Spring 2019 Rejections: The Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, American Short Fiction, and More Literary Journals

Welcome to The Rejection Quarterly, Spring 2019 edition.

Sharing rejections shares the effort behind submissions and makes celebrating acceptances even sweeter. What kind of literary journal rejections are you seeing? On the road to publication, why not “publish” the rejections themselves?

Here are the various rejections I collected from March 2019 – May 2019.

Form Rejection from The Gettysburg Review

352-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for submitting “furl & unfurl.” We regret that it does not suit our present needs. Please accept our apologies for the delayed and disappointing decision and our thanks for your patience. 

Best of luck with it and your other work. 

Sincerely, 

The Gettysburg Review 

Rejection from The Disconnect

217-day response time

Hi Art,

Sorry for running under the radar lately. We are currently working on issue 3 of The Disconnect, so stay tuned for that. However, we’ve recently decided to go completely nonfiction this time around. We apologise for not letting you know sooner.

That being said, we have not completely ruled fiction and poetry out of future issues. So please keep in touch for future releases!

Cheers,

Clayton

Rejection from Kenyon Review

158-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for submitting “furl & unfurl.” We appreciate your interest in the Kenyon Review, and we regret that we are unable to publish this piece. 

Your work has received careful consideration from our team of readers. Giving each submission the time and respect it deserves is a central part of our mission. 

Thank you for trusting the Kenyon Review with your work. We wish you luck with all of your writing endeavors. 

The Editors

Rejection from The Normal School

94-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Many thanks for submitting “WINC-FM” to the The Normal School. Unfortunately, it doesn’t serve our needs at this time. 

Best Wishes, 

The Editors 

http://thenormalschool.com/

Rejection from Oxford American

79-day response time

Dear Arthur, Thank you for submitting your work to the Oxford American’s call for debut fiction. We’re afraid that this story isn’t the best fit for us, but we hope that you find a suitable home for it. All the best, The Editors

Encouraging Rejection from Redivider

108-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

We appreciate the opportunity to read “The Price of Chivalry.” It doesn’t work for us at this time, but we enjoyed it and hope you’ll consider submitting to us again in the future. 

Sincerely, 
Mikayla Lawrence 
Fiction Editor 
Redivider

Rejection from Bethesda Magazine

77-day response time

Hi,

Thank you for your submission to Bethesda Magazine’s Short Story Contest. The judges have made their selections and your story was not among those chosen this year.

We encourage you to enter the contest again in the future.

Best,
Kathleen Neary
Bethesda Magazine

Rejection from Epiphany

93-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for submitting your work, “The Price of Chivalry.” Unfortunately, we cannot find a place for it in the next issue of Epiphany. We wish you the best of luck placing it elsewhere. 

Sincerely, 

The Editors of Epiphany 

Encouraging Rejection from Lit Camp conference

43-day response time

Dear Arthur,

We are writing to let you know that you have been placed on the wait list for Lit Camp 2019. (Note: The Lit Camp Wait List contains the names of only 10 writers.)

We are very sorry we were not able to accept you in the first round. This was an especially competitive year. We received just under 200 applications for our 40 spots, and the quality of the writing overall was extremely high. We had to turn away many excellent writers we would have liked to accept.

The 40 writers who were chosen have until midnight, March 23 to accept or decline their place at Lit Camp. They have until April 1 to make a full payment. If they miss any of these deadlines, we will offer their place at Lit Camp to someone on our Wait List. If we are not able to accept you, please do not consider this a reflection on your work. It is much more about the competitive nature of Lit Camp. We very much hope that you will apply again next year, when we’ll be returning to Esalen. Indeed, many wonderful writers have been accepted into Lit Camp on their second and/or third try. (Particularly writers from the Wait List.)

We are also negotiating with Esalen to hold a Lit Camp writing retreat in Fall of 2020. Writers will not be required to apply for this…although we do expect it to sell out. Keep an eye on our newsletter, Letters from Camp, for details. (If you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do so from our site, https://www.litcampwriters.org.)

Most of all, we want to thank you for applying to Lit Camp, and encourage you to keep writing. We want to see you at Esalen!

Warm regards,
The Lit Camp Admissions Team

Encouraging Rejection from Unstamatic

21-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to view your work. After careful consideration, we have determined that it is not quite the best fit for our publication, and we are unfortunately going to pass at this time.

We receive a great number of submissions each month, but in this span we can only accept two writing and two art submissions for publication. You have our sincerest thanks for making these choices so difficult.

Thank you for considering us, and we encourage you to submit again should you produce another piece you feel would suit unstamatic.

We are confident you will find another home for your work, and wish you the best of luck in doing so.

Sincerely,
The unstamatic Team

Rejection from Copper Nickel

39-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for sending us “The Blackboard Epilogues”. We appreciate the opportunity to read your work, but unfortunately this submission was not right for us.

Thank you for thinking of us, and—

Best wishes,
The Editors of Copper Nickel

Rejection from Granta

55-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider ‘within & without’. Unfortunately, this particular piece is not right for the magazine. 

We wish you the best of luck with your writing. 

Yours sincerely, 
Granta Magazine 
www.granta.com

Rejection from American Short Fiction

74-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you so much for submitting your work to the American Short(er) Fiction Prize. We were highly impressed and moved by the stories we received. Unfortunately, we had to make some tough decisions, and we’re sorry to say your piece did not place as a finalist. 

We consider it a privilege to have spent time with your work. Your story and the others submitted with it reminded us of the beauty and potential of the form. We wish you the best of luck in placing it elsewhere. 

We’ll be announcing the prize winners shortly on our website, www.americanshortfiction.org, so check back to see the results! 

Sincerely, 

The Editors, American Short Fiction

Rejection from Glimmer Train

55-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Imperfect Balconies did not place this time, but we’re glad to have read it. Thank you! 

Warm regards, 

Susan & Linda 
Glimmer Train Press

Rejection from Strange Horizons

52-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for submitting “Terminus” to Strange Horizons, but we’ve decided not to accept it for publication.

We appreciate your interest in our magazine.

Sincerely,

–Juliet Kemp

First Reader, Strange Horizons
fiction@strangehorizons.com
Submission guidelines: http://www.strangehorizons.com/submit/fiction-submission-guidelines/

Rejection from Exposition Review

30-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Thank you for submitting to our Flash 405, February 2019: “Happily Ever After” competition with guest judge Maureen Lee Lenker. We enjoyed reading your short form work “Counting,” but unfortunately your piece did not win this round. You can read the winning submissions on our blog soon, and we hope you will consider submitting to our latest Flash 405 contest with “Magic & Myths”. Read more about it here: http://expositionreview.com/2019/04/call-for-entries-flash-405-april-2019-magic-myths/#more-4364 

We wish you the best of luck in your future writing endeavors. 

Sincerely, 

The Exposition Review editors

Encouraging Rejection from Tin House Online

54-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Thank you for sharing Glimmering Sidewalks with us. Unfortunately, we have decided to pass here, but we hope to see you around Tin House again. It’s a privilege to read your work. 

Sincerely, 

Alana Csaposs 
Editor, Tin House Online

Encouraging Rejection from CRAFT

21-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to read “WINC-FM” for consideration in CRAFT. Though we enjoyed reading your work, it isn’t the right fit for us right now. With regret, we do have to decline great pieces. 

We appreciate your interest in contributing to CRAFT. We wish you the best of luck with this piece, and hope that you will submit to us again in the future. 

Sincerely, 

Editors, CRAFT

Rejection from SmokeLong Quarterly

3-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Thank you for your submission of “Imperfect Balconies” to SmokeLong Quarterly. We gave the story careful consideration, and though we are not accepting it for publication, we hope you find a better fit for it elsewhere. 

Thanks again for trusting us with your work, and thank you for reading SmokeLong Quarterly. 

All the best, 

Editors 

SmokeLong Quarterly 

http://smokelong.com

---

Not enough rejection? See Rejection Wiki or Literistic’s Great Wall of Literary Rejection.