At some point I’m going to go through my gigantic file of rejection letters from the mid-1990s, when I was trying to be a fiction writer, and write a post about them, but for now, here’s the one I have from Gordon Lish, from 27 June 1996, when he was editing The Quarterly:
Excellent Jordan — you only impress me further with your force. I
would take the cut if I liked it. I don’t — but I do admire the man
who made it. Cheers, Gordon.
Can I use this line when rejecting papers as an editor?
It could certainly be worse, considering how harsh he was reported to be. i just found out who Gordon Lish was and stumbled on this post. Professional writing is a weird world that I’ve never inhabited, despite having a love of words and a bit of talent for organizing them. My rejection letters come from my own imagination.