A few weeks ago I got an email from the editor of the New York Quarterly asking if I was the Mark Begley who had had a poem accepted by NYQ years ago. Well, I remembered the poem, so I was obviously the right Mark Begley, but didn't remember the acceptance (and figured I would have since it would have been a big deal to me). I guess after Packard died there were a bunch of backlogged poems that they had missing or incorrect contact info for, but thanks to the magic of the internet they have been tracking people down. I found my box of old work, along with the stacks of acceptance and rejection letters (the former much thinner than the latter) and right on top was the one from NYQ, dated 2/25/95! It started coming back to me, that time period is a bit hazy for some reason, and I remembered that I had never received copies of the mag nor heard anything else after that acceptance. I had moved a number of times and focused more on publishing than writing shortly after that year, so I probably simply forgot about it.
I guess the whole point of this is that it was kind of a cool, unexpected surprise 14 years later. The poem is supposed to appear in the late Spring/Summer issue, so if anyone gets the mag look for the poem Bike by yours truly. :)
I guess the whole point of this is that it was kind of a cool, unexpected surprise 14 years later. The poem is supposed to appear in the late Spring/Summer issue, so if anyone gets the mag look for the poem Bike by yours truly. :)