Submissions Galore!

I'm mostly done with finals and classes this past week, so today I woke up and decided to devote the day to submitting some of my new poems to journals. Before I even got out of bed I called my good friend Margaret and asked her to go to breakfast (ok lunch, I woke up at 11am) at the Quiet Storm. Margaret is my submission guru; she has been actively submitting her work for publication for a number of years and is rather well published. In fact, her first chapbook Barefoot and Listening was just published by Tilt Press (and I must say it's rather fantastic). I thought that Margaret would be able to take a really close look at my new poetry and decide which I should prioritize with submissions.

I have a rather detailed spreadsheet that I use for submissions. In the past, I've submitted work to both online and print journals that I enjoy reading. Slant, deCOMP, Pear Noir are my more recent submissions for each of which I received a personalized rejection with an invite to resubmit. While it's still pretty much a bummer to get rejected, it's also nice to get a resubmit invitation. At least I didn't totally suck. Plus, I'm working on growing some thicker skin. I actually ended up submitting to eight journals today, all via email. I have a handful more to submit to via postal submission. Of course, I'm sending simultaneous submissions so generally the same 5-8 poems being sent to each journal. I have spent time with at least one issue of each of these journals, with the exception of an anthology of persona poems. I either purchased or borrowed copies of journals to determine whether I would send submissions. I am kind of excited to hear back from these publications (ok, really excited!) but I have to somehow put it out of my mind. Also, I must bash the hope I have when sending out my newest work into the world. I know that this hope and expectation is ultimately what leads to my disappointment when none of them get picked up by a publisher. But I still have hope. Because if I didn't I wouldn't submit my work in the first place. I do have to say, I have written some really cool poems this fall and I hope that I get to share them with the world soon.

Also, this day resulted in the tightening of some friendships, both new and old. I am happy that Margaret and Thom and I could hang out and do poetry all day. It was pretty awesome. And also resulted in this great picture of Thom.

(Nice beard)