Are your students in the Michigan Department of Corrections really failures of the public school system? Or are they failures of another kind - victims of abuse, criminals, budding sociopaths, individuals who, in general, have stepped off the curb and entered a different lane of traffic? Are they mentally ill?
Your essay doesn't really address what I believe the reader - me - would find interesting: who you teach now. Who are they, why are you working with them - default or empathy or both, how are they different from students in mainstream society. What have you experienced that is compelling in your line of work? Just showing up isn't enough.
I worked as a mental health nurse in maximum security for ten months to get material for a book. I worked with famous criminals and garden variety psychotics and everything in between. The stories are fascinating. Be brave - don't be morose - it's just not interesting enough. Then submit work to me.
Evelyn Sharenov, Nonfiction Editor
Oregon Literary Review
11 comments:
Be brave? I think submitting stuff is brave. I submitted a series of comic strips to one of those monthly funky comic tabloids and I got a rejection letter saying I wasn't funny. I'll never submit another thing to anyone (okay not counting the photos I submitted to TVGasm.com and won prizes both times). I may put those old comics on my blog sometime. I thought they were funny.
Be rave, kill an inmate then submit that story...that was about the most unprofessional rejection slip I have ever read.
Durkheim said once:
" The crime, so far isn´t a pathological phenomenon, is a normal phenomenon of a society. And even in a society of saints there would be crimes ".
Regards and happy Sunday.
PD: Don´t be why my commentaries give me mistake and I have to return to write, sorry, is not voluntary.
Evelyn makes a few good points, but if she doesn't know the difference between "who" and "whom" I would do a slight double-take on her capacities as editor.
Sounds like she's unilingual.
And a bit doctrinaire.
Ivan
My submitted essay had more to do with how I ended up teaching in a prison system because of the hiring practices of our public schools.
I must agree--the essay Evelyn Sharenov suggests I write would be much more interesting.
As for fascinating stories about the criminals I know, perhaps my sixteen years versus her 10 months of experience has dullen my persepctive of them. I don't know. But I do appreciate her advice.
Thanks everyone.
I agree with your last comment JR. She was in the mental joint writing a book. I am sure she got lot's of good "fiction" from them because of course they have "their
versions" for ten months. Give me a break. She's grinding an axe. I also agree with Ivan. A nonfiction editor who does not know the difference between who and whom? Please!. Your stories are not fiction. The names where changed to protect the a..holes.
Did you change her name? If you didn't, you should have. MW
It's interestintg though. We don't know what you submitted, but the snapshots you put on here are nitty gritty as far as I see. What kind of brave is she wanting? Does she want reality jazzed up more?
That's an interesting point, Danny Tagalog. Without the essay, you have no idea whether her assessment was correct. I believe it's more of a subjective choice on her part, or musical taste. The essay topic was directly linked to a song by The Smiths--you know-- where you hear an old tune and it take you back to a time and place. "Don't be morose," she suggested. Well, what song by the Smiths isn't?
I'm wondering which Smiths song you were thinking of. Morose, but mostly fantastic. "Paint A Vulgar Picture" springs to mind for some reason...
Evelyn's 10 months isn't long enough! In the second paragraph, it seems like she wants a "story," disguised as "essay." Who knows!
Hey Jim, that was actually an interesting rejection slip, with some thought. Certainly better than a form note.
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