http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/14/man-booker-prize-marlon-james-debut-novel-rejected-nearly-80-times?CMP=share_btn_fb
hm.
so much to say
Congratulations Marlon James!
I gave up trying to get published several times, on two land areas: the US, when I was in Michigan and Trinidad, here, after 2011.
I went to the National Book Convention in 1995 I think in Chicago. It was a massive scene. I made chapbooks of my poetry collections; there were three separate books. I now have nine minimum and stopped compiling about seven years ago so there are more. I made hard posters calling for agents, and I walked the floor introducing myself and handing out my chapbooks to any publisher who showed interest. I actually got one offer...an exploitative contract. I was glad I was smart enough to know and read what it was: they wanted me to pay for publishing AND take 80% of profit.
I tried to write a novel after I got real sick here in Trinidad in 2004. I got bit by like twentythree ants..and realized that I was loving up Trinidad and it was trying to kill me by various degrees. I called that piece Ant Bites, but realized it was not a novel, not traditional..it sent me researching on innovative formats and learned I was writing in a mode close to Sandra Cisneros, and Borgas. More than that< I was poor it seemed at doing character development. It was more a memoir. I could not remove myself. And was just writing episodes of my life and living having returned to Trinidad...the never ending cultural shock. Ultimately, I realized, I wrote a film script. It would make a bomb film. An international creative ...for i realized there are not many, if any, films on dark black women who are not struggling with drugs, sex, broken lives, or some deformity of character making them a caricature. those memes you know, those dehumanizing crippling, half a life and existence memes.
Who sees a dark black natural woman self actualized on so many platforms, reaching for so much, attaining heights rare in arenas rarely accepting , never welcoming of dark black conscious african women....and within there now I am writing, all the opposition for her ambition and natural effortless elevation. And the treachery that brought her down. (it is my colleague who told me i was black listed from Michigan...just at the moment I was pegged to go to Capitol Hill to represent my field of Agricultural Economics)... I never tried to publish that. It still exists. I stopped adding to it. I got tired.
But then I tried publishing again...this time my idea was to create a publishing Imprint with a local printing/publishing company. The company was ArtPost Trinidad (R) (C) (2004)...[https://www.facebook.com/ArtPost-Trinidad-R-C-2010-1478301…/] where I made blank greeting cards, posters of one of my paintings, a calendar...my plan was to start there, make money and use the profits to publish works: my own and others usually rejected, ignored and undervalued. but i discovered the ceo was mental, as indicated to various people after i got blasted by his dragon. He thought he was dealing with a knucklehead and produced and printed some of my cards, without color correcting or having me screen them and when I protested to such madness, he acted as if he was doing me a favor and I was not paying out my nose for his shit. Right now: I use those cards to write on (see pic lol). compiling that into a book will be interesting.
so after that experience I have not tried again, but in almost all cases, where i have been rejected, I sought to make my own way, create my own platforms, source my own solutions for self. Ask me how that is working out.
in any case, this story inspires me to not stop. keep going. keep trying.
now. I have:
* 9 volumes of poetry at least
* 8 volumes of journals written from 1990 of my travels and life
four essays published internationally in various journals that I want compiled
plus essays written for UNPost.org
* my photos that are kind of amazing
* my paintings that i wish to integrate and produce diaries, journals, notebooks
* and the film, that i would love to work with someone to put that into a novel
whether it gets produced for human consumption or not, one thing is, I have never stopped writing. and now, write in a journal, my photo cards, daily notebooks. after i breathe, obsess on food and eat, I write; the latter way more than the middle. <3 p="">
thank you Marlon, your success inspires
No comments:
Post a Comment