The Rejection Slip

I got a rejection e-mail from Gulf Stream Magazine a few days ago, and while it can be frustrating to wait 5 months to hear from a journal and then receive a form note,

"Unfortunately, we are unable to accept your submission for publication at this time. We wish you the best of luck placing your work elsewhere.”

for me, it’s usually, a good thing. I’ve never received any additional comments on a rejection slip, but the slip itself is a kind of impetus. The slip makes me want to reconsider the original submission, revise, or (more often than not) write something entirely new. In that spirit, I’d like to offer up a few journals I’ve been checking out recently. Perhaps we could plan our assault of poems together. Let me know where you’re submitting, or where your poems are being accepted.

BROADSIDED

http://www.broadsidedpress.org/

This is a really neat press which prints poems on broadsides and asks volunteer ‘vectors’ to distribute them throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

ANTI-
http://anti-poetry.com/

Home to one of the funniest poems I’ve read all summer, “You Can’t Pick Your Friends Nose” by Aaron Belz. http://anti-poetry.com/belzaa2/

ABZ
http://abzpress.com/default.aspx

I was really excited to find this (relatively) new magazine because it’s based in Huntington, WV, just 60 miles from Morehead. I think I was a little too excited. I submitted some poems a few months ago without noticing the “Reading Period” and, of course, they were sent back with a note telling me the “Reading Period” didn’t open until September. Haha. This Magazine has published a lot of Ohio and Kentucky poets.