Nicest rejection I've received
It's hard to get a poem accepted to a literary magazine. Acceptance rates run from under 5% to much less than 1%. I'm always grateful when one (or more) of my poems finds a home in a journal willing to publish it.
When a poem is rejected there's usually nothing that comes along with the rejection but the standard "Thanks but no thanks" form text. "Couldn't find a place for it" type of thing.
Not so with Four Chambers Press. In fact, I was so impressed with their rejection letter (email) for one of my poems ("The Thread") that I've decided to share it here. I hope they don't mind. Here it is:
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Hi Robert,
Thanks again for submitting 'The Thread' to Four Chambers. Sorry it took us so long to get back to you. For issue 03, we received about 1800 submissions. Of those, we're able to accept approximately 3%. And while we loved the central image of the piece, how much reality the thread took on, we thought the gesture of restraint in the last stanza was really effective, too, we regret to inform you that we are unable to publish 'The Thread' at this point in time.
This being said, thank you so much for sharing your work with us--let alone even writing something in the first place--and helping us build a stronger literary community. Let us know if there's anything we can do, and we look forward to seeing more work from you soon.
Sincerely,
-Four Chambers Press
The Heart of Literature
http://fourchamberspress.com
www.facebook.com/FourChambersPress
www.twitter.com/FourChambersPhx
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I included all of their contact information so that you can follow/like them. Nice folks there.
When a poem is rejected there's usually nothing that comes along with the rejection but the standard "Thanks but no thanks" form text. "Couldn't find a place for it" type of thing.
Not so with Four Chambers Press. In fact, I was so impressed with their rejection letter (email) for one of my poems ("The Thread") that I've decided to share it here. I hope they don't mind. Here it is:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Hi Robert,
Thanks again for submitting 'The Thread' to Four Chambers. Sorry it took us so long to get back to you. For issue 03, we received about 1800 submissions. Of those, we're able to accept approximately 3%. And while we loved the central image of the piece, how much reality the thread took on, we thought the gesture of restraint in the last stanza was really effective, too, we regret to inform you that we are unable to publish 'The Thread' at this point in time.
This being said, thank you so much for sharing your work with us--let alone even writing something in the first place--and helping us build a stronger literary community. Let us know if there's anything we can do, and we look forward to seeing more work from you soon.
Sincerely,
-Four Chambers Press
The Heart of Literature
http://fourchamberspress.com
www.facebook.com/FourChambersPress
www.twitter.com/FourChambersPhx
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I included all of their contact information so that you can follow/like them. Nice folks there.
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Thanks for sharing your rejection letter from Four Chambers Press regarding your poem "The Thread." I really appreciate the time it took to format it and to add your own commentary -- I especially like the url references to Four Chambers Press at the end.
That being said, I'm afraid I don't have time to follow those links and read more about the company. While I do hope your acceptance letters will outnumber rejections, if you do get more rejections I'd be happy to consider reading more about them in the future.
Sincerely,
John