each time (submissions are limited to once every three months), but I prefer for this piece to stand alone. As always, I recommend this journal-plus-community as a great place to read excellent writing and connect with other writers. I've made several delightful friendships with folks I "met" there.
I recently began sending out flash fiction and flash CNF pieces. Several rejections, so far, and a couple of places where pieces have been "In Process" for several weeks, and so, I tell myself, not rejected immediately. :-)
It's been a rough month for me, with several health challenges including rampant insomnia leaving me beyond exhausted. Thanks for this opportunity, Becky, to revisit and share the good news, and also to read about what's been happening for others.
After an arid 2023, when I had a number of near misses but no acceptances, a couple of my stories recently broke through. One, "Charon.com," appeared in The Berlin Literary Review and the other, "Bystanders," was published in Twelve Winters. The latter, which I consider my best piece, had been rejected over 60 times. It garnered its share of encouraging rejections (I love that term) which sustained my faith in the story. “Charon.com” ONLY had 20 rejections. Occasionally, I think a piece has a really good shot with a particular magazine and getting the ax hurts; however, most of the time they roll off my back. Sometimes the accumulation of rejections gets me down, especially those that don’t even mention the name of my story. But those nice, personalized ones can be sustaining, letting me know I’m not crazy for doing this.
I could also mention getting a form, impersonal rejection letter accompanied by a suggestion that I buy a subscription to their magazine. If I took up every journal that sent me one of those letters up on their suggestion, I'd be behind on my mortgage.
RIGHT?!
Congratulations Matthew. Way to stick with it. And it paid off.
Congrats, Matthew! Way to stick with it.
Oh boy! I love lit brag. :D
My memoir piece was published earlier this month on Grande Dame Literary, an online lit mag dedicated to women writers.
https://www.grandedameliterary.com/post/eight-belles
I discovered them a couple of years ago and they stuck out to me because their niche at the time was older women writers.
They first published my work in 2022, which was a first for me. Yay! Thrilled to have them support me again. They showcase excellent writers and I like what they do.
I work with their main editor to get the piece ready for their site and she is great to collaborate with. Her input is often wise and she will listen when you do not agree with a suggestion.
:)
Yes, I had a piece in Grande Dame Literary last year and I'm 68. Lovely website they have.
That is so awesome! Congratulations. Another Grande Dame-er. ;)
Loved this piece, Tara! Your dad put me in mind of my dad and what times might have been with him had I not lost him when I was 30 (& he was 60). Your reaction to the race also put me in mind of being at a rodeo once and how so suddenly I realized that it would be my last rodeo; something felt so off. I really love it when a piece transports me into my own memories like yours does. Well done! And thanks for sharing. GTK about Grand Dame, too!
Meredith, thank you so much for your kind words! I'm touched my piece spoke to you and kindled your own memories. Naturally, I'm sorry you lost your father so young, that must have been devastating. Yes, rodeos are rough. As a child I always liked to think the horses had the upper hand, and I think that some did, but it's not exactly an easy life.
Do check out Grande Dame! I bet they would love your writing. :)
Congratulations, Becky!!
I started the month with a rejection for a prose poem, but was happy to receive feedback from the editor. It came close, but it reminded him of a song that he couldn't get out of his head. I reworked it a bit for clarity but kept what could be a reference to that song. I am ready to submit it again.
I ended the month with an acceptance from Full House Literary (https://www.fullhouseliterary.com/). I am very excited my poem, Self-Portrait as Make-Believe, found a home with them. One feature I love about their platform is that they publish your piece and include a recording of you reading it. A reader can choose to read and listen online, listen to the whole issue, or download it to a PDF. Very nice!!
Congrats on your publication!!
I had one of those rejections too. My betas seemed to love the story, thought it was a good fit for a contest. The pub specifically stated they don't send rejections for contests...but they sent one to ME. LOL <insert crying emoji here>
I had subTerrain on my radar for ages, but ultimately self-rejected a piece years ago. I kept the envelope I intended to mail that story in, stamped and everything, and finally decided to give them a go in October. "Fifty Eyes: Murmur and Sunburst" is my first surrealist story. I'm really proud of it and this magazine is so cool, y'all.
https://subterrain.ca/issue/100/95-on-newsstands-now
Only one for March, after three for January and none for February: in Big Wing Review (3/24)
“An Ugly Little House” (Print only, purchase the whole rag at https://bigwingreview.myshopify.com/products/big-wing-review-issue-2).
Got two pieces pending, "Sometimes the Bear" and "One Shoe On," but those will be for another month.
Congratulations, Richard! One acceptance in a month is still more than enough reason to celebrate!
I recently did a workshop with Nicole Breit, who spoke about the more unusual forms she used for a number of essays that did well. I'm playing with new forms now, and it's wonderfully stimulating whether or not it results in higher chances of publication. Please let us know when the Vassar piece goes on line...and good luck with the SAT reading comp test piece—what memories just those words bring back!!! : )
I took that workshop as well and found it inspiring…
I took the workshop, too. I'm enamored now with finding a form for my CNF and fiction. I'm working on a short story told through emails. If you ever want to brainstorm, just let me know!
I'd love to brainstorm—thank you! I have a CNF short-ish 'collection' that was to be published as a verse CNF that I pulled from publishing with a tiny press because at the last minute they wanted to add a disclaimer that implied it was fiction...I no longer think the verse (not all of which I'm thrilled with) is the most accessible way to share this story and I'm thinking about experimenting with form—not certain what feels right yet.
I have a story, The Sixth Bullet, coming out in a League of Utah Writers anthology, "Ghost Town." One publication I shopped it to earlier sent me a polite rejection saying how much they liked my writing (having published an earlier story) but said they'd seen too many stories featuring "bullets." Say what? Who knew?
I generally treat rejections as merely "information." Sort of like an alert my gas tank is approaching Empty. There's always another gas station.
My poem "Ancestors" was published on Sheila-Na-Gig https://sheilanagigblog.com/poetry-archives/volumes-8-1-8-4-fall-2023-summer-2024/the-poets-volume-8-3-spring-2024/robbi-nester-ancestors/, and yesterday my feature on The Storyteller literary blog appearedhttps://stortellerpoetryreview.blogspot.com/2024/03/storyteller-of-week_29.html. I am waiting for poems forthcoming in The Whaleroad Review, The Schyukill River Review, New York Quarterly, SWWIM, and Spillway to appear.
Beautiful poem, Robbi. Thanks for linking.
Congrats, Becky, and to everyone! I had a half dozen or so rejections this month, but two poems published in Streetlight Magazine, an online lit mag I learned about very recently. Thanks, Becky, for providing this space for us. https://streetlightmag.com/2024/03/22/we-were-bag-people-and-lament-for-my-late-cousin-while-feeding-the-dog-by-marianne-worthington/
It hasn't come out yet, but I got an acceptance that means the world to me, my first personal essay, about a topic extremely close to my heart. Huge! I had sent it out to about a dozen places or so. Most I hadn't heard back from but this is really my dream publication, a perfect home for my piece. I still can't believe it!
That feels so good....Congratulations! You'll remember this a long time!
thanks! :) i think i will.
Congrats, Marie!
thank you!
I just want to say thank you to everyone who has listed places they've been accepted to. You've given me a bunch of new lit mags to explore and bookmark for submissions!
I had a story published this month in swamp pink: https://swamp-pink.cofc.edu/featured/the-other-son/
I sent it out under a different title to several places last year. Rejected all around. Then I revised and resent several months later and it got accepted pretty quickly!
Last week an agent emailed me to say she’d read & liked it and asked to look at my novel-in-progress!! It’s basically my dream scenario. And a good affirmation that agents are out there reading these publications too.
Hi Lacy. I just read your challenging story, The Other Son. It had a poignancy that's normally hard to convey in words that you master beautifully.
I live in Utah (SLC area) so I was wondering how you settled on the St. George area for his retirement. If you have a moment, drop me a note at pat.partridge124@gmail.com
Cheers.
The perfect story! Very uplifting. Thanks for sharing Lacy. And good luck securing an agent, and finishing and placing your nove-in-progress! Congrats!
Congrats!
Becky, "Summer of the Sharks" was brilliant and moving. Sorry about the rejections, but their loss! :)
It's not a literary accomplishment but my first grandchild, Zahava, was born February 11. I am always in awe of young parents who write around their children's schedules. And she's definitely disrupted mine, but more than worth it.
I've had a few successes thus far this year. My essay, "No Regrets", was accepted by the Bucket. It references Abigail Thomas and I understand she has had an essay published in this journal, so that's cool!
This essay: https://www.flipsnack.com/5AF6ABFF8D6/moss-piglet-february-2024-h3f49juo7k/full-view.html (Coffee for Two) came out in the February issue of Moss Piglet. It's a fun little magazine to write for -- not extremely competitive.
Two more essays were accepted "Searching for Cranberries in February" by Remington Review and "My Father--a song" in Syncopation, Paris issue. I think each will be published in the late spring.
"keep recognizing the rewards writing already brings to your life" -- Truly inspiring words, Becky. I'm glad you came to that response. Congratulations on "The Summer of the Sharks." I had one poem published this month, "In the twilight deep," in NonBinary Review (https://www.zoeticpress.com/nonbinary-review). This poem is in a special issue on Old Friends. My daughter had me watch a David Attenborough special on creatures that live in the deepest part of the ocean, and that scene suggested the setting of my poem exploring the loss of a best friend -- lives drifting apart. The editors asked for changes -- cuts mostly, but as you know, that involves reworking. I was relieved when they said they loved the revision. I had another poem accepted for "Of Our Own Accord," a women's poetry anthology. My poem was an old one, resurrected for this submission, "Woman at the Edge."
Hi Karen, congrats for both of these acceptances. I enjoy connecting with women-identifying authors who write through a feminist lens or target women-centred journals / projects. You might be interested in the anthology I've just had a story published in -feminist reimaginings of female literay figures (see my "brag" for purchase link). The editors at Nonbinary Review just contacted me with an offer to enter an editing process for a shape prose poem they're interested in accepting for their next theme "Heredity". Never had this "pre-acceptance" editing offer before but I'm going for it as I love their vision. Is the poetry antho print-only? I'll be keeping an eye out for that. (A bit disappointed I didn't see the submission call).
Good luck with Nonbinary. They were generous with me. I believe Of Our Own Accord will be print and PDF, but I'll know more later. The press is Flying Ketchup Press. They organized an online reading for the last anthology I was part of, and I really appreciated and enjoyed that.
I've been getting many kind comments about my last post. I hope I wasn't misunderstood: I have 63 things OUT, not accepted! And 31 DECLINES this year, and NOTHING accepted. That I suppose is a kind of honorable defeat---like how a washed up boxer used to make money by being beat up royally by up and comers to build up their record of wins. They lost and bled good and were called "tomato cans."
Hi, all. March was a lean month for acceptances, although there are a couple in the publishing pipeline.
My revolutionary take on air travel has been published by the The Hooghly Review https://www.thehooghlyreview.com/weekly-features/bearair-by-doug-jacquier
I'm brand new at this, so my "brag" for March is: 4 rejections and 8 outstanding submissions. Don't worry, I'm fine, I'm still in the naive optimist phase.
I do have a question for you all: what is your experience with the paid feedback options some lit mags offer? The fees seem reasonable given the value of an editor's time, but does this sort of feedback really help?
I have found paid feedback options very hit and miss. Some were helpful and made me think about the piece differently, but some just showed (IMHO) they didn't know much about how to provide feedback that was helpful. I'm a member of a critique group and have found that a much more supportive form of helpful criticism.
Thanks for the feedback on feedback!
The Madison Review has good feedback and they offer lit mags where the piece they reject might be a better fit. It's how Corner Bar got the honor of being the first lit mag to accept my work.
As been said, it can be very hit or miss. I had one place trash a story. Like ripped to shreds. Whatever. 🤷♀️
Thanks! I just took a look at their website and I think my work could fit there. They are closed for subs until August 1, but I'll note them in my running list of possibilities.
My mistake, it's actually The Master's Review that offers the feedback I mentioned above, but the Madison Review has a good rep as well, as far as I know.
Thanks for the update. Master's Review has a $69 editorial feedback options, is that what you are referring to?
Yep. Worth it, in my opinion. The feedback I got was clear, good constructive critisim but they also pointed out the strengths of the stories, what worked and what (in the editor's pov) didn't. In both cases, the editor loved the story, it just wasn't what the Master's Review was looking for.
Cool, thanks again.
Stay an optimist, even when you're no longer naive. Just keep writing and subbing when the work is right.
Thanks for the encouragement!
Rejection ---> Declination---> A stickie on the wall calendar in my home office: NOT THIS TIME; NOT THIS SPACE, BUT THERE IS A POEM IN THIS PLACE.
This month's publications were -
Florida State Poets Association (FSPA)
Of Poets & Poetry (OPAP)
March/April 2024
A Lagniappe
Each day a gift…. p.76
+ Photo: Off the Wall – Brandon, FL (May 21, 2023)
Persimmon Tree
Forum: Visions for the American Future
Spring 2024
Lady Liberty…
https://persimmontree.org/spring-2024/visions-for-america/
I get Calls via email from literary magazines that have published my work in the past, organizations such as Authors Publish, and from fellow poets.
No brags here, but seeing people mention how many times they’ve gotten rejections before publishing a piece is giving me life.