ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN MORTIFIED?

CALL FOR A MORTIFICATION PROJECT: 

I am interested in collecting poets' and writers’ tales of mortification as have occurred in their literary lives. These can include but not be limited to bad reviews, poorly attended readings, rejections, being left out of group projects like anthologies, etc. Please email me if you have any such tales or have questions. While the tales can be written in any style -- rant, complaint, self-deprecation, humor etc. -- my (flexible) intent at the moment is that it be a funny project.

[UPDATE: Visual poet extraordinaire Marton Koppany is the first participant with his tale over HERE!]

My project is inspired by a 2003 book on the same theme, MORTIFICATION: WRITERS' STORIES OF THEIR PUBLIC SHAME (Ed. Robin Robertson) which I am relishing now. Here’s an excerpt from Simon Armitage’s contribution:

“It is three hours before the first train home. I breakfast with winos and junkies in McDonald’s. Killing time in the precinct, I find a copy of one of my early volumes in a dump bin on the pavement outside the charity shop. The price is ten pence. It is a signed copy. Under the signature, in my own handwriting, are the words, 'To Mum and Dad.'"