Literary Rejections On Display

Last updated

Literary Rejections On Display is a blog on which featured posts and discussions about rejection letters from magazines, agents and book publishers. [1] [2] The site was founded in 2007 and was run anonymously by a person identifying only as "Writer, Rejected." Entertainment Weekly critic Michael Slezak described the site as for any writer "who's looking for a better way to deal with cruel dismissal than crying into a cup of herbal tea" or any bookworm "who wants to better understand the indignities your future favorite authors are suffering on their way to their seven-figure book deals...." [3]

Contents

The website became the subject of a literary controversy in late 2008 when novelist Darin Strauss used it as a forum to respond to his critics. According to The Village Voice, users of the website had launched slashing attacks on Strauss without having read any of his work, mocking his complaints, the "smirky" author photo, his theories about writing and literary history, and the "millions of dollars" that had supposedly been spent promoting him. [4] Strauss responded on the website with an angry attack on his anonymous critics. The website has also criticized short story writer Scott Snyder and Virginia Quarterly Review editor Ted Genoways.

The website also awards a Golden Apple of Kindness award for members of the literary community who have demonstrated "niceness"; previous winners include Rosemary Ahern, the former director of Washington Square Press, and short story writer Jacob M. Appel.

Writer, Rejected

Writer, Rejected, the author and maintainer of the site, operated anonymously also contributing personal stories of their own rejections in the publishing world. They promised to reveal themselves if their work was ever published and on November 7th, 2014 she revealed herself as MB Caschetta, author of Miracle Girls. [5]

Related Research Articles

Structuralism Theory that elements of human culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure

In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structures that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel.

Thomas M. Disch American science fiction author and poet (1940-2008)

Thomas Michael Disch was an American science fiction author and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book – previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book" – in 1999, and he had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, a Rhysling Award, and two Seiun Awards, among others.

<i>The New Republic</i> American magazine

The New Republic is a left-wing American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between a humanitarian progressivism and an intellectual scientism, and ultimately discarded the latter. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the magazine incorporated elements of the Third Way and conservatism.

<i>New York Press</i> Defunct free alternative weekly in New York City

New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011.

Kevin Murphy (actor) American actor and writer

Kevin Wagner Murphy is an American actor and writer best known as the voice and puppeteer of Tom Servo on the Peabody Award-winning comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. Murphy also records audio commentary tracks with Michael J. Nelson and Bill Corbett for Nelson's RiffTrax website.

<i>The Kenyon Review</i> Academic journal

The Kenyon Review is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, US, home of Kenyon College. The Review was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. The Review has published early works by generations of important writers, including Robert Penn Warren, Ford Madox Ford, Robert Lowell, Delmore Schwartz, Flannery O'Connor, Boris Pasternak, Bertolt Brecht, Peter Taylor, Dylan Thomas, Anthony Hecht, Maya Angelou, Rita Dove, Derek Walcott, Thomas Pynchon, Don Delillo, Woody Allen, Louise Erdrich, William Empson, Linda Gregg, Mark Van Doren, Kenneth Burke, and Ha Jin.

Dan Schneider is an American poet and critic of literature and film who runs the criticism and literary website Cosmoetica.

Michael Dawson (<i>Lost</i>) Fictional character of the TV series Lost

Michael Dawson is a fictional character played by Harold Perrineau on the ABC television series Lost. Michael is one of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 who crashes on the show's mysterious island. After losing a custody battle with Susan Lloyd, Michael does not see his son Walt for almost ten years. They reunite when she dies, but on their journey home, their plane crashes on a mysterious island in the South Pacific. Here Walt is kidnapped by the Island's previous inhabitants, the Others, and Michael spends his time trying to retrieve him. He is eventually successful, and they leave the Island together, but the guilt over the murders he had to commit to achieve this leads him to an estrangement with his son and a suicide attempt. He returns to the Island on a freighter, but is killed when a bomb on it explodes. Michael reappears as a ghost, and apologizes to Hurley for killing Libby.

Next (<i>Desperate Housewives</i>) 1st episode of the second season of Desperate Housewives

"Next" is the second season premiere episode of the American comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives, and the 24th episode overall. It was originally broadcast in the United States on September 25, 2005, on ABC. It was written by Jenna Bans and Kevin Murphy and was directed by Larry Shaw.

"One Wonderful Day" is the 23rd episode and first season finale of the American comedy-drama television series Desperate Housewives. It was originally broadcast in the United States on ABC on May 22, 2005. The episode was directed by Larry Shaw and written by John Pardee, Joey Murphy, series creator Marc Cherry, Tom Spezialy, and Kevin Murphy.

Neil Strauss American author and journalist

Neil Darrow Strauss, also known by the pen names Style and Chris Powles, is an American author, journalist and ghostwriter. He is best known for his book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, in which he describes his experiences in the seduction community in an effort to become a "pick-up artist." He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and also wrote regularly for The New York Times.

Per Petterson

Per Petterson is a Norwegian novelist. His debut book was Aske i munnen, sand i skoa (1987), a collection of short stories. He has since published a number of novels to good reviews. To Siberia (1996), set in the Second World War, was published in English in 1998 and nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize. I kjølvannet, translated as In the Wake (2002), is a young man's story of losing his family in the Scandinavian Star ferry disaster in 1990 ; it won the Brage Prize for 2000. His 2008 novel Jeg forbanner tidens elv won The Nordic Council's Literature Prize for 2009, with an English translation published in 2010.

<i>Timothy McSweeneys Quarterly Concern</i>

Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is an American literary journal, typically containing short stories, reportage, and illustrations. Some issues also include poetry, comic strips, and novellas. The Quarterly Concern is published by McSweeney's. The journal is notable in that it has no fixed format, and changes its publishing style from issue to issue, unlike more conventional journals and magazines. The Quarterly was first published in 1998, and it is edited by Dave Eggers.

Darin Strauss

Darin Strauss is a best-selling American writer whose work has earned a number of awards, including, among numerous others, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Strauss's 2011 book Half a Life, won the 2011 NBCC Award for memoir/autobiography. His most recent book, The Queen of Tuesday, came out in August, 2020. It is currently nominated for the Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize.

Taeko Kono Japanese writer

Taeko Kōno is one of the most important Japanese writers of the second half of the twentieth century, someone whose influence on contemporary Japanese writers is acknowledged to be immeasurable. Kōno is one of a generation of remarkable women writers who made an appearance in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s and who include Kurahashi Yumiko, Mori Mari, Setouchi Harumi, and Takahashi Takako. She also established a reputation for herself as an acerbic essayist, a playwright and a literary critic. By the end of her life she was a leading presence in Japan's literary establishment, one of the first women writers to serve on the Akutagawa Literary Prize committee. Oe Kenzaburo, Japan's Nobel Laureate, described her as the most "lucidly intelligent" woman writers writing in Japan, and the US critic and academic Masao Miyoshi identified her as among the most "critically alert and historically intelligent." US critic and academic Davinder Bhowmik assesses her as “…one of the truly original voices of the twentieth century, beyond questions of gender or even nationality.” A writer who deals with some quite dark themes, Kōno is known to readers in English through the collection of short stories Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories, which draws together her best writing from the 1960s.

"Dunder Mifflin Infinity" is the third and fourth episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh episode overall. The episode was written by Michael Schur, who also acts in the show, and directed by Craig Zisk. It first aired in the United States on October 4, 2007 on NBC.

Tim Federle American author, actor, director and screen writer

Tim Federle is an American author, theater librettist, director and screenwriter whose best-known works include the novel Better Nate Than Ever, the cocktail recipe book Tequila Mockingbird, the Golden Globe Award and Academy Awards nominee Ferdinand, and Disney's High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

<i>Authors Anonymous</i> 2014 comedy indie film directed by Ellie Kanner

Authors Anonymous is a 2014 American comedy film directed and produced by Ellie Kanner. It stars Kaley Cuoco, Chris Klein, Tricia Helfer, Jonathan Banks, Jonathan Bennett, Teri Polo, and Dennis Farina. The film was released on March 18, 2014, through video on demand prior to its limited release on April 18, 2014, by Screen Media Films and Starz Digital.

Mary Beth Caschetta is an American writer and blogger best known for her blog Literary Rejections On Display.

<i>Chang & Eng</i> (novel) Book by Darin Strauss

Chang & Eng is a book by American author Darin Strauss, published in 2000. It was a nominee for multiple awards, including the Pen Hemingway, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, the New York Public Library's Literary Lions Award, and a winner of the American Library Association's Alex Award.

References

  1. Larimer, Kevin Literary MagNet, Poets & Writers, September 1, 2008.
  2. The Boston Phoenix, September 7, 2007.
  3. Slezak, Michael. Failure is the New Funny at Literary Rejections, Entertainment Weekly, December 10, 2007
  4. Baker, Kevin. Blogger vs. an Author: No One Wins, The Village Voice , December 9, 2008
  5. Caschetta, MB. "Literary Rejections on Display" . Retrieved 15 November 2014.