My Pushcart Prize Nomination

Fighting against the "it's not a big deal" narrative

Split Lip Magazine has nominated my piece of memoir, “What Time Is It?” for a Pushcart Prize. I’ve read the Pushcart collections before, but never been nominated.

If you do a Google search, you’ll find a common refrain about a Pushcart nomination: it’s not that big a deal, thousands of writers are nominated. True. Every small press can nominated up to six stories a year, so there are a LOT of nominees. My self-doubt and imposter syndrome accepts this news, and even embraces it. Of course this isn’t a big deal, my self doubt confirms.

The graphic that changed my mind.

But then Split Lip Magazine put out a nice graphic about their nominations, and I thought back to all the wonderful essays I read in the magazine which weren’t nominated. And then I came across this paragraph, quoted by the The Rejection Survival Guide, but originally from An Open Letter to Pushcart Nominees: Brag It Up, You Beautiful Geniuses! by author and poet E. Kristin Anderson. Kristin’s generosity spoke to me:

“An editor reads SO MANY poems (stories, essays) every year. Like, jillions. Okay, maybe more like thousands. But, still. It’s overwhelming. To even be published in a magazine is a struggle and a challenge. And, sure, throw some statistics at me…. Tell me that there are XYZ nominees because there are ABC journals. I don’t really care. Because one editor championed my piece and a handful of others from a whole year of submissions, from a whole year of poems that he published. Tell me, how is that not a big deal?” - E. Kristin Anderson

So, I’m on Team It’s a Big Deal. I’ll put the nomination on cover letters and bios, and maybe even crow about it a little during the holidays. I don’t expect to win.

Thank you, Split Lip Magazine. I’m honored.