Rejection List
This was something I used to post on Instagram, where I process my recent rejections in public. Rejections are a rite of passage and talking about them tells the ones with you, coming behind you—I was here.
I've been off of the Threads app for about a month. Yesterday, without thinking too much about it, but meditating on how I feel after doomscrolling through posts, decided to delete Instagram from my phone.
I spend most of my time blocking accounts which are advertising to me and then blocking the ads themselves. I've been doing this since Instagram got ads and it doesn't help. Whatever whimsical feeling I may have had when the app was launched is gone. The small pops of dopamine when I receive likes or comments are simply not worth the data tracking or the Christian Apologist Influencers or how shitty I feel every time I want to post a photograph. And that's how it all started—with a desire to post photos.
So I have two accounts (they still exist, I haven't deleted them yet)—one for my photo grid and one for my poetry things. On my poetry account, I started posting journal rejections for the poems I send out. It's been a pretty cool thing, seeing other poets empathize and then later, watching them post their own rejections. It's a camaraderie, one writers have shared since forever. Ok, maybe not on the Internet, but in coffee shops and living rooms and bookstores. To share our walk as writers with each other is to share our burdens.
I've always loved that verse in Galatians. 6:2 I think.
Rejections
First up, we have the notoriously quick Threepenny Review. This particular rejection came, and I shit you not, 24 hours after I fired the poems off on February 1st, 2025.
Thank you for sending your work to us, and please accept our apologies for the automated message system. We wish we had time to reply to everyone individually.
The Editors
Next, on February 9th, I received a rejection from Whale Road Review. This one is a little better than Threepenny's super-automated bullshit.
Thank you for letting us consider your submission. We didn't select your work for publication this time, but we did enjoy reading it. We received almost 750 submissions (over 2800 pieces!) in early December and just couldn't keep everything we admired. We're honored that you'd trust our journal with your writing.
We would really like to see more from you during our next reading period, June 1-15. Please follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, etc. (links below) for announcements, and please stay safe and well.
Warmly,Katie Manning (she/her)
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Whale Road Review
Then, on December 12th, I received a rejection from December Mag. I thought it was nice the editor pointed out the fact two different poems were close. Little things like these are important. Rejections are fine, but knowing if you're even close is invaluable.
Thank you for sending your poems to december. Unfortunately, none in this group was quite a fit, but we enjoyed reading all of them. Each had compelling moments and lines (Prayers and Ruins both came close), but none in its entirety generated a consensus among our editorial staff.
We appreciate the support implicit in your submission and do hope you’ll send your work our way again.
All the best,
Isabelle Stillman, Editor
And then finally, on February 13th, a pretty lackluster rejection from the Southern Indiana Review.
Thank you for your submission for an upcoming issue of the Southern Indiana Review. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept your work for publication at this time.
Sincerely,
SIR
I share rejections because I think it's important to share failure. To let others know that it's difficult for everyone. But more importantly, failure is how you learn. So I process them in public, and now I can remove the emails from my inbox.
See you Tuesday for our regular programming. Be good.
