Got my ALR Contributors copies

They arrived during the weekends and I'm able to blog about them just now. Cover is excellent. The copies came in a brown envelope with cute airmail stamps. Had I a cork board I'd have tacked the envelope there. :)

Good thing they sent 2 copies so I can give one to my close friend and fellow writer/poet, Denver Torres.

Autumn 2011 issue of the Asia Literary Review.

I still get a dreamy feeling when I look at this... Still somewhat unreal.

Two Poems Now Viewable at the Asia Literary Review

And they're out! Three Meals and Etiquette, two of my free verse poems, are now up at Volume 21, Autumn 2011: of the Asia Literary Review.

I can't wait to receive my compli copies of the magazine. I'll post a photo of them once I receive them via post. I was told the mag is available in "bookshops" but I bet I won't find them in the Philippines so I have to rely on the compli copies. The editor also mentioned I can have an audio stream of the pieces, not sure if I'll do one since I'm not that much of a performer.

Upcoming Appearance: The Asia Literary Review

This is a dream. This is dream...

As a writer, I get rejected a lot. I submit my work, and dread getting that return email. In my inbox, the message's first few words would be previewed. When the message starts with something like "Thank you for your submission," I already know that the next line (once I do click open the message), would be "We regret to inform you that we will not be publishing your work blah blah". That's the rejection form letter.

That was how I felt when I saw the Asia Literary Review's email. I read the previewed "Thank you..." and my  mind was automatically resigned to the fate of the poems I submitted on December 2010 (yeah, it was that long ago). But I was wrong. It was an acceptance letter for two poems, "Three Meals" and "Etiquette."

Poetry editor Martin Alexander mentioned "I very much enjoyed reading your work..." and I was extremely thankful and humbled that the pieces would be that much appreciated. I was like, so dreams do come true. Because when I was writing more fiction, I kind of didn't expect anymore, with the heaps of rejection letters I kept getting.

I have many many people to thank for these recent successes. The fellows and panelists of the 18th Iligan National Writers Workshop, 49th Silliman University National Writers Workshop, 10th Iyas Creative Writing Workshop, 9th Ateneo National Writers Workshop. I had little access to poetry because I was all sci-fi and fantasy, but through these workshops, I learned about stuff like line cuts and objective correlatives.

I still can't believe it.