Fall 2022 Rejections: One Story, Granta, Ninth Letter, Indiana Review, and More Literary Journals

Welcome to The Rejection Quarterly, Fall 2022 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 2022 – November 2022.

I’ve decided to remove the number of days it took to hear back. Does it really matter how slow or fast any given opportunity is? It doesn’t change that a “no” is still a “no” or if I’ll submit again if they encourage me to. Goodbye, stress-inducing numbers.

Rejection from The Normal School

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

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

Best Wishes,

The Editors

http://thenormalschool.com/

Encouraging Rejection from One Story

Dear Arthur Klepchukov:

Thank you for sending us “Verdant Heaven”. We really enjoyed this piece, but we didn’t feel it was right for One Story.

We hope that you will continue to send us your work.

Sincerely,

The Editors of One Story

Rejection from Midway Journal

Dear writer,

Thank you for your submission to Midway Journal’s -1000 Below: Flash Prose and Poetry Contest. We are pleased to announce the 2022 winners selected by guest judge Kim Chinquee:

Winners:

First Place: “Three Ways of Looking at a Harmonica” by Bonnie Proudfoot

Second Place: “What She Knew” by Kim Bundy

Third Place: “Husks” by Stephanie McConnell

Honorable Mention: “An Onion at the End of the World” by Chel Campbell

Finalists:

Isabella Marie Garcia

Zemia Edmondson

Joel Savishinsky

Alder Geshem

Cole Williams

Linda Petrucelli

Jendi Reiter

Trish Lindsey Jaggers

Lana Spendl

Congratulations to our winners and finalists! We received many high-quality submissions for this year’s contest, and we appreciated the opportunity and to read your work! Thank you for your submission to Midway Journal.  

Sincerely,  

The Editors

Midway Journal

Encouraging Rejection from Granta

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider ‘Evertour’. We are sorry to tell you that this particular text is not quite right for the magazine, but do feel free to send us new submissions when you are ready.

Yours sincerely,

Granta Magazine

www.granta.com

Rejection from America’s Next Great Author

Arthur,

Thank you for sharing yourself, your pitch, and your pages with us. As we promised, every single submission was poured over by the ANGA team. Because we had so few slots and so many pitches, we were forced to make many really hard decisions. We are very sorry, but you are not a semifinalist. We know how tough it is to hear this news because we are writers, and we have enough NO’s between us to wallpaper our entire house with rejections. As we say over and over, perseverance is the single most important trait of any writer. Seriously.

We hope you use this as motivation and a learning experience as you continue the long and often arduous climb up Publishing Mountain. We hope that once we start up the full 10-episode show that you will trust us with your story again.

Lastly, we hope you will join us on October 6 at 8:00 pm EDT for a live workshop available only to writers who auditioned. (We’ll follow up to provide a link closer to the date. A recording will be available.) We’ll talk about what we saw in many pitches and how to make them even better. The workshop will help you continue to hone your pitch, polish your pages, and shine on the page and screen as you move forward in your writing career.

We are proud of you for saying YES to yourself. Your stories matter.

Check out this special message from Kwame recorded for you. 

You’ve still got this!

Arielle and David

Rejection from Michigan Quarterly Review

Dear Arthur Klepchukov

Thank you for your submission to Michigan Quarterly Review’s Mixtape Issue. We received many wonderful submissions and enjoyed spending time with your work. However, we regret to say that your submission doesn’t meet our needs at the moment. Thank you for thinking of us, and we wish you and your work the best of luck going forward!

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

The Editors

Michigan Quarterly Review

Rejection from The Common

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for sending us “Evertour.” Our readers and editors have read it carefully. Unfortunately, this piece does not fit our current editorial needs, but we appreciate the opportunity to consider it.

Thanks again for submitting to The Common. We know that submitting your work takes time and energy, and we wish you the best in placing your piece elsewhere.

Sincerely,
The Common

Encouraging Rejection from storySouth

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thank you for allowing storySouth to consider “Still Watching”. We have read your work 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 were impressed with the quality of your work and hope that you will submit to us again.

We wish you the best in placing your work elsewhere, and we thank you for your support of storySouth.

Sincerely,

Jen Julian

Fiction Editor, storySouth

Rejection from jmww

Dear Arthur, 

Thank you for sending us “Parting Pages.” We appreciated the chance to read it. Although there was a lot to like here, it didn’t quite come together for us in the end, and we regret to pass. 

Thanks again for thinking of us. Best of luck with this!

Sincerely,

The editors at jmww

Rejection from Barrelhouse

Dear Arthur,

Thanks for letting us read encircled. 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 Ninth Letter

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,
Thanks for submitting your work to Ninth Letter. We’re sorry this submission wasn’t right for us. We appreciate your interest in our magazine, and wish you the best of luck placing your work elsewhere.
Sincerely,
The Editors
Ninth Letter

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