Happy Writing News

Let me record two writing milestones before they get lost in the morass of work memories.

A few months ago, I got an e-mail from one of the editors of The Christian Century asking me if I wanted an assignment to write for their lectionary series.  Of course I did! 

This morning, I sent that writing in to the editor.  I took a minute to think back to my younger self sitting at a different kitchen table, reading the magazine for the first time, wanting to be included.  I think I ordered it because they had published a piece by Kathleen Norris, whom I had just discovered and loved with the passion perhaps peculiar to writers:  I wanted to write as skillfully as she did, and I wanted to be published where she appeared.

I spent the next year sending the magazine articles and poems, only to be rejected.  That must have been before 2003, because I'm remembering a kitchen table that we had before that kitchen remodel that happened in 2003.

We are often told how long it may take, this road to publication, while at the same time, we're presented the tales of talented 20 year olds who seem to emerge fully formed.

Yesterday, I got a piece of happy news.  I think I got my first Women Artists Datebook from Syracuse Cultural Workers back in 1985. And now, decades later, they've accepted one of my poems for use in the 2020 datebook! I did a little happy dance in my desk chair at work--what wonderful news!

I haven't submitted to them regularly; I've often thought of that deadline once it's come and gone.  But I have submitted several times--enough to know that submission doesn't mean acceptance.

I like to think of that poem in the datebook, of all the people it might reach.  Let me hold onto that happy vision as I get the work of the day done.