Continuing the saga of my attempt to be published in the Missouri Review.

For a little context: These stories would have been sent off in the late nineties/early 2000s. I can’t match up which story was associated with each letter any more, unfortunately. Rest assured that — as always — the odds are that I richly deserved each and every rejection. This is not me attempting to mock the fine folks in Missouri for turning down my stories. As always, TWiR! exists to give context to struggling writers out there in their quest for publication.

My fifth rejection from Missouri Review is below. The form part is identical to the first four from past weeks, but take note of that little P.S. written in ink.

“Barry — Please try us again. The Editors.”

Holy crap! Yeah, it’s about as lukewarm and as unenthusiastic a request as you can get, but for those of you still thrashing your way towards publication, make no mistake: This. Is. Gold. Any kind of a personal response is good; a personal response requesting more material is, in 1984-speak, double-plus good!