Submission Bombers Seek More Targets!

The Submission Bombers are actively seeking literary publications to bomb during the following dates:

• Oct 1-12 
• Oct 29-Nov 9 
• Nov 5-16 
• Nov 19-30 
• Nov 26-Dec 7 
• Dec 3-14 
• Dec 10-21

More info about the Submission Bombers can be found here. If you're an editor who is interested, please email me with your top three choices. First come, first serve. If no dates you want are available, I will email you to reschedule. You can also leave a comment with your top three slots, but remember to include an email address where you can be reached.

Bombs away.

The Flying List of Awesome

1. I'm writing this update while flying on a big plane from New York to California. 
2. I decided to write in a list because it felt more manageable. I miss blogging. I spent the summer unemployed and had lots of time for it and now have more to write about with much less time.
3. Today I got two poems accepted by Super Arrow. One of the poems had been rejected over 24 times. I'm happy.
4. Sal and I have been having a lot of discussions about balancing our professional lives and personal lives. We are both tired a lot. I decided we need a life coach or at least a cleaning person. And an accountant, but that's another issue.
5. Who cleans your house? How do you decide who cleans it? Is it as clean as you'd like it to be? If you are female, do you feel strange taking on more cleaning duties than your partner, especially if said partner is male? 
6. When in the world do people have time to raise children?
7. I finally took some time to create a new chapbook manuscript. This feels good. 
8. Do people with careers have social lives? Do people with careers watch television? Roxane Gay, I have no idea how to have time to write, teach, AND go see all the movies you review. I'm glad you do though, otherwise I'd never know how horrible Contagion was.
9. There is a baby crying on the plane. 
10. Weave reopened to submissions on Saturday. We still have to read fiction from the last reading period. I don't feel bad about this. I'd rather us take our time, than rush and miss something we want. 
11. I have worked at ModCloth for almost one month and somehow, magically, managed to not buy one single thing. Aside from my new Tom's shoes, I haven't bought any new clothing since July. Considering I went into a small amount of debt during my last semester of graduate school from impulse ModCloth purchases, I'd say that's some growth.
12. Teaching for Poetry Inside Out is the most rewarding teaching and poetry-related job I've ever had. I continue to be challenged by my students. I am learning to listen to people speaking other languages on the bus. Languages are opening up before me on a daily basis. 
13. Tomorrow I start teaching a high school class of English Language Learners at a new school. I'm mostly excited about this, though it's been a while since I've worked with this age. I hope that some of them will talk with me in Spanish, so I can practice. I also have two who speak Chinese, a student who speaks Burmese and one who speaks Punjabi. Wow. 
14. I'm learning a lot about history and geography from Poetry Inside Out teaching.
15. I'm still on a plane and now there is turbulence. I also have only 36 minutes of battery left, yet I have at least 90 minutes of plane ride left. 
16. I didn't think I'd get to number 16. I guess I had a lot more to say.
17. What has your life been like?
18. Updated additional question: Do you know what the Baby-Pope-Jesus-Bishop statue is supposed to be? Besides, you know, creepy? It was in the bakery we went to in Brooklyn.

who are you???

Acceptance Rates and a Fleeting Case of Woe-is-Me

UPDATE: Quite literally 20 minutes after post this blog update, I received an acceptance. Apparently all I had to do was complain publicly. 

I hesitate to complain on my blog, mostly because I think a lot of writers end up in "woe-is-me" patterns that only invite more woe. Today though, I really need to whine a little and hopefully gain some perspective in the process.

The year 2010 was a pretty great one for me, publishing wise. I received my first publication in April, and after that they poured in. I even had a week where six poems were accepted by four publications. The year kept bringing more joyful acceptances until the very end, which concluded with three acceptances on New Years Eve. The total for the year was 17 published poems in 13 journals; my acceptance rate was around 27% for the year. Go Laura.

Because of that success, I decided to submit to harder markets in 2011. I also made a goal of 100 journal submissions by the end of the year (to date, I'm 11 behind). I have received four fantastic acceptances, for which I am truly grateful. I love that those poems are out in the world. I love the journals they are published in. But as it stands, I haven't gotten an acceptance since April and I think the standards that were set up in 2010 have ruined me for 2011. Last week I got four rejections. Form rejections at that. Blerg. Current acceptance rate for 2011: 7%.

At least I have a pile of solid poems to edit.

I sent my chapbook manuscript to four contests earlier this year. Three rejections later, I'm holding out on this last one and, when that is rejected, I will do some reorganizing and re-strategizing. I'd like to just get on with it. Do you hear me, Chapbook Contest I submitted to in February? (yes, I know it's not that long ago, but I'm impatient). 

I'm also going through the demoralizing process of job hunting. I spent all of July in a tail-spin from a cross-country move and constant bouts of panic and doubt about my professional qualifications. I barely sent out two job applications. Now I'm scrambling because the fall semester starts in the next two weeks and of course I'm hearing crickets. CRICKETS. Well, I did get into one adjunct pool. That's reassuring. A paycheck would more comforting though.

Today I got notice that my AWP panel was not accepted. I know I'm in a bad place when I can't even go on Facebook because everyone is posting excited updates about their panel acceptances. I hate to admit it, but I sometimes compare myself to others in my field and then think "why not me?" Especially when I see writers younger than me having huge successes. Because the thing is, I don't begrudge them their success; I love it. I celebrate it. But when I go a long while without some kind of vote of confidence, it's easy to turn green green green with envy. And I can't help but wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

Then I read this Dear Sugar column about jealousy and I humbly remember more than a few good things.

I earned an MFA in 2011 (or I will in a couple of weeks, officially). I won the Best Thesis Award for poetry. That was really awesome. I have a pile of good poems that will hopefully turn into solid poems once I get to editing them. I got to participate in a pedagogy forum at AWP this year with some incredible educators and the latest issue of Weave has received an amazing response. Sales are up. We had our largest reading period to date. I am reading my poetry with some stellar writers in the East Bay at the end of August.

But even more importantly, I have incredible friends and family. I'm healthy. my friends and family are happy and healthy. I am finally in the same city as Sal. My best friend is having another baby (this one still gets me). My other best friend returns from South Africa this week (Casandra, I have missed you more than I missed breakfast sausage when I was vegetarian). I am loved and I am lucky - so lucky - to have all the people in my life who give me love.

My rate of love-and-acceptance for 2011: off the charts.

Literary Roundup & Spreadsheet Romance

This week, the literary meets the technological in my Google Plus stream. I've "met" awesome writers who are open to sharing, including by helping me answer probing questions like "What's a good free website platform?" and "Anyone want to write a collaborative poem?"

Speaking of collaborative poems! I've been writing them all week with three awesome poet-friends, Thom, Jessica and Crystal. We're using Google Docs and, I must say, it's really awesome to watch as someone writes a line of poetry. Watching them write, delete, rearrange, write, pause - there is a video project in there somewhere.

My amazing friend D. Gilson wrote a travel essay and it's up over at the PANK Blog. Go read it.

I've got a poem in the latest issue of Diverse Voices Quarterly. The rest of the issue is fantastic and lovely.

Weave submissions are rolling in! We have an awesome ad up at htmlgiant. While working at Google yesterday, I read stories about breastfeeding, masturbation, burial rituals and racism. I love this work. We are open until July 31st. SUBMIT!

My friend and partner-in-recent-literary-crimes, Lisa Marie Basile, is doing some fundraising for Patasola Press. You should donate and also buy a book. Video about Patasola is posted below.

My obsession with spreadsheets continues. Sal and I spent some time sorting out my priorities this past Saturday and I came up with a list of accessories (tasks) and match them under the different hats (roles) I stylishly wear. Hats include Writer, Editor, Job Seeker and Community Member and respective accessories might include write, read, apply and get-the-hell-out-of-the-apartment-and-go-to-a-poetry-reading. I took this information and put it in a spreadsheet with cool algorithms to add up the time I spend on each activity. An alarm goes off every fifteen minutes to remind me to check what I'm doing. Of course, I had to add a spot on my spreadsheet called "data" for all the time I spent actually using and tinkering with the spreadsheet. It's not something I will keep up with forever, but it's helpful to have some structure to my day. It also helps me get to the end of the day and not feel like crap because it just seems like I did nothing all day.

On a personal note, it's really fun to live in a city. I explained this to Sal the other night by mentioning that on our walk back from drinks we passed at least awesome 10 restaurants/bars/coffee shops/stores that I want to check out. And they are all in walking distance from my apartment! Sal responds with something along the lines of, "So what?" and I realized he has no clue what the suburbs are like. I could only walk to two businesses as a kid: the Twin Kiss Ice Cream and CO-GO's convenience store. The fact that we can walk to get delicious Pho at 10 o'clock at night on a Wednesday is life-altering.

Adanna Literary Journal: Inaugural Issue

Forgive me for a bit of self-promotion. My poem "One Million Cow Eyes" (about Temple Grandin, doctor of animal science and autism spokesperson) was recently published in the first issue of Adanna Literary Journal, edited by Christine Redman-Waldeyer. With an eye on publishing female voices, I am humbled to be in such great company; the issue features the work of Angie Macri, Sarah J. Sloat, Diane Lockward, among many others. They held a reading a couple weeks ago, which was well attended, as evidenced by the lovely slide show below. I highly recommend picking up a copy of Adanna. You won't be disappointed.

The Waves of Uneventful Days

Most days I have very little to share.

I have things to do. They are on my to-do lists. I have seven lists of things to-do. I have only done three to-do items today.

I got some things accomplished. Submissions - electronic and postal. Poems and chapbook manuscript. Sent withdrawal emails. My poem "The Ordination of Woman" was accepted by Whistling Fire.

I'm counting my calories again. Mostly so I make sure I don't overeat. I won't share that with you.

I have not written my poem for Poem-a-Day yet. I should do that before date night begins in about 20 minutes. But I still need to shower.

I have lost some energy. I've spent a lot of time talking about the repercussions of being a public poet. That is, being the kind of poet who makes her private life public. Now I need to spend time thinking about why I feel compelled to make waves. Where does this instinct begin? What are my motivations? After the waves are crashing, how do I react? What is my role? Do I have the right to be upset if people don't accept/like/agree with my public self? If not upset, then what?

This is what happens when I have free time. Most people just watch TV.

I also reached a new high score on the Text Twist game on my phone. Over 900,000. I'm winning. Perhaps even more winning than Charlie Sheen.

I'm Filling Time

Lately I have been reading wikipedia pages about the human heart. I've learned about the four different chambers, the inferior and superior vena cava, the walls that separate sections. Sometimes I clench my left hand into a fist just so I can image the size. It's smaller than I imagine, the heart.

I recently put together my thesis manuscript into one document. I've had the poems, the introduction, the bibliography, the sections - all of these were in separate files on my computer. But this week I copied and pasted them all into one big file, formatted section numbers, adjusted margins, created a table of contents. It felt good to print it out and hand the draft to my director. I'm almost there.

After I got all the poems in one document, I copied the poem text into this text analysis software, which then sorts your words in a big list by how frequently they appear. This has been invaluable in terms of me having documented evidence of my obsessions. The word body appears in my thesis nineteen times. Then, the words hair, hands, eyes, skin and heart all appear seventeen times each. Spider shows up nine times. Vibrator twice. Ten palms, nine teeth, seven kitchens, seven blues. I have a document open always where I jot down title ideas. I am enjoying this ongoing process of information gathering. Maybe I should call it Ten Palms, Nine Teeth. Or Nineteen Bodies. Let me get those two on my list real quick...

Other recent accomplishments include my issue of Caper Literary Journal being posted this week. I guest edited a small selection of five awesome poems and one awesome short story for March. I had so much fun soliciting work from awesome writers I know. Something magical happened with this process actually; fascinating themes emerged dealing with creation, mythology, death, rebirth, retelling, bodies and magic. It's a magical collection. I am very proud to make public their work.

Additionally, this morning my poem "One Million Cow Eyes" was accepted by the new Adanna Literary Journal. Founded by Christine Redman-Waldeyer and guest-edited by Diane Lockward. I'm excited and honored to be included in the inaugural issue of this awesome feminist journal. This poem is about the animal scientist Temple Grandin who is also a high functioning autistic person. She's an especially amazing person and I recommend learning more about her life and accomplishments.

Other than these things, I'm mostly soaking up spring and time with my family. California feels closer and closer and before long I'll be on a plane headed toward The Bay. I went to the shooting range with my dad for the first time yesterday and nothing terrible happened. In fact, I got to know myself and my father a little bit better. So I'd say it was a day well spent.

News News News

I've been busily preparing for February and it's finally here. I leave for Washington D.C. on the Megabus tomorrow. In theory, I'm going to be very productive on the way down, since the bus has WIFI. I have a presentation next week, plus an event next Friday. Who knows what might happen though.

Weave's reading period just ended and we have a record number of submissions: 491 total! That is way above our average of 350 for the past few issues. I'm constantly impressed with the quality of the submissions we are getting and I'm really looking forward to shaping this new issue. I can't wait until I have some real time to get in there and readreadread.

The AWP Conference is really coming together this year. Weave and A cappella Zoo have a table at the book fair, I'm presenting at the pedagogy forums on Friday morning, and so many friends will be attending. I'm also looking forward to meeting some online poet-friends, especially Lisa Marie Basille and Sally Rosen Kindred. I love that the internet lets us develop friendships long distance. It really shifts our thinking about community and mentoring and collaboration. It can all be done long distance. So wonderful.

I recently had my poem "Missing" accepted and published (both within a week's time) at Glass: A Journal of Poetry. This was a happy surprise for me, since I had stopped sending this poem out to journals. I'm really glad it found out a home. 

Finally, I will be reading some poems from my currently untitled manuscript at Word Circus next Friday, February 11th at Most Wanted Fine Art Gallery. It starts at 7pm and will include food, poetry, fiction, artwork and wine. I even have some watercolors in the show (picture below)! It will be a great time. Definitely stop by.

 "Self-Portraits" by Laura E. Davis

PS: I have a website! I'm all official n'at.

Bragging Rights and Submission Strategies

So I'm not usually a good judge of my own abilities. It does not matter how well I've done before. Past experiences with success are often not satisfactory enough for my brain to accept that I might be good at something. "I succeeded before, but this time I might not!" my brain will shout. I tend to seek validation from outside sources to gauge my own success. Because of this, I tend to avoid bragging.

That's why I don't have too much of a problem discussing my own recent successes in getting published. This past week, I received acceptances of six poems from four different journals. Some of these poems I was sitting on because they were up for consideration at another journal I'd really like to see my work in. When that didn't work out, I sent them out to a number of journals and within a couple weeks I was hearing back. Here is what's been accepted and where:

dotdotdash - "From Scratch"
Pear Noir! - "Dear Outer Space"
OVS Magazine - "Blame" & Upon Realizing I Am Filled With One Million Poems"
Radioactive Moat - "On Rainy Nights I Dream I Am Pregnant" & "upon realizing men could see through my white skirt"

This is highly unusual based on what I've heard from other writers. It's also unusual based on my own past experiences. I have been occasionally submitting work since 2008, but I ramped up to submitting very aggressively in December 2009. I sent a ton of work out this summer. My first publication will be out this fall at Coal Hill Review, along with the others I've listed above.

With the competitiveness of the writing field, I've begun to approach submissions in a very practical, business-like manner. I got great advice from a former professor of mine at Chatham, Aubrey Hirsch. She primarily writes fiction, but has been successful in publishing nonfiction and poetry as well. When she has a story to submit, she keeps it out at five places at all times. If she gets a rejection, she tries somewhere else. No harm, no foul. It wasn't the right market. My feelings are rarely hurt anymore when I get a rejection. Aubrey also gave me advice about continuing to edit a piece, even after it's been submitted. Why not? If a journal accepts a previous version, well, great! I currently have at least 25 poems I'm trying to publish, so I've got about that many submissions out right now. I always appreciate a journal that accepts simultaneous submissions.

Other strategies I've picked up on my own is researching journals and targeting submissions, as well as tracking all my submissions and journal reading periods on an elaborate Excel spreadsheet. I did not set out for it to be so elaborate, but now I've got five worksheets for different kinds of information. Current submissions, Online, Postal, Contests and Responses. Each of those track which poems or stories I've sent where and also additional info about the journal, like their reading period dates, mode of submission, and contact info. I've also begun to research the various "tiers" of publications. I've found a few good lists that rank journals and now I've got a 1-5 ranking system. Soon I will begin to submit work in a system I've yet to develop based on these rankings. So far I've submitted (by accident) to ranks 4 & 5 and unranked journals. I've received personal rejections from two tier 5 journals, both encouraging me to resubmit. That's hopeful!

What I can't decide is, should I submit my work to the top tier journals first and then, as the rejections roll in (as they surely will), move down the list? Or should I submit to all levels simultaneously? Some people begin at the lesser competitive (but still competitive) markets first, gain a certain number of acceptances at that level, and then move to the next tier. But this seems like it will take more time. Why not try for the more competitive markets right away? Maybe you'll get lucky.

While this outside recognition of my work is nice, I can definitely see why it's happening. Looking back at the work I was sending out a couple years ago, I can see why the poems were not getting published. They weren't ready. The work I've created more recently is far better. I'm glad I am more capable of judging the quality of my writing. It sure does make the editing process a lot easier. Also, my skills as an editor have helped me with things like not feeling overwhelmed by submissions guidelines or being afraid of asking editors questions. I guess this is what confidence feels like. It's a strange, unfamiliar feeling. I hope I can hang on to it for a while.

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)