This from The Southern Review:
Dear Mr. Harris-Gershon:
Thank you for sending me the essay "Reclamation Project." Although it came very close (hence the time we have spent with it and how long this response has been in getting to you), we have decided against using it. The writing is spare and sharp, but the story seemed to amble a bit more loosely than I would have hoped...
So I'm an ambler. I take strolls while writing. A slow gait, unhurried--leisurely--the breaths paced evenly every four steps or so, arms swinging, rising occasionally to pull moss off dead branches and flick it casually into an ocean-inspired breeze.
So be it.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
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4 comments:
Ah, but you're an ambler who is both spare and sharp.
And that, my friend, is good.
Good too that they actually spent some time with your manuscript, no? I mean, they actually lived with it and seriously considered it.
What a lovely rejection, if a rejection can be considered lovely.
You're right, it is a lovely rejection, and an honor that they did indeed take the essay out for some expensive drinks. I just think this writer is growing tired of editors who can't commit. Don't wine-and-dine me. Propose already.
Yes. The rejection was not only short and direct, but also encouraging. Not a bad way to have your work turned down.
Commitment is overrated. When you find "the real thing" it will be all the more appreciated.
Maybe the editors should take your essays to a big fat 7-course dinner meal and use it for all its wiles. Would that be a better date for your writing?
Why not publish some of your work via your own blog and see what it picks up? (Maybe that's bad advice coming from an immature writer such as myself, but it could work.)
TBD - I often debate publishing full pieces here vs. submitting them to journals. I suppose the prestige and the satisfaction of having someone else choose to spread my work is a motivating factor for my continued submission packets. I can say, though, that many (if not most) editors are now demanding that pieces they select never have been published anywhere before, and this includes electronic forms. For what it's worth.
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