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Welcome to Reject Press

We are happy (we think…so far…) to make your acquaintance. We are a brand new digital zine centered around the theme of “rejection,” particularly as it’s experienced by creative people in creative circles and at the kept gates of creative institutions (contests, fellowships, graduate schools, agents, jobs, festivals, conferences, etc. etc. etc.).

Stay tuned for content from our awesome reject contributors, and if you’d like to join our little community of rejects, check out our Submissions page. We aspire, above all, to carve out a little digital corner of the universe where voices that have been rejected, marginalized, silenced, and ignored can find a weird little community together.

xo,

Reject Press

“Writing, Submitting, Inferiority Complexes, OH MY!” H.J VandeRiet

At one time I measured my self-esteem by a point system and every time I’d get rejected I’d say, “Self-esteem….down 30 points,” but the people I’d say it to just shrugged and accepted this fact,

My inferiority complex is so big I’m terrified of being rejected by people reading pieces on rejection,

it’s big like that fucking asteroid I fully expect to collide with Earth one day after I’ve gotten my first royalty check,

there’s nothing like reading the phrase, “Your piece is full of interesting philosophical thoughts and is very condensed, but we’re not able to publish it at this time,”

if a piece of writing stays lying in a box and the box is closed does the piece of writing still exist?

Continue reading ““Writing, Submitting, Inferiority Complexes, OH MY!” H.J VandeRiet” →

“That time I did not get what I wanted, after I realized it was not what I wanted,” Kate Betteridge

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Kate Betteridge is a Product/UX Designer-in-Training and founder of MyCareerist.com. She is ABSOLUTELY THRILLED to be starting at her first choice grad program in Human Factors this fall (Not the least because they gave her, as she puts it, “ALL the money”). In a past life as a recruiter, she rejected people for a living (if she got back to them at all) and sometimes lies awake thinking what that did to her karma.

“When Hurricane Hearts Discuss Retrogrades–Part Deux,” Simone Liggins

     As the night-black jolt of the full moon quakes your heart and reminds you of the fissures always lurking just around the corner, you make a point to note repeated “courtesy cuts” to the soul, rolling on the winds and into the mind’s eye. You’ll need to remember for later.

     He said, “Do you hear what I hear, babe? Does it make you feel afraid?”

     The Final Quiet has always trailed breadcrumbs to its gateway for me, and this time I see the shimmer of them on the threshold. A fallen Twin cried like a dove for the Sign O’ the Times, and, finally, fewer are missing the beats as police are still called on Black people sleeping, eating, shopping, studying, and, you know, living a free life:

“…we’re not free until all of us are free…”
How could I forget?
This Is America—
Mouths stuffed with money pie and eyes blinded by color
are the only free excuses served in the First World chow lines.

Continue reading ““When Hurricane Hearts Discuss Retrogrades–Part Deux,” Simone Liggins” →

“Did My Poetry Get Rejected By A Stomach Bug?” Kristiane Weeks-Rogers

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Kristiane Weeks-Rogers grew up around Lake Michigan and earned her higher education degrees in Florida and Indiana. She earned her MFA at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado where she teaches as a Writing Seminar instructor for BA students. She is the 2nd place winner of Casa Cultural de las Americas and University of Houston’s inaugural Poetic Bridges contest, with a chap collection, “Becoming Skeletons” published by the University of Houston in 2018.

“Questions and Answers,” Genelle Chaconas

Q. Walk into a museum full of world famous art and hang one of your paintings on the wall. See how long it lasts there.

A. I don’t remember what the most insulting response to, admittedly, a badly written story, actually said (the response was sent to a now-defunct email address). I was in public, in a coffee house I used for internet access; I stared at it for five minutes. The response was harsh without necessity. I forwarded the response to the head editor. A day later, I got a two-word response from this head editor: “Thank You.”

Continue reading ““Questions and Answers,” Genelle Chaconas” →