Patrick Raneses, FCRH '20, Publishes in Yalobusha Review
This month, the work of English major Patrick Raneses, FCRH ‘20, was published in Issue 30 of Yalobusha Review, a journal of new writing at the University of Mississippi. His poem, entitled “Special Poem About Myself,” can be read at the Yalobusha website.
Last week, the Creative Writing Program sat down with Raneses to learn more about the process of crafting and sharing his piece.
Q: How did you learn about this opportunity for publication?
I was looking up something about Kiese Laymon and happened to come across the Barry Hannah Prize at University of Mississippi, which is where he’s currently teaching and was judge for the competition. Thought it would be fun to submit.
Q: What was the writing and editing process like for your piece? Did you seek feedback before submitting?
I originally wrote the piece for a course called Luminous Details—a poetry workshop supposedly with a focus on imagery—taught by the amazing Katherine Lederer. I had always wanted to write a piece about Spam and Filipino American-ness, but didn’t really know how to, on a formal/structural level (should this be a poem, short story, etc.) and also as a Filipino American not entirely in touch with his status as one. I ended up writing about that very confusion. I workshopped that particular piece in one of our early classes and thought it could also function as prose (and thus fit the “Fiction” part of the prize).
Q: What did your publication timeline look like, from beginning the piece to submitting it to its ultimate acceptance?
I wrote the piece sometime in September for the class, worked on revising it pretty much the week before the prize, and then waited until about a month ago when they gave everyone the results. I didn’t win, but I was happy that Kiese Laymon chose it to be a finalist.
Q: What was the submission process like? How did you research the standards of Yalobusha Review before submitting?
Knowing that Kiese Laymon was one of the judges of the competition certainly was motivation behind submitting. I deeply admire his memoir Heavy, which features the kind of honesty toward one’s own identity that I was aiming for in my piece (the memoir probably subconsciously influenced the writing of it). In my revision, I tried to lean even more heavily toward theme of being honesty (which I’ve realized doesn’t necessarily mean being more factual). I had read some poems from Yalobusha Review in the past, all written by Asian American authors, so I was comfortable knowing that fiction about the experiences of people of color were welcome.
Q: What advice do you have for other writers looking to be published in a journal like Yalobusha?
Look around for small or independent publications (ask your Creative Writing professors which journals they enjoy); familiarize yourself with the kinds of writings that these publications feature (especially try to figure out if they have a particular critical lense through which they want to focus their content); keep an eye out for prizes or themed issues; simply just try submitting to a bunch of different places. If you don’t win (I didn’t, technically), then try again. I think quality arises out of an earnest attempt to make your writing visible — such an attempt suggests that the work you’re trying to show people contains something that needs to be visible.
Patrick Raneses is a senior at Fordham University Rose Hill and an English major and Theology/Creative Writing double minor. He is enthusiastic about discovering, appreciating, and promoting writers and artists of color and is interested in the cross section of literature, ethics, and art’s role in contemporary culture as a whole. He has interned at Kundiman, is currently working at the Rose Hill Writing Center and is now interested in pursuing a career in the publishing industry.