Since my book of short stories (These Americans) came out in 2021, I have been fortunate to place several new stories in magazines. I thought I’d do a round-up of these stories. Those of you who are also fiction writers might be interested in how many places I submitted each piece to, and how many rejections each received. Submitting stories and gathering rejections can be challenging, and I think it’s helpful to be aware that there are usually a lot of rejections behind any writer’s success.
My most recent publication is actually not a story at all. It’s a nonfiction prose poem—a hybrid form that I had never written before. “Child of My Body” is based on what I know about my grandmother’s life and my mother’s life, along with details from my life and my son’s life. It was published in November 2024 in Sonora Review, a literary journal at the University of Arizona. This piece is also unique in another way: I submitted it to only this journal (because I saw that they were open to hybrid work, and I thought, why not?). And it was accepted. That has never happened to me before.
“Treasures” is about a middle-aged woman who tries to hide from life, and who is enchanted by a series of mysterious gifts. I wrote the first draft in 2022, during a wonderful writing retreat at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It was published (print only) in May 2024 in Fourteen Hills, a literary magazine at San Francisco State University. I sent this story to 50 journals total over the course of eight or nine months. Maybe that was too many, because at the time it was accepted, it was still being considered by 20 journals, and I had to withdraw the story from them. This story accumulated 29 rejections before being accepted. Some of them were “positive rejections,” and if you are a fiction writer you know that these kinds of rejections—when a journal’s editor tells you they liked your story and/or that they would like to see more work from you—can be heartening. I always appreciate the encouragement.
“May All Be Happy” was adapted from parts of a novel that I was working on 15 years ago, and that I abandoned. It is about an Indian-American woman’s conflicts with her mother-in-law, which lead her in an unexpected direction. It appeared in the May 2024 edition of Zone 3, published by Austin Peay State University in Tennessee. I was grateful that the editors nominated it for Best of the Net! I submitted this story to a total of 98 journals over the course of a couple of years, so it took some persistence to find a home for it. During those two years, I revised parts of the story, which I thought made it stronger and more likely to be accepted. I may have submitted the revised version to too many journals. At the time it was accepted, it was still being considered by 27 journals, so I had to withdraw the story from those. I find it difficult to figure out how many journals to submit to at one time. Sometimes journals take many months or even over a year to respond.
“Monster Face” is a flash story that appeared in The Pinch Journal online in April 2024. This piece was partly inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “The Minister’s Black Veil.” I sent this to 17 journals. At the time it was accepted, it was still being considered by a handful of journals. One of the editors said she would have accepted it if I hadn’t withdrawn it. So that was nice to hear.
“Between Us,” a speculative flash story, was published in the spring 2024 issue of Hunger Mountain Review. I wrote the first draft of this story at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in the summer of 2022. I appreciate the careful comments from the Hunger Mountain Review editors, which helped me revise and make the story stronger before it was published. I submitted this story to 17 journals. After it was accepted, I withdrew it from five journals who were still considering it. I had already sent an earlier version of the story, under a different title, to 32 journals without success.
I was thrilled to have my story “Secret Blood, Sacred Blood” accepted to the Ohio Writers Assocation anthology, House of Secrets, which came out in November of 2023. There is also an audio of the story read by Becky White. I was hoping to be accepted to this anthology, so I didn’t send the story out very widely (only to 13 other places). The first draft of this story was also written during my retreat at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow.
My speculative flash story “The Gift” was included in a special Ohio writers edition of The Journal (Ohio State University) which appeared in the summer of 2022. I was proud to be part of that issue. I sent “The Gift” to 25 journals. At the time it was accepted, it was still being considered by nine journals, so I had to withdraw the story from those.
I currently have six different stories out on submission. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, appreciating the “positive” rejections, and being grateful for all the editors who are taking the time to consider my stories.
