More Good News!

I just received an email telling me that an essay I submitted was accepted for publication!  This is the essay that I've been working on for, oh, about 3 1/2 years.  It was part of my dissertation, and I edited and revised it.  I sent it out last year.  It was rejected.  I revised it some more, and I sent it to my writing group.  I revised it still more.  I sent it out again.  It was rejected.  I made minor, minor changes, which primarily consisted of editing a few passages and moving some paragraphs.  I then sent it out about 2 weeks after the second rejection.  In the meantime I've been working on other things and trying not to think about it.  This morning I got a lovely email saying, Yes, it has been accepted.  I shouted so loud Archer thought I'd hurt myself and I scared Bear!  I will likely shout again when I see it in print!

The dissertation

I've been rereading my dissertation in an attempt to glean something publishable out of it.  I've also been trying to determine how much work I will need to do to publish it as a book.  I came to the conclusion yesterday that my dissertation should never have been written.  Now, I'm not being self-deprecating.  I am not in the midst of an intellectual crisis.  I still stand by my ideas.  I still think the argument is sound.  I do not, however, think that the works I chose to put together should have been considered together.  And you know what, I'm happy to be able to admit that.  If I had it to do over again (which, given that I have to have a book for tenure at CU, I sort of do) I would focus on African American women writers.  Again, I do think the things I said about the white writers I focused on are valid, but I don't think those chapters work in connection to the discussion of African American writers.  I think, and at the time of my defense my committee agreed, that my chapter on African American women writers is the strongest.  I think I'm adding the most to the current critical conversation with my analysis of these writers.  Now I need to add about three more writers to the mix, craft a book prospectus, and get a contract.  While that is much easier said than done, I do feel like this is a much more manageable project than trying to connect four such disparate authors--authors I really struggled to connect when I was writing my dissertation.  So now that I have a clear plan, I feel like this is a project I can wrap my head around.

Out

I just sent out another essay to a journal.  This isn't a top tier journal, but it is a reputable, interdisciplinary journal that often publishes on topics in my area of expertise.  I think this essay is much stronger than the last one I sent out (which, in case you forgot, was rejected).  The argument is solid, and it establishes a clear theoretical framework for my reading.  I'm optimistic, but cautiously.