Fall 2021 Rejections: Boulevard, The Southern Review, Nimrod International Journal, and Kenyon Review, and More Literary Journals

Welcome to The Rejection Quarterly, Fall 2021 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 rejections I collected from September 2021 – November 2021.

Rejection from Boulevard

165-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you very much for sending “Still Watching” to Boulevard. We’re sorry for taking such a long time with your work. Although it was not selected for publication, we’re glad you thought of us. Good luck placing this with another magazine.  

Sincerely,

The Editors, Boulevard

Rejection from storySouth

129-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for allowing storySouth to consider furl & unfurl. We have read it carefully, but must decline to publish. We regret that the volume of submissions we receive and the small size of our staff prevent us from giving a more personal response, but we wish you the best of luck in placing this work elsewhere.

Sincerely,

Jen Julian

Fiction Editor, storySouth

Rejection from The Southern Review

303-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov:

Thank you for sending us your work. We appreciate the opportunity to read your writing, but unfortunately we are unable to use your manuscript. We wish you the best in finding a home for it elsewhere.

Thank you for trying us.

Sincerely,

The Editors of The Southern Review

2021-09-30 21:49:30 (GMT -5:00)

Encouraging Rejection from Nimrod International Journal

53-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for sending us your work. We appreciate the chance to read it, but, unfortunately, we will not be publishing your submission at this time.

You can be assured that your work has been read by editors who are dedicated to making thoughtful and aesthetically sensitive decisions—editors who wish they could publish all the sincere and well-crafted work that is submitted to Nimrod.  

Again, thank you for your submission. We would be happy to receive new work from you in the future. 

Best,

Eilis O’Neal

Editor-in-Chief

Nimrod International Journal

Rejection from LeVar Burton Reads Contest

79-day response time

Hello,

Thank you for submitting to the first ever LeVar Burton Reads “Origins and Encounters” Contest. We’ve received over 700 submissions and applications are highly competitive. Unfortunately, our readers have declined to move your application forward into the second round of deliberations. On behalf of the team, we appreciate your effort and hope your work finds a home with another publication.

Keep writing!

The LBR Contest Team

Rejection from Kenyon Review

53-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for submitting “Mornings Rolling Off Nob Hill.” Although this piece is not right for us, we appreciated the opportunity to read your work.

We’re grateful for your interest in the Kenyon Review.

Many thanks,

The Editors

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