Winter 2020 Rejections: Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, Bellevue Literary Review, The Sun, The Oxford American, Epiphany, and More Literary Journals

Welcome to The Rejection Quarterly, Winter 2020 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 December 2019 – February 2020.

Rejection from Bellevue Literary Review

186-day response time

Dear Arthur,

Thank you for submitting your work to the Bellevue Literary Review, and for your patience during review. 

We appreciate the efforts that have gone into this piece, and are sorry not to be able to use it. Unfortunately, given the volume of submissions we receive, even quality work often has to be declined. Please be assured that your submission was read thoroughly and given careful consideration by our editorial staff.

We wish you luck in placing this elsewhere. (And apologies for the long delay in getting back to you — we appreciate your patience.)

Sincerely,
The Editors
Bellevue Literary Review
www.BLReview.org

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“No, thanks”

Rejection from The Oxford American

192-day response time

Dear Arthur,

Thank you for submitting to the Oxford American, and thank you for your patience while awaiting a response. We’re afraid that this story isn’t right for us, but we hope that it finds a suitable home.

All the best,
The Editors

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“No, thanks”

Rejection from The Georgia Review

171-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

We have considered your manuscript carefully and decided against publication. Thank you for your submission and for your support of The Georgia Review.

The editors of The Georgia Review
http://thegeorgiareview.com

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“No, thanks”

Rejection from Epiphany

83-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for submitting your work, “furl & unfurl.” While the piece was not a match for the coming issue, we are grateful to have had the chance to read your work. 

We did take notes on each story. With proof of a subscription to Epiphany’s print journal, please contact us to receive a distillation of those notes that we hope might prove helpful. 

All best, 

Epiphany a Literary Journal 

p.s. Visit our site to order single issues or subscriptions: http://epiphanyzine.com
and join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/epiphanylitmag/
…Twitter: https://twitter.com/epiphanylit
…and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/epiphanylitjournal/

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“No, thanks”

Rejection from Kenyon Review

93-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for submitting “within & without.” 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

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“No, thanks”

Encouraging Rejection from Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival

127-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for the opportunity to read your work for this year’s contest. Your piece was not selected as a finalist this year, but we appreciate your submission greatly, and wish you the best with all of your writing endeavors. 

Next year’s contest opens on May 1st, and we do hope you will consider submitting to us again. We hope to have the privilege of reading your work in the future. If you have not already done so, we recommend you subscribe to our e-newsletter to stay apprised of the Contest and Festival updates. you may do so here, http://www.tennesseewilliams.net/. Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

Sincerely,

Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival Staff

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“Please submit more”

Encouraging Rejection from 100 Word Story

58-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Thank you for sending us “Anagrams for Our Yesterdays”. We appreciate the chance to read it because we believe that making art is such a daring, wonderful act. 

It’s difficult for us because despite the number of great pieces we receive, many of them don’t quite fit into our editorial needs. We’re glad you thought of us, though, and hope that you’ll submit again. We receive too many manuscripts to make individual comment possible, but we do wish you luck in placing this with another magazine. 

Thanks again. Best of luck with this. 

Sincerely, 
100 Word Story 

P.S. Please follow us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/100-Word-Story/213141275370389) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/100word_story). 

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“Please submit more”

Rejection from The Rush

83-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for sending us “Imperfect Balconies”. We appreciate the chance to see it. Unfortunately, the piece is not a good fit for us.

Thanks again. Best of luck in your writing.

Sincerely,
The Editors at The Rush

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“No, thanks”

Rejection from The Sun

66-day response time

Dear Arthur,

Thanks for sending us “Terminus.” We’re sorry to say that this submission isn’t right for The Sun.

This isn’t a reflection on your writing. The selection process is highly subjective, something of a mystery even to us. There’s no telling what we’ll fall in love with, what we’ll let get away.

Writing is hard work, and writers merit some acknowledgment. This note doesn’t speak to that need. Please know, however, that we’ve read your work and appreciate your interest in the magazine.

We wish you the best in placing your writing elsewhere.

The Editors
The Sun
thesunmagazine.org

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“No, thanks”

Rejection from The Baltimore Review

55-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for sending us your work to consider for our summer contest. Although your work was not selected for a prize, I want you to know that we enjoyed reading the many poems, short stories, and creative nonfiction pieces with the “Rituals” theme, and decisions were often difficult. 

I hope that you enjoyed writing on this theme and that you will soon be able to place the work in another publication.

See long lists of other publication possibilities at http://newpages.com/ , http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines?&perpage=* , https://www.facebook.com/groups/35517751475/, and https://creativewritersopps.blogspot.com/ .

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Barbara Westwood Diehl
The Baltimore Review

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“No, thanks”

Encouraging Rejection from Beloit Fiction Journal

65-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Jesse Lee Kercheval has chosen Michele Host’s “Day Game” as the winner of the 6th annual Hamlin Garland Award for the Short Story. 

While we’ve chosen not to publish your story, we appreciated the chance to consider it. Because you’ve entered our contest, we’ll send you a copy of Vol 33 of the BFJ, in which the winning story appears, sometime in March.

We’re also hoping to have the new issue out by AWP in San Antonio. If you’re at the conference, please stop and see us.

Thanks again for submitting. We hope you keep the Beloit Fiction Journal in mind next submission season, which opens August 1, 2020

With sincere appreciation,

Chris Fink
Editor
Beloit Fiction Journal

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“Please submit more”

Rejection from The Harvard Advocate

47-day response time

Dear Andrew Klepchukov, 

Thank you for your submission to the Advocate. Unfortunately, it was not selected by the board for publication. We wish you the best of luck with your writing, and we hope the piece finds a home elsewhere. 

Sincerely,
The Fiction Board

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“No, thanks”

Rejection from PRISM international

69-day response time

Dear Arthur,

Thank you for sending “within & without” to PRISM international. Our editorial board read your work for PRISM’s upcoming issues. Unfortunately, after careful consideration, we will not be accepting your submission.

We receive many excellent submissions, and are unable to publish them all. It is worth noting that a rejection is not necessarily a reflection on the quality of your work, as there are many things that factor into our decisions, including the composition of each issue as a whole. We are grateful to you for sharing your work with us.

Warm wishes,
Emma

—-
Emma Cleary
Prose Editor
PRISM international
http://prismmagazine.ca

The Rejection Whisperer interpretation:
“No, thanks”

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