The Losing Game: Writing Acceptance 1/? 2020

I'm out! The pressure is off! Someone get me a slightly smushed grocery store cake, because I've got an acceptance and I can retire.

JK I'm married to the grind and can barely stop working even when doctors demand it. But WOO! An acceptance. It gives me that little fizzing, jets-on-in-a-jacuzzi feeling in my chest. Also, having an acceptance this early in the year feels like inoculation against the doubts about my creative value that plagued me when I went 10 months without an acceptance last year. These small circumstances of timing are able to shift whole heavy head spaces, even with our knowledge that time's a construct, that we shouldn't be comparing ourselves to others, that external validation is an inconsistent mistress. The January of it all not withstanding, I am grinning my face off about having a poem appearing in Vagabond City Lit. I submitted to Vagabond City Lit falling down a rabbit hole of reading the work of a poet whose work I really like who was published there. Then I kept reading through the website and fell in love with the curatorial style and aesthetic. I submitted that same day, a bit self-consciously, but excited. When I saw their name in my inbox, I was braced for a rejection. But instead, this happy surprise:

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[WRITING ACCEPTANCE 1/?] Hi Erin, Thank you for submitting to Vagabond City Lit! We were moved by "(((A Reminder)))" and would be honored to publish it in issue 45, due out in February. This poem really lingers, with the perfect biting humor, and I know I'll be thinking of it often.  Please let us know if this work is still available to us and if you have any updates to your bio or other changes to make. Warmly, Poetry Editor Vagabond City Lit Me:

Also me:

Me some more:

To not only get an acceptance but get one that expresses what it was about the piece that was working for the editor means so much to me. I'm incredibly honoured to be a part of the Vagabond City Lit roster. I hope your writing year is off to a good start and that you're making strong headway toward your goals. Until next time, - E.B. Kirsh