Robert Olen Butler

Robert Olen Butler writes a short story in real time.

Need somewhere else to go?

A. One of the classes Alberto Rios teaches a class at ASU is called Creative Writing and the Profession. The web site he maintains for this class is full of useful information that's not usually covered in writing workshops.

B. Will Durst has compiled some of his material.

C. The Lannan Foundation has lots of readings archived. Easy listening.

D. Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture is here--video or text, several languages.

January Rejections

New England Review 10/10/05, rej 1/9/06
Barrow Street 12/19/05, rej 1/10/06
River Styx 6/25/05, rej 1/13/06
Alaska Quarterly Review 10/3/05, rej 1/13/06
Fence 1/3/06, not reading 1/17/06
Quick Fiction 1/5/06, rej 1/17/06
Pool 1/5/06, rej 1/17/06
Am Letters & Commentary- sent 12/23/05, rej 1/23/06
Harvard Review 12/19/05, rej 1/27/06
32 Poems 1/5/06, rej 1/27/06
Agni 11/22/05, rej 1/28/05
Smartish Pace 8/20/05, rej 1/29/06
Gulf Coast 1/5/06, rej 1/30/06
The Journal 10/3/05, rej 1/30/06

The average wait time for poems returned in January looks to be about 2.1 months.

Last Year's Rejections

-February
Pleiades 1/29/05, rej 2/17/05
32 Poems Magazine 2/20/05, rej 2/28/05
Agni 2/7/05, rej 2/28/05

-March
Iowa Review 2/28/05, not rdg 3/7/05
River Styx 11/28/04, rej 3/14/05
The Journal 1/25/05, rej 3/23/05
Kenyon Review 11/21/04, rej 3/26/05
American Literary Review 2/21/05 rej 3/31/05

-April
Fence 2/28/05, rej 4/7/05
New England Review 2/21/05, rej 4/15/05
Green Mountains Review 4/10/05, not rdg 4/21/05
jubilat 2/28/05, rej 4/29/05
Marlboro Review 4/10/05, rej 4/29/05
The Nation 4/10/05, rej 4/26/05
Mid-American Review 2/7/05, rej 4/26/05

-May
32 Poems Magazine 3/1/05, rej 5/9/05
American Literary Review 4/11/05, rej 5/16/05
Chelsea 4/10/05, rej 5/20/05
Salt Hill 2/28/05, rej 5/20/05
Colorado Review 1/29/05, rej 5/23/05
Notre Dame Review 2/28/05, rej 5/27/05
Pleiades 2/21/05, rej 5/27/05

-June
Cimarron Review 2/20/05, rej 6/13/05
Missouri Review 4/10/05, rej 6/17/05
Ploughshares 1/25/05, rej 6/17/05
Xantippe 4/10/05, rej 6/25/05
Quarterly West 2/28/05, rej 6/30/05

-July
Witness 5/30/05, rej 7/7/05
Prairie Schooner 1/24/05, rej 7/7/05
Mid-American Review 5/27/05, rej 7/9/05
Smartish Pace 2/20/05, rej 7/21/05
Threepenny Review 7/17/05, rej 7/29/05

-August
Crazyhorse 5/27/05, rej 8/1/05
Margie 7/31/05, rej 8/8/05
Black Warrior Review 2/28/05, rej 8/9/05
Fine Madness 12/3/04, rej 8/15/05
Margie 8/15/05, not rdg 8/23/05

-September
Diagram 5/27/05, rej 9/2/05
Mid-American Review 6/18/05, rej 9/3/05
Sow’s Ear Poetry Review 6/1/05, rej 9/2/05
Rhino 6/25/05, rej 9/6/05
The Gettysburg Review 2/7/05, rej 9/8/05
The Journal 6/25/05, rej 9/9/05
Quarterly West 7/31/05, not rdg 9/14/05
Alaska Quarterly Review 8/15/05, rej 9/23/05
Indiana Review 1/29/05, rej 9/24/05
Harvard Review 8/20/05, rej 9/24/05
Washington Square 5/27/05, rej 9/30/05

-October
Crazyhorse 8/15/05, rej 10/1/05
Agni 9/15/05, rej 10/4/05
Gulf Coast 4/10/05, rej 10/6/05
Burnside Review 8/9/05, rej 10/7/05
Chattahoochee Review 8/20/05, rej 10/14/05
Pleiades 9/3/05, rej 10/17/05
Missouri Review 8/15/05, rej 10/17/05
Hunger Mountain 9/3/05, rej 10/21/05
Many Mountains Moving 7/31/05, rej 10/22/05
32 Poems Magazine 9/3/05, rej 10/24/05
Agni 10/10/05, rej 10/24/05
Green Mountains Review 9/3/05, rej 10/28/05

-November
River City 9/16/05, rej 11/3/05
Ascent 9/3/05, rej 11/5/05
Black Warrior Review 8/15/05, rej 11/12/05
Mid-American Review 10/3/05, rej 11/12/05
Agni 10/29/05 rej 11/21/05,
Blue Mesa Review 8/20/05, rej 11/23/05
Diagram 10/26/05, rej 11/23/05
Ploughshares 8/9/05, rej 11/25/05
Spoon River Poetry Review 9/16/05, rej 11/28/05

-December
32 Poems Magazine 10/29/05, rej 12/5/05
Many Mountains Moving 10/29/05, rej 12/6/05
The Paris Review 7/31/05, rej 12/10/05
Florida Review 9/3/05, rej 12/12/05
Iowa Review 10/10/05, rej 12/22/05

$39.95

Things like this make my jaw drop and my brow furrow, and it actually becomes a little difficult to make my face return to its normal state. I sit staring, maybe gazing. The inside of my mouth and lips start to get dry, and still I can't/don't close my mouth. After a while I lick my lips, swallow, shake my head a little so my eyes refocus; with two or three fingers rub the spot on my forehead just above where my nose and brow meet, and then my jaw drops and my brow furrows again.

Poetry Master

The Price of Gleaming

Mark Doty Reflects on His Poem "A Display of Mackerel"

Random Job Seeker

I wonder why somebody left me a comment that came mostly from The Book of Job. At the end of the comment was a sychophantic sounding post script about obvious leadership ability. Odd. I deleted it, but these are my favorite lines from it:

Who shut in the sea with doors,
When it burst forth and issued from the womb?

Have you commanded the morning since your days began?
And caused the dawn to know its place?

Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?

Have you seen the treasury of hail?
Has the rain a father?

From whose womb comes the ice?
Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades?

Inarticulata

Inarticulates are generally smaller than the articulates.

Articulates are generally considered to have arisen from earlier inarticulates.

Articulates are able to handle a surprising amount of force.

These mutants frequently shed their holdfasts.

Washed up articulates usually show breakage at their holdfasts.

Inarticulates, like articulates, are epifaunal.

The articulates are more advanced and more interesting.

Articulates are less tangible.

Articulates are an irritant to lung tissue and may aggravate existing respiratory problems and cardiovascular diseases.

Articulates are mostly wrong.