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I submitted an essay to The New York Times Modern Love column in early 2020. I knew it wouldn’t be published, but that was the point. As a way of encouraging my students to get out of their comfort zones and take risks, I asked them to collect rejection slips over the winter break. Since I practice what I preach, I wrote a piece for a notoriously selective editor to retrieve a rejection note I could share. I tell my students to write toward what makes them uncomfortable, so I wrote and submitted an essay about a relationship that felt unresolved and shameful. As I unraveled why I had loved someone who couldn’t love me, I was taken back to the mountain of my youth. The man in question was a replacement for the home I couldn’t go back to. A week later, Dan Jones called me. A week after that, my essay appeared in The New York Times. A week after that, agents began emailing me. I chose one, drafted a proposal and it sold in September, 2020. Forager will be released in Fall, 2022 with Algonquin. This workshop will talk about the process of publication, but also about committing to a writing practice and what it means to take a risk.