LINE BREAKS Bonus: “The Chair of Rejection” by Stacey Richter

Last month, we featured Stacey Richter‘s story “My Date With Satan” in Line Breaks. Today, as a bonus, we are pleased to post “The Chair of Rejection” as recommended reading for any writer who has suffered the agony of rejection (yes, that’s all of us). I solicited this piece from Stacey for an issue of Mississippi Review and when it arrived in my inbox I read it immediately, then collapsed on the floor, laughing. Oh God, it’s good. She’s good. Now she’s here. Enjoy.

“The Chair of Rejection” was written as a response to a request from the Mississippi Review to write something about literary magazines for their anniversary issue. This was a tough assignment—writing about writing is not the easiest task—but I tried to make the best of it. Then, luckily, I remembered how I’d always wanted to write about The Chair. The Chair! I loved that chair, or at least the idea of the chair. The piece didn’t conform to the assignment that well, but I hoped, given the subject matter, that the magazine wouldn’t reject it. Or maybe it would have made more sense if they did?

Line Breaks is a regular feature in which accomplished authors introduce and share their first published stories with the Fictionaut community. Line Breaks is edited by Gary Percesepe.