(W)rite of Passage

I come from a somewhat blue collar family; I was the first on my mom's side of the family to get a Bachelor's degree. Even still, college was about finding a JOB and while I was passionate about writing, it was never seen as a valid career option. I did take a number of writing and literature courses through college, but ended up with a very practical teaching degree and have since opted out of teaching in the public schools. But I digress.

While I've been a writer since someone put a pencil in my hand and taught me the alphabet, it's always been a solitary practice for me. I would meet other writers and make attempts to form workshops for feedback, but organizing artsy folk is just like the saying goes... "herding cats" so those efforts to find community often quickly dissolved. It wasn't until within the last six months that I met a handful of writers that were actually out there doing things. Margaret, my co-editor at Weave Magazine, is also the co-creator of a rather inspired cabaret-style poetry performance series call The Typewriter Girls (show this Sunday! Check out the site!). I originally asked her for some feedback on my writing and she actually sat down with me for a few hours eating and discussing my work. She then invited me to a fantastic writers workshop and she and I formed a nice working relationship - she gave me great tips on the world of publishing, realizing that while I have not had my work formally published, that doesn't mean I'm not a good writer.

Since Weave was started, I knew that my first experiences with submissions would be happening simultaneously with my becoming an editor. Some might find this unorthodox, but it actually works well with Weave's mission toward diversity in writing and featuring novice writers. I know first hand what it's like to put your work out there, and how scary it can be at first. I began submitting my work after

I'd like to announce formally that I got my first response back ever from a journal I submitted to: I was personally rejected. I won't divulge what journal, but I will say I'm really proud of the fact that it was a personalized rejection. In fact, I was asked to resubmit not only more of my poetry, but potentially some creative non-fiction, like some of the fine essays you read here. They even agreed to give me some feedback and explained that they enjoyed my writing but it simply wasn't a good fit stylistically with their journal. Fair enough. More than fair actually.

So to celebrate this writer's rite of passage, I'm actually going to shop those poems around elsewhere. Onward!