Thanks to LitStack and T.S. Tate for this lovely writeup of my story's development, "Persistence and the Writer’s Road: Lauren Alwan’s 'An Amount of Discretion.'” The piece details the story's development, from numerous drafts to selection for this year's O. Henry Prize Stories by Laura Furman. Here's an excerpt that quotes my process of sending out the story:
“Around 2015, a friend and I decided to encourage each other in sending out stories for publication: we allotted every Thursday to sending out work, but with one important rule. Each story we sent out had to be submitted to at least ten journals–no less–and we had to report to each other where we’d sent work. I’d already squandered a lot of opportunities at my top tier journals (by sending out the story before it was finished), so by the time we started our submission Thursdays, I had about five possibilities left. Those five or so publications declined the story, but when I checked my records, I saw I hadn’t yet sent it to my absolute favorite journal, The Southern Review.”
Read the piece here.