Over the next few weeks, we will be hearing from some Lindenwood graduates as well as current  Lindenwood students who have been fortunate enough to have their work published. They will be sharing about their personal experiences with publishing in hopes to encourage you, the reader, with all your future and current publishing endeavors.

Our first interview is with Emerson Holmes, a current junior and English Literature major.  

Q:How long have you been writing?

A: I’ve been writing creatively since 4th grade. I actually still have stories I wrote from around that time.

Q: How has Lindenwood helped shape your writing?

A: I took a writing class here, Writing Creative Nonfiction, that I really enjoyed. It allowed me to expand the genres that I wrote in, and a piece that I wrote in that class is in fact a piece I managed to get published.

Q: Speaking of publishing, how many of your pieces have been published?

A: I have published three pieces, all online: two poems in the Eunoia Review, and one experimental nonfiction piece in Crab Fat Magazine.

Q: About how many pieces have you sent out?

A: I’ve sent out about 9 or 10 pieces in the last year.

Q: How often do you send out work?

A: I send out work about once a month, depending on how much work I have completed at the time and how much editing I feel I need to do on that work.

Q: How long did it take you to get published?

A: Well, I’ve been submitting for about two years, and my first publication was in November, so about a year and a half.

Q: How do you navigate rejection?

A: I keep in mind that it’s not personal; it’s just my work not fitting in with a magazine’s specific style.

Q: Any tips for keeping your spirits up while submitting?

A: You gotta remember that getting rejected is just an opportunity to improve. If the editors don’t like your piece, make it better. Workshop it, edit it. Then send it out again.

Q: Any advice for fellow Lindenwood University writers?

A: Write often, and edit twice as much as you write. A piece is never done being edited, you can always improve. The Writing Center here is a great resource, as well as your friends. Have someone else look their piece over, and ask them their opinion.

You can find Emerson’s work in both Crab Fat Magazine as well as the Eunoia Review.