Current Rejection

After five long months of waiting, I finally heard from Marcy Campbell, the fiction editor of Artful Dodge, which is a literary journal put out by the College of Wooster in Ohio. Of course it was a rejection - isn't it always?

I don't know if it's prestigious or pathetic, but I did get a sense of security in submitting to something that's published by a college. Adds a sense of legitimacy somehow, with that aroma of hide-bound college professors and the smell of graduate student sweat and blood.

Why did they take so long to turn me down? Was it a maybe over the summer hiatus and then Ms. Campbell thought better of it once classes started in the fall? Do they have so many manuscripts in the slush that they can't handle them in a reasonable amount of time?

No thanks this time around, Ms. Campbell's photocopied rejection slip notes. Oh, but do feel free to try again. You're not the worst that we've seen, far from it, but with only five short fiction pieces needed in the issue, and you're not published, and, well, what else have you got?

If it's any help to anyone thinking of submitting to them, Ms. Campbell informs me that the literary journal is now accepting simultaneous submissions. Brilliant. Wise of her to admit that the slow response time is a negative aspect for many writers, like me, who want a publishing credit to their name.

Now, if only the Indiana Review could move things along - it's been six months waiting on their answer, with a note in August that the piece was still being considered. If I keep pulling my hair out at this rate, I'll be bald in a week.