Something Constructive Out of Chaos: Talking with Suzanne Koven
Suzanne Koven discusses her new memoir, LETTER TO A YOUNG FEMALE PHYSICIAN.
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Posts Tagged: rejection
The Desire for a Pain-Free Existence: Talking with Karen Tucker
Karen Tucker discusses her debut novel, BEWILDERNESS.
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So That We May Move Forward: A Conversation with Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello
Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello discusses her debut poetry collection, HOUR OF THE OX.
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Everyone You Meet Is God in Drag
If the art of drag has taught me one thing, it’s that I am not unique.
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The Mentor Series: Michael Torres and Richard Robbins
Michael Torres interviews his mentor, Richard Robbins.
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Your Schooling Is Your Voice: Talking with Abi Daré
Abi Daré discusses her debut novel, THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE.
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Poetry Is Wild: Talking with Ariel Francisco
Ariel Francisco discusses his forthcoming second collection, A SINKING SHIP IS STILL A SHIP.
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FUNNY WOMEN: Rejection Letters from an Overly Empathetic Editor
Sorry for my obtuseness! I wish you the best of luck elsewhere!
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Growing the Courage: A Conversation with Frances Badalamenti
Frances Badalamenti discusses her debut novel, I DON’T BLAME YOU.
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The Mentor Series: Allie Rowbottom and Maggie Nelson
Debut author Allie Rowbottom interviews her mentor, Maggie Nelson.
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Five Rejection Letters for Privileged Men
“New mag, who dis?”
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Mixed Feelings: How Do You Break a Heart?
What should love cost us? What do we owe one another? What, especially, do we owe those who have chosen to love and trust us?
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Slush Piles in White
The sensibilities of whiteness do not want us to work, do not want us to think, do not want us to imagine outside of its bounds.
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Erika L. Sánchez
Erika L. Sánchez discusses her new collection Lessons on Expulsion, pushing back against sexism and misogyny, being a troublemaker, and donkeys.
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The Rumpus Interview with Emily Raboteau
Emily Raboteau discusses her essay, “Know Your Rights!” from the collection, The Fire This Time, what she loves about motherhood, and why it’s time for White America to get uncomfortable.
...moreIf at First You Don’t Succeed
Comic artist and writer Mike Norton is doing alright. After working on various titles for DC (Queen & Country, Gravity, Runaways, The All-New Atom, Green Arrow/Black Canary), in 2011 he launched his webcomic Battlepug. In 2012, Battlepug won an Eisner for Best Digital Comic. He’s a co-creator of Revival, a critically acclaimed and commercially successful […]
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #6: What’s Love Got to Do with It?
My sister wrote and published a memoir about our childhood. It’s a good book, and I’m proud of her. It has won awards, and put her in demand on a national speaking circuit. Am I jealous of my little sister? Yep. She’s an engineer by training; I was the artist in the family. By rights, […]
...moreHandling Rejection from the Other Side
I never heard editors talk about how disturbed and insecure writers might become as a result of relentless rejection, living every day with what James Salter called “the feeling of injustice.” It was more fun for editors to characterize their jobs as overseeing petting zoos full of needy misfits and narcissists, a point of view […]
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The Great Film Festival Swindle
“Never pay an entry fee. If they won’t give you a waiver they aren’t interested in the film.”—Programmer for a major film festival
...moreAdvice for Writers Anxious of Rejection
I know of no level of success where writers stop getting rejected (and stop at least occasionally feeling bummed about it). People generally make more noise about publications than rejections, the same way people mostly share pictures of happy moments on Facebook, making their sad moments invisible. Rejection stings. Writing is hard. How do writers […]
...moreThe Art of Losing Isn’t Hard to Master
Just as there is subjective rejection, there’s subjective acceptance—the editor who sparks to your characters, your plot, your manuscript because of their personal experiences—and you want someone who understands your story to be the champion it needs. Let’s be real. Rejection sucks, especially if you’re a writer trying to get your work published. Tor.com’s Natalie […]
...moreThe Anxiety of the Waiting Game
For all the aspiring writers who sent out those applications a few months back, the day of reckoning soon approaches: acceptances (or lack thereof) are beginning to get sent out. To offer words of support, TheMFAYears blog shares testimonies from several candidates currently attending MFA programs that might offer the anxious waiting writer some comfort, or at […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Kathleen Spivack
Poet Kathleen Spivack discusses releasing her debut novel Unspeakable Things at age seventy-seven.
...morePublishers Risk Losing Writers
Rude rejection letters could cost publishers the next big author, warns Hannah MacDonald, founder of September Publishing. MacDonald told colleagues at the FutureBook conference that publishers need to be kinder, reports The Independent: Hannah MacDonald said the industry should be more constructive with its criticism and rebuffs, as there is a danger that potential stars […]
...moreFamous Rejections Show Publishing’s Shortcomings
Rejection is often cited as an essential part of writing. Rejection is even celebrated, as if great works must be first overlooked and then pulled from obscurity. Consider Marlon James, 2015 Man Booker Prize winner: his first manuscript was rejected eighty times. But writers shouldn’t romanticize rejection, says Kavita Das, because it speaks to a fundamentally broken […]
...moreAn Exercise in Failure
I did give it up. I actually destroyed the manuscript, I even went on my friends computers and erased it.” He said he retrieved the text by searching in the email outbox of an old iMac computer. Marlon James, who recently won the Man Booker Prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings, tells the Guardian how […]
...moreRejection Makes Us Writers
Writers are constantly being judged by their work, and naturally that means a regular stream of rejection. But not all rejections are bad. Over at Vol. 1 Brooklyn, JS Breukelaar looks back at past rejections and considers why rejection is sometimes important: Rejection is the content and context of this life that has chosen us and […]
...moreSo You Think You Can Write?
A recent poll shows that the majority of Brits would choose the writing life as their ideal career. At the Guardian, Tim Lott isn’t sure they could handle it: To master dialogue, description, subtext, plot, structure, character, time, point of view, beginnings, endings, theme and much besides is a Herculean labour, not made more appealing by the […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Wendy C. Ortiz
Wendy C. Ortiz talks about her memoir, Excavation, about her teenage affair with her teacher, and how the moment you write down a memory you make it fallible.
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