On submitting to anthologies and journals

I read this article last year, all about how you can trick yourself into sending out more poetry submissions by aiming for 100 rejections a year. 

One hundred is a big number. It means really committing to sending your work out into the world, and expecting - nay, revelling! - in the knock-backs. 

The #100RejectionsIn2024 project is a way of gamifying the amount of rejection you face as writer, and turning it into something a bit more fun.

Plus, it really helps you to get out of your own way. If a poem is rejected at one press, just mark a talley on your 100 Rejections spreadsheet, and send that poem straight back out to somewhere new! 

The more poems you send, the more likely you are to be published. 

And it's definitely working for me; I've had more published in the past four months than I had in the last two years! 

And, in early April, I was delighted to have three new poems in the “Not Ghosts, But Spirits Volume IV” anthology by Querencia Press. 

Querencia are based in Chicago (USA), and they work to celebrate writing from women and LGBTQ+ folks. All sales from this volume are being donated to Crossroads for Women, a US based charity that works to support women on leaving the American Prison System.

Here's a sneak-peek of one of the published pieces. If you want more, you'll have to get hold of a copy of the book! 


Not like other girls

If you ever woke up tangled in telephone wires,
grew two grooved fangs at the rear of your mouth,
used chemical cues when hunting late at night;
if you ever passed through the tiny spaces between buildings 
seeking refuge from sunlight, lunged at strangers who
pulled your tail; if you survived for days without food,
wrapped your body round him to prevent escape,
unhinged your jaw to swallow rodents whole. 
If you ever produced toxic venom to silence your enemies, 
killed something smaller with a single, guiltless bite,
destroyed the entire native bird population on the island of Guam,
then you’re not like other girls: you are a Brown Tree Snake.

Cover Art - Not Ghosts, But Spirits Vol IV



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Collaborative Working (Kingmaker R&D)

Image
 As a poet, I mostly write stuff on my own. I draft a poem, maybe I take it to an open mic, or to my crit group for suggestions, then I polish it up. Perhaps it even gets published somewhere – if I’m very lucky! But I'm used to a pretty solitary writing process.  So, I was a bit apprehensive going into the first week of research and development on a new play I’m working on, in collaboration with director Vivi Bayliss .  Theatremaking is often a collective process – the actors, director and other members of creative team get involved with writing or devising the story – and I was a little bit wary about that aspect of the project.  I – like many creative people – really hate being told what to do.  But, I also knew that Vivi is an excellent director and a very safe pair of hands. So, when I showed up on the Monday morning at the rehearsal space, I was ready to experience a new way of making work.  But I’m getting ahead of myself. What is an R&D in the c...
Read more

On Writing and Re-Writing (Kingmaker R&D)

Image
I’ve just sent two weeks thinking, writing, re-thinking and re-writing. A couple of weeks’ ago, our creative team did a week of research and development , working on the script for a new play that I wrote earlier this year.  By the end of the first week of R&D, we’d removed the interactive elements, improved the narrative pacing, moved the interval, added five new scenes, and completely re-imagined the ending!  All in a week's work!  The next stage of the project is a sharing of the show with industry professionals and invited guests on Friday 6th September. So, I had two weeks to do all the re-writes, before rehearsals started up again.  Given how many notes I’d made, and how many changes we'd initiated, it seemed like a Herculean task. So, I did what I always do when faced with a monumental writing commission. I procrastinated.  One clean bathroom, two mowed lawns, and email inbox clear-out, and a fully-hoovered house later, I figured I’d really better ge...
Read more

On love, dating and biscuits

Image
I’ve picked a silly one to start off the New Year! I recently revised this poem, in the hopes of performing it at SMUT in Nottingham. SMUT is a really cool poetry open mic that focuses on themes of love, sex and relationships. I wanted to read this poem out at their September 2023 event, but I didn’t manage to make it along in the end. So, you’re getting first dibs! Crumbs about two women and the obsession with biscuits that comes between them. Give it a cheeky read, and let me know what you think!  Crumbs  Some women live for football and some women love their wine, some women seem quite normal when you chat them up online.  But this girl wasn’t into kinky sex, or sport, or fashions. No, slightly more prosaic were her own obsessive passions.   The sight of diamonds didn't leave her blinded, like a rabbit; this girl had one fixation – an enormous biscuit habit! Our first date was a little odd – she called me up from Aldi to tell me she was stocking up on Nice and Gar...
Read more