Embracing rejection
Rejection sounds bad, but it can be a sign of something good
Rejection sounds like a bad thing, but I am choosing to see it as a win. At the beginning of this year, I set a goal of 50 poetry submissions. This is an achievable “process goal” and not an uncontrollable “outcome goal” like “get 3 poems published” would have been. Submitting and getting poetry published is a numbers game in a lot of ways — did you send the right poem at the right time to the right editor for the right issue? If yes to all of those, you might get selected! So when I set my goal of 50 submissions this year I knew that most would be rejected. In a way, each rejection feels like closure.
Obviously, an acceptance would be preferable but it is simply not realistic to think that every submission could/would be accepted. One of my poetry instructors, Todd Davis, was open about how much he, a poet with MANY books of poetry, gets rejected all the time. It is a necessary part of the process. I am choosing to embrace it.
Chill Subs (to which I highly recommend a membership if you regularly look for submission opportunities) not only makes it MUCH easier to find submission opps that are a good fit for my work but they also make the process of rejection fun with their ‘rejection bingo’. They have collected the most common rejection letter phrases (clichés?) and recreated a bingo-style board. I have filled 47% of my bingo board and this is oddly satisfying!
Onward to more rejections!
Currently reading: Pure Color by Sheila Heti
Just finished: The Guncle by Steven Rowley (for a nice, light summer read)
Recent internet search of note: Perseid meteor shower
I would love to get a glimpse of this meteor shower but my sleep schedule and the weather will have to align to make it happen!
ICYMI: My poem “Collection” was published July 2024.