Not much activity this month while I get used to my semester teaching schedule.
Poetry: I sent packets of poems to five journals (Fugue, Tin House Online, Cider Press Review, Poet Lore, and Poetry Magazine). I entered four poems in the annual Allen Ginsberg contest. Zero acceptances. Seven rejections: Foundry, IDK, Diagram, Sycamore Review, Zone 3, Black Warrior Review, Whale Road Review.
Fiction: Zero submissions and one rejection from Typehouse.
Creative Nonfiction: Two submissions of one essay each to Manifest Station and The Sun. One rejection from Hippocampus. I just wrote a new genealogical essay for my Advanced Personal Essay/Memoir class at Creative Nonfiction Magazine and have two more to go.
Other January 2018 activities: I completed a debate book for hire and received contracts for three more debate books. I sent out five letters of introduction to educational publishers for work-for-hire assignments. I worked on another issue of Scholastic Geography Spin, this one focusing on Ellis Island. I am teaching three courses at a community college this semester: 2 sections of English 102 (focusing on Life & Death, including the Holocaust—we’re reading Elie Wiesel, Cynthia Ozick, Gerald Stern, and Paul Celan), and a 200-level history course, America Since 1945, where we are conducting a mock trial in the federal case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. And of course, Cycle 8 of The Whole Megillah‘s online Fiction class kicked off.
And I should mention I am interning as a literary associate at Olswanger Literary. If you think your work is ready for representation, please contact Anna from her website.
Coming up in February!
The Whole Megillah will host the final wrap-up of the 2018 Sydney Taylor Blog Tour. We will also kick off the The Whole Megillah Book Club (more details to follow). Continuing revisions on my novella, work-for-hire assignments, completing the Scholastic issue. I start a poetry class on Rainer Maria Rilke at 24 Pearl Street Online and continue to work with my poetry mentor on new poems. This online class will likely be the last one I do for about five years. I need to save my money to fund my PhD in Holocaust & Genocide Studies, which starts in April. Still, I highly recommend online classes as a way to hone your draft and generate new work. The next cycle of The Whole Megillah‘s online Fiction class begins February 11. Please contact me if interested at barbarakrasner(at)att(dot)net.
The Whole Megillah 