Another polite rejection. Some people said they weren’t sure what I was talking about in the last post, about McSweeney’s and Lists and what not, so here is a short explanation:
McSweeney’s is hard to describe because they publish many types of writing, from fiction to poems (sestinas, mainly) to Open Letters to Recipients Not Likely to Respond. McSweeney’s runs both in print and online, and one of their online sections is called Lists. I have viewed lists as a good way to ‘get in’ to having things published at McSweeney’s, which as I have said before, is analogous to The Paris Review, only for young-ish American smartass writers. I have yet to read something from McSweeney’s in any format or genre that I did not enjoy, and I can’t say that about most places I’ve submitted.
So, done and done. Here’s the other list that didn’t make the cut. In some ways I prefer this one to the last one:
Rejected Viral Internet Video Marketing Campaigns
Oven Cat
Schindler’s Bisque
Guy Wrapped In Cellophane Wearing a Harajuku Mask
Married Couple in a Car Having an Argument of Indefinite Origin and
Subject for Nine MinutesUnemployment Denial Appeal Hearing
Hamburgers Cooking On a Barrel Fire While Hobos Thumb-Wrestle in the Background
Health Care Reform
Some of these were taken from real life, ripped from the headlines of Stuff That Really Happened Tribune. None of these ideas are as good as This Is My Milwaukee, which is probably why my list was rejected.
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