Monday, September 19, 2005

I got this notice today from publisher who had expressed some interest in a book length project:

Some snappy writing here, but this is rather rough for us. We deal with tough subjects often but they're generally attached to issues, this is personal, sexual, and rough -- not our interest.


And, in other news, Robots!

Danger, Will Robinson


few people know
I'm a robot

that when I snag my skin
on the hinge of a closing door
I bleed something black and thick
not blood exactly

that if you flip the rusty clasp
under my arm you'll find
a pile of TVs all on and blinking
under my ribs

all tuned to the mysterious hunched apple
of your mouth your skin the brown
of something feral and quick under the ground

that if you lift the hair away from my nape
with the back of your hand
you'll see a small oil slick

and it's like a rainbow twisted
moving

6 comments:

gina said...

"Some snappy writing here, but this is rather rough for us. We deal with tough subjects often but they're generally attached to issues, this is personal, sexual, and rough -- not our interest."

What does this mean, "attached to issues"? Do you understand what this means? The difference between "tough" and "rough"? I don't understand what this means. At all.

Michael A. Wells said...

I'm going out on a limb here (dangerous for me) and say that I think if you scrape all the corrosion from the comments, they basically mean that if you are addressing culture with art, we a little squeamish. If your writing tackles issues and happens to touch (with a feather like quality) on sex or something a little non conventional, we are interested. Our mothers are all still alive and we might have to defend what we publish.

This is just my translation and what do I know.

Radish King said...

I'll certainly be sending them some of my work.

Christine E. Hamm, Poet Professor Painter said...

gina -- Oh, they meant they deal with sex abuse and rape, but only from the standard feminist party-line perspective.


Michael "Our mothers are all still alive and we might have to defend what we publish." Hee.


Rebecca Loudon -- (I'm secretly flattered by the rejection -- I'm too sexy for their press, too sexy for their press, etc.)

Michael A. Wells said...

Rebecca: That was good! Cracked me up!!!

gina said...

Well thank God or whatever. I'd much rather you be too sexy for them.