[John Isbell]

Thank you very much, Nausheen! The MS. is less flawed now than when I first started submitting it, but I've yet to put in Horace's nine years on keeping it in a drawer. I've been working seriously on the art since about 2011.
I am an impatient person. :-)

Cheers,
John

[Susan McLean]

The years of submitting and being rejected are not wasted time, since they give you chances, as you say, to weed out the weaker poems and add more strong ones. Though it takes a long time to get a first book published, I am sure I am not the only poet who looks back with some relief that the early versions of my first book did not get published. Most first books these days are strong ones because of that pressure to keep winnowing, and the fact that you are now a finalist seems to show that the effort is paying off. Good luck with reaching your goal.

Susan

[John Isbell]

Exactly so, Susan - I am delighted and relieved not to have appeared in print with the MSS I had last year, to say nothing of 2011. In 2016, I was a semifinalist (one of 60 or so), so it may be as you suggest that the MSS are improving noticeably as time goes by.

Thank you for your thoughts,
John