I haven’t mentioned before how symbolic the Essay of Death and Destruction is for me.
I have had good publications before this — Studies in English Literature, the Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, and a piece very likely forthcoming in a collection from Ashgate soon. The first two were pieces from my MA thesis. The latter is from my dissertation.
In other words, all of those were essays that were shepherded by my (amazing and super-smart) dissertation director. She read and commented on numerous drafts. We met regularly to talk about strengths and weaknesses.
This essay was not. This essay was the first one that was all mine. I began writing it in 2005 in an air conditioned dorm room Ireland and finished it, after rejections from three journals, in the summer of 2009, in my cozy office, after heaps and heaps of revisions and rethinkings and refocusings.
My point is that it’s easy, even despite having a thick skin, to start to wonder if the struggle with the essay said something about my game, and so the acceptance is a much-needed validation.
Your game is good – no doubt.
Nice one. Well done.