Submittable calls it “Decline.” I like to refer to it as “Returned” when my manuscripts come back to me, which they still do more often than not. As an editor for Poetry South and a frequent submitter to many magazines, I have a complicated relationship with rejection. On the one hand, I have a toughContinue reading “The Meaning of Rejection”
Category Archives: Writing
How Do You Know When You’ve Written a Poem? — A Dream Answer
In a dream last night, I was at an event aswering questions, and someone asked, “How do you know when you’ve written a poem?” I had a pretty good answer, or at least so it seemed in the dream. So let’s see how much I can remember here. The first part of my answer wasContinue reading “How Do You Know When You’ve Written a Poem? — A Dream Answer”
Two Tiers of Pushcart Nominations
Did you know that there are two kinds of nominations for the Pushcart Anthology? I was looking through some old papers this morning and was reminded of the distinction. The one most of us get is a nomination by the editors of a journal. Each editor of any literary magazine can send in up toContinue reading “Two Tiers of Pushcart Nominations”
In Praise of Traditional Small Press Publishers
People always seem to want to reinvent the wheel in publishing. Sometimes that leads good opportunities for writers, but often these seem to be new ways (or newly packaged old ways) to make money off of writers. Here are my musings on online publishing platforms and hybrid publishers.
Ecopoetry Anthology: Volume II
Two of my intergalactic traveler poems will appear in the Ecopoetry Anthology: Volume II, due out in 2025.
My First Publication
Read the story of my very first publication, four translations of Paul Snoek in Pinchpenny in 1985, which I wrote about on my SubStack this morning. I’m still looking for a good way to connect WordPress and SubStack, so in the meantime, I’m cross posting like this. I’ve connected WordPress to my Mastodon, Facebook, andContinue reading “My First Publication”
More News on Substack
I’ve just started a newsletter on Substack. It won’t replace this blog, but it will be a place to post news about my publishing life. My first post describes how Tree Fall with Birdsong found its publisher and reveals a secret about the title poem. In doing this, I’m also looking for new ways toContinue reading “More News on Substack”
Rejection Letters: A Blast from the Past
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. ThereContinue reading “Rejection Letters: A Blast from the Past”
Whither Social Media for Writers?
Today, I made a first post on Medium as part of my research into the places that writers are gravitating with the (pending) demise of Twitter and changes happening at other social media platforms. So far, it’s not getting a lot of traction, which isn’t terribly surprising. With no prior posts, I only have 1Continue reading “Whither Social Media for Writers?”
What are your rights? (FNASR)
Over the weekend, I had an interesting email from a reader, Bill Harrison, who had a question about whether to consider a work published if the magazine it was published in had gone belly up. He said he was in that situation and wondered what to do. I replied, but then I thought I mightContinue reading “What are your rights? (FNASR)”
Kendall Dunkelberg 