Last summer I had an e-mail from a new venture called the Journal of Microliterature inviting me to submit to them, anonymously. My immediate reaction was twofold. First of all I was flattered to be asked, but then I panicked, thinking how embarrassing it would be if I didn’t get my submission accepted. So I dithered and never actually got round to sending them anything. I did look at their site, though, and came across some fascinating work there, including the utterly bizarre but rather wonderful Death Honk by John P. McCann.
Anyway, a few weeks back I wrote a piece that I rather liked and sent it off to them and I was very pleased to receive an acceptance this morning. I was especially pleased because of what they said about it:
Interesting piece. We aren’t even sure if we understood all of it, and yet it was intriguing enough for us that we want to see how it’s received by visitors.
Which is exactly how I feel about it. I’ve written a few things lately that I don’t fully understand, but I’m learning to trust that the pieces themselves know what they mean, even if I don’t. I think this is a kind of progress.
“Dagenham Rules, Henderson’s Variation” will be published on June 26th, but I’ll obviously give you a nudge when that happens.
In other news, details of a very early work by Miss Austen have been uploaded to Wickhampedia. Who knew?
What a wonderful response! That makes me want to submit to the journal instantly – I feel that about my own stories more and more. Not sure what they are about, but happy to let go of that need to know. I think then those kinds of stories because many different things to different readers, and if you are lucky some of your readers may tell you what they mean! Looking forward to reading it!
It’s a great response, isn’t it? Interested to hear that you’re finding the same thing about your stories. There’s probably some left-right brain thing going on, I guess, and maybe it’s a case of having the confidence to let the right brain have a more equal say in things?
Exactly! I think for me it came with confidence, without worrying that I needed to please a certain type of reader, as well as from reading more and more experimental and minimalist stories which were being published, clearly, so someone wanted and enjoyed them!
Congratulations, Jon, and thanks for the link – I loved “Death Honk”. Right up my street.
Microliterature looks like an interesting place to send stuff, too.
Thanks, Dan! They certainly seem to have the right attitude – and I’m so glad you liked “Death Honk” 🙂