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On the Essay Collection

Following up on comments about my MFA thesis…

I’d like to see my essays published as a collection. I’d also like a MacArthur genius grant, six weeks at Yaddo, and slim, firm thighs.

But really, I’d like to see my essays published, period. Some of them–an essay about gay marriage, another about desire–are highly marketable. Some are perfectly good MFA fodder but would otherwise be found in the glacial melt flowing away from just about any slush pile. I’ve had a promising rejection (a statement that falls into the category of “You know you’re a writer when…”), one honor (my essay, “The Outlaw Bride,” was USF’s 2005 submission to the AWP contest in the nonfiction category), and a lot of encouragement.

But if I want to see these essays published as a collection, the very best thing I can do for them, I have been taught, is get them published piece by piece. I like that approach, anyway. Yes, I wrote a vaguely book-like object, but these essays have their audiences and their venues–places they will fit, where they might even get a chance to mingle with other essays and make friends.

As I was taught to do, the very second I had printed the last page of the thesis, I took one of the essays, prepped it for publication, attached a SASE, and stuck it in an envelope with a cover letter. I then duly noted this action in my Writer’s Market submission tracker. Tomorrow evening I’ll get another ready to go out. (Morning is writing time, so evening is submission time.)

Meanwhile, since you meant to ask, I’ll publish excerpts from each essay on Free Range. They make good “found content” for this blog while I’m deep into The Move. I’ll even publish the excerpts sequentially, with a brief nut graf (small summary) to explain their place in the collection. Heck, I can even post-date them and have them appear while I’m on the road later this month!

Speaking of which, if you have a Typekey account, you don’t have to wait until I approve your comment (though I could ban a Typekey account after the fact, if I had to).

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This was written by K.G. Schneider. Posted on Sunday, August 13, 2006, at 8:01 am. Filed under Writing. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.