Sunday, September 25, 2011

Poems: published and rejected, books and birthdays

I'm pleased to have my Allen Ginsberg poem up on Ink Sweat & Tears today, especially after receiving my third rejection from Magma...they really don't want my poems. On the bright side it frees up two poems to send out elsewhere!

I've yet to really get into Transtromer because the lovely Rachel Fox posted me a bundle of Plath related books which I've been up to my eyes in all week! I've also been reading a biography of the Scottish psychoanalyst R.D. Laing, whom I became interested in after reading Jim's excellent review of one of Laing's books on his blog. It's been fascinating reading, the fragility of the mind, perceptions etc.

Also it's been a busy weekend of birthday celebrations, a friend's 50th and Ruby's second birthday tomorrow which we celebrated today. So, I'm hoping to get into Transtromer this week!

Sorley and Ruby

7 comments:

Titus said...

Happy Birthday Ruby! Beautiful children - fabulous colour eyes. I am blue, from a family of blues, who has married into blues. Oh, for some green-brown.
Has it really been 2 years etc etc.

You can only really say 'ah well' re Magma, perhaps your voice and the magazine's don't quite mesh. I shall get a copy and research.

Rachel Fox said...

Plus you have a pretty good strike-rate with magazines on the whole. You get more acceptance than rejection... or so it seems.
x

Marion McCready said...

Sorley's are green-brown, and Ruby's are green-gray, Jamie's side are all blue-eyed!

Magma have rotating and guest editors so I can't blame it on one editor just not liking my stuff. So I guess my poems are just not good enough or striking enough to stand out - I'm sure their submission pile is massive.

I had a quick look at my acceptance / rejections over the last year and it's about 60/40 on the acceptance side which I'm happy enough with but in saying that I've not really been casting my net widely, been mostly sending to places that have previously published my poems so there's a better chance of them accepting them. I need to stop being lazy and start sending them out to places that require actual envelopes and stamps! and writing better too of course!! if only it was that easy :)

Roxana said...

oh they are so sweet :-) and happy birthday, i remember the post when she was born as if it was yesterday!!!:-)

Rachel Fox said...

Has anyone ever done a (humorous if possible) guide to which magazines publish which kind of poems..? I'd read that (more than some of the magazines, it must be said... I'm so loving the new Poetry Bus with the CD... hooray for audio!).
x

Marion McCready said...

thanks roxana, yes I can't believe she's two, how time flies...:)

not that I've seen, rachel, but it could be pretty funny!

Rob said...

Just saw this, Marion. Yes, Magma get thousands of submissions every issue. The thing with a rejection is that you can't tell whether your poems were immediately binned, or whether they made the final shortlist on all three occasions. Always worth a shot though, I'd say.