The Long Road to Acceptance

I know, I know. I ended the last post saying until next week and it has been four years, seven months and a day. Sorry mom, got held up in traffic.

The big news! My poetry collection, Stones Hold Water, has been accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press! In the past month, I have gone through every shade of euphoria. Now, as I gallop off to the sun-kissed horizon, I just want to look over my shoulder and take stock of the distance traveled.

I’ve been writing poetry most of my life but the seeds of the collection were sown during my time at the University of Rochester. Since I had opted for a creative writing track in the MA English program, instead of writing a theoretical paper, my “dissertation” was to produce 30 original poems. The die was cast.

Knowing nothing about publishing in the US, I set about researching what constitutes a full manuscript of poetry, how does one get published? Where do I even start? The best route for me would be to start submitting to literary journals and magazines, to build publishing credits and continue to produce more work for a collection. I began writing steadily but it wasn’t until 2012 that I started submitting my work to journals. There’s a common understanding that you may get one acceptance for every 100 poem submissions you make. Of the very first batch of 5 poems I sent out, 3 were picked up by Grey Sparrow Journal! The other two also found a home with poetry journals. I felt validated.

Unless you’re a full-time writer, for most of us writing happens in the margins of a busy life. I was doing non-profit work, had two children under 5, and a household to take care off. I knew compiling a manuscript was going to take time. I also realized that to write means investing in yourself as a writer, building your capacity to do quality writing, and engaging with other writers who can give you honest feedback on your work. I attended workshops and conferences, deepened my reading of other poets. As my voice strengthened, the manuscript began to take on its own character. Its core solidified, developed direction and purpose. I was ready to submit my 55-poem collection.

After getting a solid round of rejections in my first two submission cycles, I set the manuscript aside for a while. I knew I had to take time away from it so I could return to it with fresh eyes and start from scratch if necessary. A year would go by before I looked at it again. During that time I continued reading Urdu and English poetry, and never stopped writing. I also opened myself up to new experiences that challenged my physical and mental abilities such as endurance running. By the time I got back to the manuscript, I had done some growing as a writer and a person.

I now saw that I had been premature in sending out my writing. Also, I wouldn’t have learned the valuable lessons I did if I hadn’t opened myself up to those rejections. During the past two years, I rigorously re-examined my collection: wrote new work, revised, re-revised draft upon draft, winnowed, weeded, whittled, and spent entire afternoons with index cards restructuring the manuscript, reordering poems.

It paid off.

I started landing on contests’ longlists and shortlists, began getting emails that I was a semi-finalist or finalist, and best of all, started getting encouragements and notes from editors instead of generic form rejections. Then, a month ago, came the sweetest music to my ears: ACCEPTANCE! I read the email 3 times before I let myself believe it and then had my mum-in-law read it to me just to be sure. I sat hugging the news to my chest, savoring a moment I’ve only waited for forever. The bouncing off walls and shouting from rooftops came later.

Moral of the story: Never, ever, EVER give up on your dreams. Follow them till the last breath.

Until next week!