Five Years a Writer

I do not own a magazine. I am not an editor to whom writers submit their work, hoping I will publish it. I am the writer who submits her work hoping it will make the cut with the editor to whom I have submitted it; recently, I have done this without success. But, hang on, what is success for a writer? What is success for any of us? Last week, my writer friend Finnian Burnett made it onto the long list for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction prize . A friend’s success is happily celebrated, so a big HOORAY for Finn ! Reflecting on the meaning of this accomplishment, Finn spoke of feeling proud for having written a piece and thinking it was good enough to submit and then actually submitting it. That is an achievement of which to be justifiably proud, said Finn, because so many writers don’t ever make it to the end of the finish + polish + submit stage. They give up somewhere along the line or disappear down a tangent or never even get started. Finn’s perspective gave me pause and has me reconsideri