Piotr Siwecki from
Minimalbooks asked to translate
Snowrise for his site, and I was delighted and flattered! I hope Piotr stops by and tells more about his project! (Hi Piotr!)
Inspired by a poem by Boris Pasternak, I wrote Snowrise almost four years ago. I'm sentimental about this story. Not only it is a tribute to one of my favourite poets, but it was also my first publication, and in
Per Contra no less. My husband just joked that I'd be 80 and this would still be my best story. Boo!
But right now I feel it is one of my best stories, which makes me think, have I improved at all in the last four years? I know, I know, I wrote "The Novel". I've been working on it for the last two years. I wish I had something to show for it, other than countless blog entries that state that the novel is still in revisions. It still is.
To have my "almost first story ever written" (emphasise on "almost") to be accepted for publication within weeks after its completion was an incredible boost to my frail ego. I still think that this single acceptance instantly thickened my skin to rejections, and contributed to my perseverence. I rarely allow myself to be discouraged by rejections, and when I feel like my writing is worthless, I remember Snowrise. And that it was later nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and that I was awarded The Evelyn Sullivan Gilbertson Award to an Emerging Artist in literature for it (I had to copy and paste this from my bio on Zoetrope). (Stern self talk: Ania, you are NOT a one story wonder. You will write more. You will write better.)
Today I read a post by my friend
Len (scroll down when you see him running in the rain. There IS a blog there. Hi Len!) And he mentioned that some of the stories that are finding good homes right now were written a couple of years ago. This same thing is happening to me. There's so much luck involved in placing a story. The lesson here is to submit, submit, submit. Which is almost a part time job in itself, but there's no way around it.
