Dude, I feel like I spend more time waiting than writing right now. Usually, that's not the case at all. But since all of my writing for the time being is for my dissertation, I have a one-sided relationship with my (artistic) reality where I'm submitting short stories/self-contained chapters to journals, small presses + agents but I'm not writing anything new because of my PhD. It's kinda odd really. Because I'm not working on my third novel, or even revising my first two novels, I feel like I'm just waiting around for shit to happen. Like:
1.American Short Fiction, who has held on to one of my stories for almost two years. Now I'm not hating, but think about that. While the gracious editor there accepted a revision, I still have no idea if my story is going to be accepted. The truth is, I really should consider sending it to another journal. The only problem is, I feel like that piece is supposed to be published in ASF. Call it delusion
2.Mcsweeney's Press, Coffee House Press, Chiasmus Press, Dalkey Archive Press, Nouvella, the Seattle Review, Milkweed Editions, Les Figues, FC2 + an agent from Sterling, Lord Literistic, all of which I sent novels/Novellas to in the past year
3. A bunch of literary journals like the Asian American Literary Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The New Yorker, Granta,Paris Review, Crab Orchard Review, the Atlantic, Wisconsin Review, Tin House, Indiana Review, the Believer, N+1, New England Review, Guernica, Kartika Review, Barrelhouse, Portland Review + A Public Space
4. The University of Chicago for an assistant/associate professor of creative writing (fiction)
5. Depaul University for a full-time creative writing + world literature professor, for which I'm pretty qualified since my dissertation is both a completed novel + also a shorter critical dissertation on the cultural compartmentalization of Asian American cultural identity + the mediation of Asian American masculinity in orientalist contemporary literature
6. An agent, any agent, who read my short story in the Antioch Review + decides s/he wants a piece
See, this is why I need to finish my dissertation in like the next month (that's my goal anyway). When I'm working on my fiction, I don't care all that much when it takes the industry forever to reject my ass/play with my emotions/mindfuck the shit out of me/lead me on/ignore me/procrastinate. I just keep plugging away at whatever I'm working on, knowing that eventually everything will sort itself out. In the meantime, I'm making pie out of mud, so what the fuck do I really care? But right now, all I do when I'm not reading in preparation for my final dissertation chapter, is imagine which dream is gonna come true. And that shit's just agonizing.
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3. A bunch of literary journals like the Asian American Literary Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The New Yorker, Granta,
6. An agent, any agent, who read my short story in the Antioch Review + decides s/he wants a piece
See, this is why I need to finish my dissertation in like the next month (that's my goal anyway). When I'm working on my fiction, I don't care all that much when it takes the industry forever to reject my ass/play with my emotions/mindfuck the shit out of me/lead me on/ignore me/procrastinate. I just keep plugging away at whatever I'm working on, knowing that eventually everything will sort itself out. In the meantime, I'm making pie out of mud, so what the fuck do I really care? But right now, all I do when I'm not reading in preparation for my final dissertation chapter, is imagine which dream is gonna come true. And that shit's just agonizing.