Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Burnside Review

It is pretty safe to say that if I ever get this manuscript mailed of by the 15th I will never bitch again about submissions. This makes throwing a few poems in an envelope seem so easy compared to whittling your work down to 50 poems, seeing sections, or just wavering between the belief that you, as a writer are either gifted or retarded.
It does feel like that and I wonder if one of the poems I am putting in the “not in the book pile” would actually save my ass if a certain editor were to read it. How about the one blueberry& grandmother poem, say the editor loved (hated) his/her own grandmother and the mere mention of said person caused him/her to embrace (throw the fricken thing across the room) These are the things that go round & round in my head.
And ppl wonder why poets stick their heads in the oven.
On the positive side of writing today I got an acceptance letter from the Burnside Review which is a new journal out of Portland. They took two of the three poems I sent them. I could almost kiss them today for the positive reinforcement. http://www.burnsidereview.com But the truth is you never respond with what you really want to say, which is “thank you for publishing me, I had no idea I could write at all.”
I am still waiting for my fourth letter from Beloit (your it, no your it….) and hopefully that will be good news. Or if it bad news it will wait till yale and breadloaf are out so I don’t burn the whole damn manuscript in a mass fire in the back yard. It could happen…

3 comments:

Suzanne said...

LMAO. I so glad I read this today...I no longer feel so alone.

One thing I will pass on: I once heard a publisher say, "No mss is accepted because of one poem and no mss is rejected because of one poem either." It helped me to hear that tidbit so I hope it helps you a little.

Congrats on the triple hit!

PS I played that game with Beloit over the summer...simply maddening.

early hours of sky said...

Nice to see you here. I am glad you joined the blog world. Please tell me you got into Beloit (feel free to lie here) and yes it is maddening, T

Suzanne said...

Oh, did I forget to mention? They took 15 poems. *lol* While maddening it was deliciously exciting and I will try again sometime. Thanks for the welcome! :-)