The Losing Game Time Warp: Writing Rejections 21-25
It's nearly October. I've put away my birkenstocks for the season. The sun is setting before I'm ready. My seasonal craving for soup has returned. I love autumn. It's a great word and a great season. It seemed to fall overnight this year, I woke up and the trees were busy dying beautifully. I also realized that I have not been keeping up this blog as regularly as I'd like to, and with the year not too far from over, I looked at my submission spread sheet and saw there was only one thing for it. We're doing a bundle post! Please enjoy rejections 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 for the year. Treat them like spot the difference pictures if you want. Okay my readerly friends. On your marks. Get set.
[WRITING REJECTION 21/100] Dear Erin, Thank you for your submission to Eclectica Magazine. After careful consideration, we have decided not to select "Some People Might Find This Situation Uncomfortable, But I Kinda Like It" for publication. There are many possible reasons for why a particular piece isn't selected, and I regret that I am unable, given time constraints, to offer further explanation as to which of those reasons applied to your work. I will say that you're in good company; as always, there were many authors and many pieces that I would have liked to include. I enjoyed your work and hope you'll try the Word Poem Challenge again. I appreciate your support of online literature in general and Eclectica Magazine in particular and wish you all the best with your writing and publishing goals. Sincerely, Eclectica Magazine
[WRITING REJECTION 22/100]
Dear Erin, Thank you for taking part in SmokeLong Quarterly's 15th-anniversary flash fiction competition. While this these stories did not make it into the 15th-anniversary issue, the next story you write may slay us. We encourage you to try us again--either for the 15th-anniversary issue or in the future. The competition deadline is May 20, so you still have time to enter again if you are interested. Follow us on Twitter @smokelong for announcements about free entry and discount days. Thanks again for giving us the chance to read your words. All the best, Editors
[WRITING REJECTION 23/100]
Dear Erin Kirsh, Thank you for sending us your poem(s) and being part of the great response we've had for the Climate Change Issue. We are sorry not to be able to take your work and wish you the best of luck in placing it elsewhere. Magma 72 on climate change will come out in November 2018. It will include a collaboration between poets and scientists. We do hope you'll take an interest in the issue. We'll be putting out information about launches nearer the time, so follow us on Twitter and Facebook if you'd like to know about these. And please consider buying the magazine or (better still!) subscribing: it's only through our readership that we can continue to produce the magazine: https://magmapoetry.com/buy-magma/ Thanks again and all the best Editors, Magma 72
[WRITING REJECTION 24/100]
Dear Erin, Thank you for entering the A3 Review Writing Contest on the theme of CIRCLES. While you did not take one of the winning or shortlisted places, you did get on our unofficial Longlist! We are pleased you entered the contest and hope you will try again next time - don't forget our contests run every month - that's six opportunities per issue to get published in the A3 Review! After much deliberation, the winning entrants were: - 'Vicious Circle' by Jo Angela Edwins - 'Circles & Inkblots: Lotus Pond' by Jay Alexander Winning pieces will appear later this year in Issue 9 of The A3 Review. There are 3 more contests coming up for this issue, plus the current one, so maybe it will be your turn next time? The next deadline is Saturday 26 May and this time the theme is MOON. I hope you'll take up the challenge. If you are on Twitter, why not follow us @TheA3Review for inspiration and prompts. All the best for now, and have a great week. Co-Editors, The A3 Review
[WRITING REJECTION 25/100] Dear Erin, Thank you for sending us "Three Poems". We appreciated the opportunity to read it! Unfortunately, we can't publish it at this time. Please feel free to resubmit to Cargo. Best of luck with your work. Thanks again. Sincerely, Cargo Literary
What do you think, team? More uniform or less uniform than you were expecting? Did you feel like the rejections said anything about the size of the lit journal or the quality of the work submitted? Did you like some rejections more than others? How much effort do you think lit mags should be putting into their rejections? Hit me up, friends, and stay warm out there! If you also have notes on this blog, things you'd like to see more or less of now that we're a quarter of the way to the goal, please let me know! I love your feedback. If I was going to rank it against microphone feedback, I'd say yours is better. Until next time, -E.B Kirsh