Renee Emerson

I was lucky to have a few publications this year. I sent out quite a bit more than the year before, aiming to submit poems to 3 journals every Friday. I didn’t always hit that goal and some months I sent out nothing at all, but at the end of the year I could see a marked improvement in acceptances and in actually sending out my work.

This year, I had work in:

Dappled Things
Valley Voices
the chimes
Still
Altarwork
Windhover
2River
Barren Magazine
I-70 Review
Meadow

Many of my poems right now are focused on biographies of women from church history, so I predominately sent my work to magazines bent toward religious poetry (though not all).

Next year I plan to focus my efforts on the Pushcart Prize rankings and attempt a tiered approach to submitting, while still coming back to magazines that are simply my favorites, no matter how they are ranked (Cumberland River Review, Rock and Sling, for a few examples).

With a new baby coming this year, I’m not sure how dedicated I will be in sending out my work, and, when push comes to shove, I’ll prioritize writing over submitting, but I hope that at the end of next year I have many more new journals to thank for publishing my work.