To live life as a writer—as an artist of any kind, really—one must have thick skin. This is a lesson I learn repeatedly. In the past twelve months, my poems have been rejected nearly 50 times. Some weeks, I receive multiple rejections each day, my inbox becoming a bully who tells me I’m not good enough. Occasionally, an editor will tell me how close I came, asking to see more from me in the future. Even more occasionally, an editor will tell me Yes.
Artists must not only endure rejection, but also must find motivation to create despite how little value, financial and social, our culture places on artistic endeavors. Plus, most of us have to contend with that internal voice telling us how much easier life would be if we just stopped trying. And yet, we persevere. I persevere because I can’t imagine a version of my life in which I do not write.
The act itself brings me pleasure, but that is not the only reason I persist; I also want the connection with others, the sense of being a part of a community that values creativity and seeks a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. Thus, I have continued in my efforts, my youthful dreams of being a literary star having morphed into more modest hopes of simply writing the best poems I can and being a supportive and engaged member of the literary scene. So, when Ron Tanner asked me to join the board of Good Contrivance, I said yes.
Good Contrivance Farm—in Reisterstown, Maryland—originated in 1860 and belonged to the same family for five generations until Ron Tanner and Jill Eicher took over in 2015. They purchased six of the remaining 106 acres, the ones with the buildings on them, and began the massive project of transforming the property into a writing retreat. Both former educators, the pair loved the idea of an educational non-profit and ultimately decided to make it a space dedicated to writers because of Tanner’s literary background and his own experiences at other retreats over the years.