Current mood:

source: gabbybernstein.com/superattractordeck

WTF? After six weeks of constant writing rejections it turns out I’ve come second place in a poetry competition again! Every time I feel like giving up on writing I get published or win some money (or, in this case, book tokens). My last rejection was from one of my top ten favourite publishing companies, and I wrote about an experience I felt so passionately about. I thought, foolishly, that I’d have to get longlisted because I bared my soul. It’s not the prize, or the prestige, that motivated me. I wanted to feel seen. I wanted acknowledgement because I wrote about something that made me feel invisible for decades.

That’s one of the things I’ve learnt about selling writing over the past couple of years. Your favourite pieces can get rejected, and some pieces you whip up in ten minutes end up getting published. Then you live with the uneasiness of seeing your name attached to something you know you rang in.

But it’s still exciting though. I’ve been told my poem will be on posters displayed in the university bookshop. Happy Valentine’s Day!