Summer 2019 Rejections: The New Yorker, Fantasy & Science Fiction, American Short Fiction, SmokeLong Quarterly, and More Literary Journals

Welcome to The Rejection Quarterly, Summer 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 June 2019 – August 2019. The list is shorter than my usual, which says more about how active I was in Winter and Spring. Summer does tend to be a time of fewer responses as many university-affiliated journals take a break.

Rejection from American Short Fiction

398-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for submitting “furl & unfurl” to American Short Fiction. First off, we want to apologize to you for the lateness of this response. While in the end this particular story is not quite the right fit for us, it took us too long to pass it through the various levels of editorial consideration. We are a small operation and respect writer’s work, so we always give each story the time it deserves. With this in mind, we have closed our submissions in order to catch up. Please accept our apologies and know we are working diligently to respond to submissions more rapidly in the future. 

Best wishes, 

The Editors, American Short Fiction

Encouraging Rejection from Palooka

30-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Thanks for giving me the chance to read your fine work yet again. “The Price of Chivalry” has a strong voice, interesting narrative style, and is funny along the way, though I’m sorry to say we won’t be publishing the work. I realize how much time, effort, passion, and energy goes into this endeavor and appreciate your interest in Palooka. 

All best, 
Jonathan Starke, Editor
http://palookamag.com/submit

Encouraging Rejection from Typishly

1-day response time (yes, Jon is that fast)

Hello Arthur.

Good to reconnect with you. Thank you for sending your story to us. Regretfully, we won’t be able to publish your work this time. As you know, only a fraction of the short fiction we receive is selected, so even strong writing must sometimes be left out. 

We’re grateful you chose to share your creativity with Typishly again. Lovely: ‘seconds that’ll multiply after first blush until anniversaries arrive.’ Wonderful: ‘hopes still divide like nuclei.’

Be well. Be creative.

Jon
Founding Editor | Typishly 

Rejection from Barrelhouse

15-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Thanks for letting us read The Price of Chivalry. Unfortunately, we’ve decided this one’s not right for us. We wish you the best of luck in finding a home for the story elsewhere, and in your continued writing. 

Sincerely, 

Team Barrelhouse 
www.barrelhousemag.com

Rejection from SmokeLong Quarterly

10-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Thank you for your submission of “The Price of Chivalry” 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

Encouraging Rejection from Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF)

2-day response time

Dear Arthur,

Thank you for giving me a chance to read “Duskwing.” I liked the quality of the prose, but overall this piece didn’t win me over for Fantasy & Science Fiction and I’m going to pass. I wish you best of luck finding the right market for it and hope that you’ll keep us in mind in the future. 

Best regards,

Charlie
—
C.C. Finlay, Editor
Fantasy & Science Fiction
fandsf.com | @fandsf

Thank you to everyone who recently subscribed to F&SF or renewed your subscription — with your help, we’ve been able to raise our minimum pay rates for authors to 8 cents per word. 

Rejection from Glowworm

38-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for your submission to Glowworm. Although we must decline your submission this time, we appreciated the chance to consider it. 

Thanks again. Best of luck with this. 
Sincerely, 
Christian Brady 
Glowworm 

Rejection from The Cincinnati Review

175-day response time

Dear Writer:

Thank you for the opportunity to consider your submission “Nevernight.” We’ve read it with care but have decided not to accept it for publication. Best of luck placing it elsewhere.

Sincerely,

The Editors of The Cincinnati Review

Rejection from The New Yorker

106-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

We regret that we are unable to use the enclosed material. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider your work. 

Sincerely,
The Editors

I was flattered with even a form rejection given the volume of submissions The New Yorker must receive. My last submission didn’t get a response. Their submission guidelines say to consider a piece rejected if you don’t hear back in 90 days.

Encouraging Rejection from Abyss & Apex

24-day response time

Dear Arthur,

Thank you for submitting “Duskwing” to ABYSS & APEX. I enjoyed your story. It had some great imagery and prose poetry feel that I liked. Unfortunately, we won’t be accepting this for publication. 

Thanks for sending us your work. We hope you’ll consider us again and wish you the best in placing this story elsewhere.

Sincerely,

Derek Wentz
Assistant Fiction Editor

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