a positive exchange

Today I heard from Jessica Wick and Amal El-Mohtar, the editors of Goblin Fruit, that my poem “Exchange” will appear in the Spring 2009 issue.

I’m delighted because Goblin Fruit is one of my favourite poetry markets. Every issue is beautiful, and stuffed full of strange and lyrical work.

I’ve also been asked to record myself reading the poem, so hopefully that will work out well enough to appear on the site along with the text. I’ve done some work for podcasts in the past, so I’m looking forward to the process.

Of course, not every day is a happy sales day. I received a terrible rejection recently, probably the worst in a couple of years. There’s an awful stunned period of feeling like someone slapped you across the face with a wet, smelly trout, followed by the mental collapse into a gloomy heap, and rather too much sniffling.

My only antidote for this soggy deflation is to force myself back into the chair, and to send out some submissions. If I’m also gripped with a cold fury of “I’ll show them!”, as I wipe the glittery scales off my cheeks, then so much the better. Anything to get me motivated to write and submit work again.

Yesterday I received a lovely, personal rejection from a market I admire greatly. This had me smiling and optimistic, despite the refusal. Quite early I learned to mine rejections for the positive. Otherwise I would have given up long ago, suffocated by the alases, sorrys, and nos.