This morning, I did a little unanticipated research, looking back through some files searching for some documents. This led me to a musty manila folder containing rejection letters from the publishers I sent Landscapes and Architectures, my first book manuscript to This was back in the days before most publishers had an internet presence. There was email by then, but not everyone used it, and my initial queries, including full manuscripts, were sent by USPS. I saved most of the responses I received, and there was one that stood out as I flipped through the folder.
It was handwritten on a full sheet of typing paper in beautiful flowing script, from Janet Pellam, former editor at Pine Press. In the letter, she kindly explained why she was no longer at the press and that she had moved to Montana with a new husband. She opened a window into their lives in the mountains, and she said she enjoyed my poems and made some comparisons to poets I love. It wasn’t completely clear whether she was comparing her own poems or mine to these more famous poets of a previous generation, but did that really matter? She had left the life of editing behind, but was still writing, and she wanted to know where she was still listed as editor of the press. After such a lovely, almost chatty, letter, I hope that I did reply and tell her where I got her contact information: probably from Poet’s Marketplace or the Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses, since they were my bibles in those days.
I also glanced through a folder of acceptance letters from magazines, including one equally nice, full page letter from Bitter Oleander, accepting some translations. There were many like this, from a time when editors had time to actually engage in correspondence and exchange news of their lives, not just the practical realities of putting a journal together. And I still have a file of form letters with handwritten responses, however brief, to give me hope, as well as another with just the form letters, though I remember I stopped adding to that one after awhile. It would be much thicker if I hadn’t done that.
It is a good reminder, though, as I put together Issue 15 of Poetry South and as I get ready to announce some more good news: both that I’ve been at this for quite awhile (over 30 years) and that no matter how much things change, some aspects always stay the same. I’ve been having some more good correspondence with writers and publishers lately, now over email and not on paper. It feels more ephemeral that way, but the communication is the same, while the time it takes to send has decreased phenomenally.
More soon, when my news is final…
Kendall Dunkelberg 