Still on the cusp













I just received another rejection letter from Fairy Tale Review. I was really hoping that this time would be it, but alas. Again I received the nicest, personalized response, which I am taking as encouragement. I try not to let these things get me down. If any writer gives in to that feeling, there really is no hope of getting anywhere (think the Swamps of Sadness in The Neverending Story--oh, poor Artax). Anyway, I know I'm getting somewhere, it just might take me a bit longer.

On a related note, Alissa Nutting, the guest editor of Fairy Tale Review's The Grey Issue, who writes such fantastic rejection letters, has a book of her own. She's a very talented writer of prose and I highly recommend her short story collection, Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls. I keep my copy on my fairy tale shelf.

Comments

  1. AnnieJuly 27, 2011 at 10:58 PM

    That is a truly lovely note.

    Persistence, perseverance, and patience, dear! And don't forget to enjoy the journey of getting there as much as you enjoy the ultimate destination.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lindsay L.July 29, 2011 at 10:49 AM

    I love when you call me "dear." :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There are birds here

Image
We are now in the full porch-swing of summer, which means Summer Poetry Salons at my beloved Lit House. In celebration of the second salon of the summer on June 24 (tomorrow!), I was given the unbelievably fun task of designing and printing a letterpress broadside for Jamaal May's poem "There Are Birds Here,"  a love song for Detroit. As much I loved this poem on my first reading (and second and third), it was a particularly difficult design challenge. Don't get me wrong — there are so many ways  to illustrate this poem because it is so packed with images. But to illustrate it in a way that actually adds to the text, that builds on the complex foundation set down by the poet — that is the challenge to be met. That is the challenge we always aim to meet at the Literary House Press .   So that means no birds and no buildings. For me, those are the two most obvious, but least important images in this poem. Those details are just the shell around the ...
Read more

"Imago" on Hannibal season finale

Image
While watching the eagerly-awaited season 2 finale of Hannibal (one of my absolute favorite TV shows of the moment), I was happily surprised when a vocabulary lesson emerged mid-conversation between Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham. — "Do you know what an imago is, Will?" — "It's a flying insect." — "It's the last stage of a transformation." — "When you become who you will be?" — "It's also a term from the dead religion of psychoanalysis. An imago is an image of a loved one, buried in the unconscious, carried with us all our lives." — "An ideal." — "The concept of an ideal." Of course this term, in both of its definitions, has some great significance for me. It is a word I didn't even know until I stumbled across it in my dictionary browsing and knew immediately that this is the title of my chapbook . It was perfect. So when it snuck up on me again in my favorite TV show, in...
Read more

On the end of a year & a decade: 2019

Image
In this last month of the year, I've had five poems accepted by three different literary journals and two new reviews of my book appear in The Cincinnati Review  and Harbor Review . I also completed the letterpress printing of the Rossetti Prize broadside for American Literary Review , designs for four more digital broadsides , and the initial edits & contributor proofs for Cherry Tree 's sixth issue. Whew! It's been an amazing and overwhelming and utterly fulfilling year ; and I'm riding into the new year on 2019's coattails.  Also featuring the gorgeous handmade scarf that Jehanne Dubrow wove for me this past year. One of my favorite December inventories will always be reflecting on a year's worth of personal accomplishments and progress. By the time the end of the year arrives, it's so easy to forget all that happened just a few short months ago. Making a list has a way of bringing it all into perspective. Here's my roundup for the yea...
Read more