Are You Sending Out Enough of Your Work? (Michael Intro) (03/07/2020)

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review. Introduction by Michael Meyerhofer. Check out our AWP Virtual Bookfair Sale!

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Since most readers of literary journals are writers themselves, I have a few questions for you. Are you a writer who regularly submits their work to journals and contests? If so, how many submissions do you have out right now? Do you think that’s enough, or should you send out more?

Now, if those questions made your face turn red, don’t panic. You’re in good company. There’s a seismic shift that happens when we go from “I like to write” to “I think my writing is finally ready to share with the world.” Some of that initial apprehension could be because there’s a dizzying number of journals and styles and rules out there, and maybe you’re not sure where to start (in which case, feel free to visit

this old post of mine

that I used to share with my creative writing students, which still has relevant info). But another source of anxiety could be simple stage fright—or its variant, fear of rejection.  

I’ve pretty much always been a bundle of anxiety, but when I think back to how that relates to publishing, I’d say it started when I was nineteen. One day, I was sitting in a creative writing class at the University of Iowa (sporting a rather embarrassing haircut reminiscent of early 90s Richard Marx) and our teacher passed around a flyer announcing the creation of a new undergraduate literary magazine. We were encouraged to submit. I sent in some work—and promptly received a rejection notice. I tried again. They rejected me again. I tried a third, then a fourth time. Again, no luck.

By that point, I was frustrated, confused, and disheartened. But I thought maybe it was just the editors (after all, how could any sane person possibly reject my genius?!), so I went to a local coffee shop famous for subscribing to all the venerated literary magazines, wrote down the addresses for about a dozen of the big ones, spent a good portion of my beer-and-ramen money on toner for my printer, and sent them my stuff.

And every last poem I sent off was accepted.

Just kidding. Actually, all of those came back rejected, too.

My point, though, is that I didn’t quit. I’d like to think I was so enchanted by what Whitman called

the powerful play

that I couldn’t imagine not

. Really, though, it might have just been a fortuitous combination of ego and Midwestern stubbornness. Either way, decades later, I’ve been fortunate enough to publish a stack of books and hundreds of poems. Yet each one of those successes is mirrored by countless bits of bad news.

That’s okay, though. This is a competitive business. Still, the fact that so many of us persist—even when there’s no money and relatively little fame or validation to go around—means that

something

drives us to write… and in time, when we’re ready, to share our work with a sangha of fellow word-nerds. And it can’t just be the product of ego or stubbornness, since those will only sustain you for so long.

Rather, a little like mountain-climbers, we are committed to doing something no one else really understands. But it makes sense to us—even though sometimes, we all need to be reminded why we go on scraping our knuckles, clawing our way toward the sky. 

Thanks for reading. We're glad you're here. We hope this will inspire you to

enter our Poetry Contest

!

Michael Meyerhofer

Poetry Editor

**Editorial Note:

Atticus Review will be taking a publishing break beginning today until March 23rd. See you then!

ATTICUS NEWS

AWP VIRTUAL BOOKFAIR SALE!!

We couldn't make it to AWP in San Antonio this year, so instead we're having a Virtual Bookfair. All magazines on sale ($12) plus FREE SHIPPING and a Laptop Sticker on all orders! Take an additional 50% off every journal you order after the first one, using the coupon code BOOKFAIR.If you've liked the things we've published over the last few years, now's a good time to get some of those in print form at a killer price and help support the journal.Use code: BOOKFAIR. For orders of 3 or more, contact us.

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The world is a little crazy, but one thing that's not crazy isentering our 2020 Poetry Contest, judged by poet Roberto Carlos Garcia,publisher of Get Fresh Books.First prize: $350. Entry fee: $10. Deadline: April 5th, 2020.

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THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FICTIONA FINGERNAIL IS NOTHINGby Francine Witte "until one day it isn’t there. Not chipped, not broken. Just a blank space on your fingernub."READ ON

POETRYfrom "THE WOMAN IN AN IMAGINARY PAINTING"by Tom Montag"Perhaps, if wewait long enoughshe will tell us."READ ON

CREATIVE NONFICTIONRESURRECTION by Caitlin McLaughlin "One day when I’m sixteen my mom finds me in the desert. She picks me up. She hands me the toothbrush. She takes the razor out of the shower before she puts me in."READ ON

MIXED MEDIACONTACTby Hanna Ojala"I call it "a divine coincidence" when two or more seemingly separate things complement each other in a way that they form a whole new entity larger and more complex than its parts..."READ ON

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