Imagine this: You are a poet and The Paris Review accepts your work. You tell all your friends, break out the bubbly and update your bio. But then, what if you received a note from the editor taking it back?

Such a letter was sent by the new editor, Lorin Stein.

Dear XXXX,

Recently I replaced Philip Gourevitch as editor of The Paris Review and appointed a new poetry editor, Robyn Creswell. Over the last month, Robyn and I have been carefully reading the backlog of poetry that we inherited from the previous editors. This amounts to a year’s worth of poems. In order to give Robyn the scope to define his own section, I regret to say, we will not be able to publish everything accepted by Philip, Meghan, and Dan. We have not found a place for your [poem/s], though we see much to admire in them and gave them the most serious consideration. I am sorry to give you this bad news, and I’m grateful for your patience during the Review’s transition.

Best regards,
Lorin Stein

Heart-breaking? Yes. Writing is a blood sport. Bring your sword. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the poetry purge. More commentary here.

The kicker, of course, is that The Paris Review only accepts submissions by snail mail. We wasted saliva on a stamp for this? I hope those poems will find a better home.