Trapper Markelz’s 2023 Poetry Year In Review
200+ poems edited, written, submitted, and my first book!
2023 was a pretty exciting year for me in the art of poetry. I wrote fewer poems this year, but I managed to keep up my submissions (a couple more than last year), get over a dozen publications, and get a manuscript accepted and published by Cherry Dress Chapbooks!
Yearly Stats
Here is how 2023 ended up:
- Poems In Progress — 59
- Poems out for submission — 48
- Published in Journals — 15
- Published on Medium — 21
- Poems given as gifts (Unpublished) — 0
- Unpublished Poems I might come back to — 62
- Books published! — 1
- Total Poems Written/Edited in 2023 — 205
Submissions
I started using ChillSubs this year, and it has been spectacular. Not only do they make it easier to manage your submissions, rejections, and acceptances, but they also have a rich database of publications to expand your reach beyond Submittable. I’ve really enjoyed using them and look forward to continuing that into 2024. I highly recommend checking them out and signing up for the pro subscription!
Here is the record of submissions from this year!
2023 Submission Summary
Submissions — 115
Withdrawn — 3
Waiting/In Review — 21
Accepted — 10 (15 poems)
Rejections — 79
January 2023
The Freshwater Review (Rejected)
Green Linden Press (Withdrawn)
The Cumberland Review (Rejected)
Guesthouse (Waiting)
Poetry Online (Accepted!)
Chestnut Review (Rejected)
February 2023
Hole in the Head Review (Rejected)
Sepia Quarterly (Waiting)
Passengers Journal (Rejected)
Unfortunately, Literary Magazine (Rejected)
The Dewdrop (Rejected)
The Rappanhannock Review (Rejected)
The Moving Force Journal (Rejected)
Great River Review (Rejected)
Santa Clara Review (Rejected)
Cola Literary Review (Rejected)
March 2023
The Blood Pudding (Rejected)
Allegory Ridge (Rejected)
Rattle (Rejected) (you have to try, right?)
Red Noise Collective Journal (Waiting)
Ponder Review (Rejected)
American Chordata (Rejected)
Jabberwock Review (Rejected)
The Minnesota Review (Rejected)
Jet Fuel Review (Rejected)
Raleigh Review (Rejected)
Hoxie Gorge Review (Rejected)
April 2023
The Bangalore Review (Rejected)
Pigeonholes (Rejected)
B O D Y (Rejected)
Beaver Magazine (Rejected)
The Paris Review (Rejected)
Allegory Ridge (Rejected)
New Ohio Review (Rejected)
Barzakh Magazine (Rejected)
Potomac Review (Rejected)
Pamplemousse (Rejected)
Quarter After Eight (Rejected)
Stoneboat Literary Journal (Rejected)
New Delta Review (Rejected)
The Pinch (Rejected)
May 2023
BigCityLit (Rejected)
Variant Lit (Rejected)
Sepia Quarterly (Waiting)
River Heron Review (Rejected)
Black Fox Literary Magazine (Rejected)
Barrelhouse (Rejected)
Digging Press (Accepted!)
Kitchen Table Quarterly (Rejected)
Passengers Journal (Rejected)
Wild Roof Journal (Accepted!)
Crab Creek Review (Rejected)
Poet Lore (Rejected)
New Note Poetry (Rejected)
Gettysburg Review (Rejected)
June 2023
Poetry Magazine (Rejected) (you have to try, right?)
Chicago Review (Rejected)
Cerasus Magazine (Rejected)
Whale Road Review (Rejected)
The Creative Zine (Accepted!)
Remington Review (Rejected)
Poetry is Currency (Rejected)
805 Literary and Arts Journal (Withdrawn)
Assignment Literary Magazine (Rejected)
Fourteen Hills (Rejected)
LIT Magazine (Waiting)
Scapegoat Review (Rejected)
The Bangalore Review (Accepted!)
Burningword Literary Journal (Rejected)
July 2023
Thanatos (Accepted!)
Zhagaram Literary Magazine (Rejected)
The Bond Street Review (Accepted!)
Arboreal Literary Magazine (Rejected)
Hayden’s Ferry Review (Rejected)
Many Nice Donkeys (Rejected)
August 2023
Cape Magazine (Rejected)
Only Poems (Rejected)
Columbia Journal (Rejected)
Blood & Bourbon (Accepted!)
Emerge Literary Review (Rejected)
The Bookends Review (Waiting)
New Note Poetry (Accepted!)
Pilgrimage Press (Waiting)
Harvard Review (Waiting)
Stone Canoe (Rejected)
West Trade Review (Rejected)
September 2023
Roanoke Review (Rejected)
The River (Waiting)
Common Ground Review (Waiting)
Clackamas Literary Review (Waiting)
Juniper: A Poetry Journal (Rejected)
The Broadkill Review (Rejected)
October 2023
Fahmidan Journal (Rejected)
Mud Season Review (Rejected)
Sinking City (Waiting)
Scapegoat Review (Rejected)
Porter House Review (Waiting)
Ulu Review (Accepted/Withdrawn)
November 2023
LETTERS Journal (Waiting)
The Worcester Review (Rejected)
Birdcoat Quarterly (Rejected)
Route 7 Review (Rejected)
Zone 3 Journal (Waiting)
Third Coast Magazine (Waiting)
Passengers Journal (Rejected)
December 2023
The Blood Pudding (Waiting)
October Hill Magazine (Waiting)
Pine Row Press (Waiting)
45th Parallel (Waiting)
Southwest Review (Waiting)
Red Coyote (Waiting)
Bayou Magazine (Waiting)
April Poetry Month
This last April was the first time I really did anything for National Poetry Month. Instead of pressing myself to generate a lot of new writing, I decided to revisit the publications I had previously had, perform them on video, and upload the video to YouTube with a mention here on Medium. You can listen to poem #30 of the month and scroll back through the others here:
Summary
It really was an incredible year. The book publishing process was a fantastic journey, and a special thank you to the Cherry Dress Chapbooks team and the other amazing Cherry Dress authors Candice M. Kelsey and Cathleen Allyn Conway, with whom I was able to work and learn and do readings with. And thank you to everyone who has bought, loved, and reviewed my book Childproof Sky on Amazon!
Doing the April poetry readings and getting my work out there was also a joy. I also continued to take workshops (notably with Patrick Roche and Anne Marie Wells), generated new work, received feedback, and grew as a writer.
Thank you for following along as Medium members, friends, family, and potentially new readers. If you found any of this interesting, I hope you subscribe to my Medium page and sign up to get email notifications about my latest poetry and accomplishments.
Trapper Markelz (he/him) was born in Alaska, graduated from The Rochester Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School, and lives in Arlington, MA in the Boston area with his wife Maureen and four children Hannah, Lucy, Jack, and Alice. His work has been published in Baltimore Review, Stillwater Review, Wild Roof Journal, Greensboro Review, and Passengers Journal, among others. Childproof Sky (a 2023 Cherrydress Chapbook selection) is his first poetry book publication. You can learn more about Trapper, his life, and works at trappermarkelz.com.
