Submission Sunday 9.17.23: The Rejection Interview with Kate Maruyama

Our latest rejection interview: "The LACK of rejection is more alarming than rejection."

Happy Sunday, writers! Thank you for subscribing. [If you were a subscriber at the time of our first Rejection Interview, feel free to skip down to Kate’s bio above the next NO.]

So I’m a little obsessed with rejection. I don’t think I would have been so invested in this Submission Sunday newsletter for the past ten years if I wasn’t.

People have asked me why I don’t try to avoid rejection more in my own life. It’s bad, right?? I’ve been wrongly accused of everything from excessive confidence and masochism to foolhardiness and desperation, but I finally realized I have been rejected so many times that it doesn’t scare me any longer. I have been rejected by a dozen universities, an entire application year of graduate programs, countless crushes, hundreds of jobs, a full spreadsheet of literary journals and artist residencies. Hell, I’ve willingly used dating apps. I have been rejected so many times that I have come to expect it as the outcome and, as such, I no longer fear it. If that’s actually what confidence is, so be it.

It’s why I encourage you all to submit your work and not be afraid of rejection. It’s the only way to get anywhere! After my interview with Edan Lepucki, who is always admiringly upfront about her rejections, I thought it would be fascinating to ask other successful people about their experiences with rejection. I’m grateful to writer Cecil Castellucci for agreeing to be the inaugural subject of The Rejection Interview series, and next up we have novelist Kate Maruyama. Check out her latest—Bleak Houses!

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Kate is the author of Harrowgate (47North), Halloween Beyond: A Gentleman’s Suit (Crystal Lake Publishing), and Bleak Houses (Raw Dog Screaming Press) and her short work has appeared in Asimov’s and Analog among other journals and in numerous anthologies. Her second horror novel The Collective is upcoming from Writ Large Press, and her first nongenre novel Alterations is coming from Running Wild at the end of 2024. She has served as a juror for the Bram Stoker Awards and twice for the Shirley Jackson Awards and she serves on the Horror Writers’ Association Diverse Works Inclusion Committee as well as the working board for Women Who Submit. She writes, teaches, cooks, and eats in Los Angeles, where she lives.

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