Thursday, February 17, 2011

Rejection Letter from Boston College Stylus (4/6/94)

At the end of my freshman year of college, my English teacher read some of my poems and suggested I submit some of them to The Stylus at BC. I did my sophomore year, but didn’t quite get the results I wanted:

All of my dorm buddies had my back, though. They all thought it was crap that I didn’t get published, and were ready to “protest” with me. When the Stylus Spring ’94 came out, I took a bunch of copies back to the dorm, ready to shred them ritualistically in front of my supporters. One of my peers took it a step further (Roncalli Hall was not known for having the highest GPA that year), and burned them in the wastebasket. The fire alarm went off, but no firefighters were needed. It was awesome.

Still, I kept writing poems and used the rejection as fuel. Since, I’ve published four volumes of poetry: Poems from a Tragic Comic: Surviving cancer, drinking, and women, Poetry Volume II: Swirls of the World and More on the Flavory Girls, III Sides to Every Poem, and Episode IV Play: 40 Selected Poems. Thanks to all those who have inspired and/or been supportive of my poetry over the years!

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