Sign In

Get Weekly Poems

I can't have my unpublished work all over Al Gore's open Internet. Membership is free.

Success! Now Check Your Email

To complete Subscribe, click the confirmation link in your inbox. If it doesn’t arrive within 3 minutes, check your spam folder.

Ok, Thanks
Sign In
Rejection List 3 min read
rejections
rejections

Rejection List

I'm at AWP, so it seemed like a good time to catch up on my most recent rejections.

By Zachary Forrest y Salazar
Rejection List Post image

I sent Andrew Hudgins an email this week. Travis Mossotti, a Missouri poet, encouraged me awhile back to cold-email poets. That you never know what you're going to get back. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me before. I think it feels risky to meet your idols.

In spite of this post being about rejections, I do have some wins to talk about this week. Moon City review is on the verge of releasing its 2025 collection, where I have a poem called "Columbo in Colombo". Cutthroat magazine just released its 20th anniversary issue, titled "Taking Liberties", where I have a poem called "New York Dialect Quiz", a poem I've struggled to find a home for. And in May, Pembroke Magazine will release my poem "Animita", one of my favorites, a poem that doesn't read like a love poem to my wife, but really is.

Every poem I somehow get published seems like a huge success to me. I honestly don't think I'll ever be some great American poet, but I'm happy for the small things. And it's nice to know I've given something to the world.

Rejections

We're going to start with a rejection from The Kenyon Review on February 17th.

👎🏻
Thank you so much for submitting “The Infinite Universe, Sakura, Manifest Destiny, Pax Saturni, The Crow, For My Father Who Is Dead But Has Not Died." After careful consideration, we determined that this submission was not the right fit for us. We are grateful for your interest in The Kenyon Review, appreciated the opportunity to read your work, and wish you the best of luck in placing it elsewhere. 

Next, on February 18th, a rejection from The South Carolina Review.

👎🏻
Thank you for your submission to The South Carolina Review. Although we must decline your submission this time, we appreciated the chance to consider it.

Next, I had sent a lot of Demonic Sonnets to The Georgia Review and had some hope they'd take them, but alas. The rejection arrived February 18th as well.

👎🏻
Thank you for your submission to The Georgia Review. We have read your manuscript carefully and decided against publication. 

Next, a rejection from Copper Nickel on February 24th

👎🏻
Thank you for sending us ""Exuvia", "Gathering Walnuts", "2024 PT5", "On A Sunday"." We appreciate the opportunity to read your work, but unfortunately this submission was not right for us.

Fast-forward to March 18th, when I was waitlisted for The Kenyon Writers Workshop for the second time.

👎🏻
Thank you for applying to the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop: Poetry. This year’s selection process was highly competitive as we experienced another record year in the number of applications we received. We found your application to be strong and impressive, but, with our small class size and campus capacity limits, we cannot accept as many people as we would like. At this time, you have been placed on the waitlist. We will identify open spaces in the next couple of weeks, and we will notify individuals on the waitlist before April 11th. Please note that if you are admitted off the waitlist, you will need to submit your enrollment form and deposit within a week of your acceptance date/time.

On the same day, I received a rejection from Split Lip.

👎🏻
Thank you for sending us "Gaza Moon™." While we are grateful to have had the opportunity to read your work, we're sorry to say it isn't a good fit for us at this time. Our submissions queue continues to grow, and we often have to decline many excellent pieces. 

I had honestly forgotten I had entered a poetry competition by The Poetry Society. Richard Jackson told me that these things are not worth doing. The rejection came on March 19th.

👎🏻
Thank you for entering the National Poetry Competition 2024, judged by Romalyn Ante, Stephen Sexton and John McAuliffe.

The judges have carefully read all the entries and have now made their decision. We are sorry to say that this year, your entry was not successful. 

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 next Tuesday.

By
Zachary Forrest y Salazar
rejections

Read Next