The Futility Review

Looks like I made a nonappearance in The Futility Review — see the cover. I would like to take a moment to thank all of the nonstaff who did absolutely no work to make my nonappearance happen and for making their nonappearances in the invisible Futility Review offices. I greatly enjoyed not sending in my poems, not being considered for publication and then not appearing in your magazine — except by way of a list demonstrating my nonappearance. Read more about the purpose of The Futility Review:

I have decided to start up a literary journal, The Futility Review. It will displace The Atlantic Monthly and New Yorker on my difficulty rankings with the only score of 10. This is because it will be perfectly difficult: we will reject everyone. I will start by placing ads in Poets & Writers and APR, and a listing in Poet’s Market. We will be looking for “your best work” and even if you send it, it will be rejected. Our solicitation strategy will be to send gracious letters of encouragement to fresh up-and-coming talent, and then tell them that what they have sent us wasn’t up to the standards of their first book.

News of the Futility Review

4 February 2007: TFR begins as the first literary journal dedicated to the rejection of all submitted work
5 February 2007: TFR launches a state-of-the-art web site
7 February 2007: TFR makes its first series of rejections, beginning with the collected works of Rilke
7 February 2007: TFR makes history, becoming the first publication with a 10 difficulty ranking