Good Rejections are tough, especially when you get them from top-tier journals. In fact, you could make the argument that the better the journal, the more a good rejection stings. I think it works inversely too (i.e., a good rejection from a meh journal feels pretty damn good). Still, it's hard not to take away something positive from this rejection, so I'll try to stick to the silver lining here, even though I've been sending Conjunctions stories for years now. This is the second time I've gotten a really positive response for this short story (the first being from Electric Literature) + the second time I've gotten good feedback from this journal, so there's always that.In case you can't make out this rejection slip, it says:
Dear Jackson,
I found your story delightful + intriguing, unfortunately we are looking for stories for our animal issue, "A Menagerie."
Since when did Conjunctions starts becoming a themed journal? Who fucking knows, since now, I guess. Still, if I had to pick a reason for my story to be rejected, I guess this would be it. I think the reader was very gracious to write these words + I'll remember them the next time I get a form rejection in the mail.