Rejection Collection

Dear Reader, I have been a bit scattered lately.  I've begun several blog posts that seem to have coasted into the mid-summer doldrums and are now becalmed (perhaps, I muse as I write this, that is because there is SO MUCH LAND and NO WATER here in South-of-the-River.  Forgive me; I am still going through my northern Michigan withdrawal symptoms).

But now I have some news to share.  At first take, it may seem like bad news, but I am surprisingly excited to tell you that I received the most rejections ever in my life as a poet during the month of July.  I was rejected by several print journals, an online journal, and also found out I did not win a spot in the 2010 Mentor Series, as I had hoped I would after being named a finalist in June.

I think I'm excited because getting the rejections means at least I'm submitting.  This is a step forward for me.  I sent out about 25 poems from January to May, plus my Mentor Series manuscript (which is not a lot, but there's only so much the Mom Trying to Write can do).  I feel good just to take the step of sending my work out into the world.

I also received two of the best kind of rejections.  These are the rejections that say something along the lines of "We liked your work, but it didn't quite fit with the issue we're working on now.  We hope you'll send us more of your work in the future."  This tells me that, at least for some journals, I'm moving in the right direction.  It makes me want to keep trying.

Even the news from the Mentor Series, while disappointing, feels okay.  I love it when people reject you with kindness and encouragement.  The note, which I'm sure was the same for all rejectees, said: All of the mentors commented on the strength of the manuscripts they reviewed and the difficulty in narrowing down to just four writers in their genre.   Several of this year's winners have been finalists in the program, some of them for a number of years. I encourage you to keep applying and wish you all the best with your writing.

My writing desk has been lonely the last few weeks.  First, our vacation.  Then the first week back here, which involved lots of night-waking from the Three Lovelies, and therefore, lots of sleeping in for me.  Now I feel refreshed and ready to return to the act of putting pen to paper, to dipping my ladle into the well of words.  Ironically, the July rejection collection feels more like encouragement than anything else.