the actual rejection
For purposes of comparison, I am posting the contents of my rejection below. I hope that doesn’t offend anyone (including Clarion SD personnel). If it does, tell me and I’ll take it down; I’m not looking to step on anyone’s toes here. I simply wonder whether they all say the same thing or not, especially the way this one is worded. It’s very nice and feels halfway between personal and form, like there are two or three different rejection emails depending on your score.
Dear Scott Baker:
Thank you for applying for the 2009 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop at UC San Diego. Your application has been carefully reviewed. We regret to inform you that you have not been selected for admission. However, the admissions panel feels that you work shows promise and says you came “very close” to being admitted. The reviewers encourage you to keep writing and to reapply in 2010.
Thank you for your interest in Clarion.
Cordially,
Tania Mayer
Program Coordinator
Scott W. Baker: Chaos out of Chaos 
Sorry that the news wasn’t better, Scott. Keep writing. I’ll keep dropping by here to see what you’re up to. And I would take the message that the admissions panel likes your work seriously; Tania doesn’t blow smoke.
Oso,
My rejection says the exact same thing, and it is nice. The statement that the work “shows promise” and that we were “very close” to admission softens the blow a bit. However, it (obviously) left me wanting more, so I’m planning to join an online workshop to try to meet that need. I need to take it to the next level, not just to prepare for next year but for myself, you know?
Definitely stay in touch! One of my very first thoughts after receiving the rejection was concerning online contacts I’ve made, and wondering if they’d keep in touch now that our dramatic moment of commonality has passed by. It was a disheartening thought.
@E.J. –thank you so much for the feedback. It means a lot. Even a nicely worded form letter can drive a person crazy. “Did they really mean it? Or are they just being nice?” etc. I feel encouraged, nay motivated! to go on.
Dear Oso,
In an ironic twist that makes weird sense in the spec fic universe, I have been waitlisted for Clarion SD. I don’t know if my nerves can take it. So we can wait together in cyberspace.
That’s awesome, Bananas. Not as awesome as making it, but awesome in a way much like my waitlisting is awesome. Good luck. Surely one of us will stumble into a spot…but which? -Oso
I received the exact same email, including the “very close” bit. Maybe they do send the same message to all rejectees. I prefer to think that maybe we did actually both almost make it. Keep writing and let’s get in next year!
Chris C.
I bet the last few people cut (five…fifteen, whatever) got the same email. I don’t expect a personalized email, just something different from someone who wasn’t “close”. On the upside, I bet we’d both be good at horseshoes. -Oso
I’m with Oso on this one, and E.J.’s comment cinches it; the reviewers/administrators aren’t going to blow smoke up our butts.
Read what Jamie Grove has to say (http://www.hownottowrite.com/) about rejection from Clarion West. Granted, it isn’t the same workshop, but the types of letters sent to applicants are different, and I feel this is probably true for Clarion SD, too. We won’t really know until other people come forward.
I did NOT get the “very close” bit, so you actually were close. This is how my rejection letter reads:
Considering the fact that I won 1st place in Writers of the Future, I feel like my work shows promise… but I guess the stories I submitted must have sucked. Oh well, I got my number 1 choice. No sense pouting that my fall back pick didn’t take me.
*subscribes*
Is it wrong that this makes me feel better?
lol! Of course not. I wouldn’t have posted it otherwise. 🙂 You’re celebrating your success, not my failure!
I have to admit that I feel slightly better, too! Not that we did better than Jordan or something like that, but that we DID rank and it’s not just a form letter. The wording IS different.
@Jordan: If I’d been paying attention, I’d already know this, but did you submit different stories to the two workshops?
@Tracie W.
I did sub different stories. My Writers of the Future winning story, “After the Final Sunset, Again” was 7200 words, so I could sub it to CW, but not to CSD. I subbed two other, unpublished stories to CSD, stories that weren’t really finished, but the only ones I had that fit under their 6000 word wordcount. I literally decided to apply to CSD at the last second out of an unreasonable fear that I might not get accepted to CW, and those two stories were just what I had on my harddrive.
I’m sorry to read about this. I’d hoped that you would get into San Diego. If you have an lj, let me know. I’d love to keep in touch.