2008 FIRST PLACE: No Entry fee Category

Don't Submit to the New York Times

By Anna Steegmann

My dream of being a writer lay dormant for 20 years until I was accepted to City College's Creative Writing Program.

Our professors hardly spoke to us about the business of writing, about how and where to submit, or how to find an agent. They warned us of having to compete with thousands of other aspiring writers. They told us about slush piles. "Start small, with the local, free press, small startup literary magazines. You won't get paid, but you might get published," they'd say. "Don't make the beginner's mistake and send your stories to The New Yorker or The New York Times."

But I did not want to write for The Villager or The New York Press. I was not afraid of literary failure; I had been bracing for it all my life.  

For my non-fiction class, I submitted Muttersprache, an essay about the frustrations of an intelligent, capable, non-native speaker (me) rendered incapable and stupid by English as her second language.

After class, I walked to the subway with Rusha. "I absolutely loved your story," she said. "I found myself laughing out loud several times."  

"Really?" I asked. I had never seen anyone so enthusiastic about any of my writing.

"Really!  I love the scenes, the humor, the bastardized English. 'My gutmess, ziss is wanderfull' is hilarious. I can relate to it. English is not my mother tongue either, but I had an easier time since I learned it at age ten."

It's a long walk from City College to the subway in Harlem. As we walked the seven blocks, I found out that Rusha's family was Albanian. They had become refugees in the Balkan war and lived in Italy before moving to New York City. Rusha still lived with her parents and worked as a News Assistant at The New York Times. She suggested Muttersprache might fit in The New York Times City Section. Before she got on the D-train to the Bronx and I on the downtown A, she scribbled the e-mail address of the editor on a piece of paper. 

At home I rushed to my PC and composed a query letter. I strove to impress the editor and make myself stand out from the thousands of other unsolicited submissions he must receive every week. 

In a city where nearly forty-seven percent of us speak a language other than English at home, many might identify with the struggle to acquire the English language and not lose their mother tongue in the process, I typed. Then I attached my essay and mailed it. A callous voice in my head—a mixture of my father and my harshest professor— said: "THE NEW YORK TIMES. Who do you think you are? Don't ever send your work to the Times. Especially, if you're just starting out as a writer. "

Five days later I found a reply in my inbox. thanks for this. it might work for us. let me share it w/a colleague, and we'll get back to you.

Ten days later I received the freelancer's contract. Fourteen months later, two editors, one copy editor, two photo editors, twenty-eight e-mail exchanges, and a check for $ 500 later, I found my essay and my picture in the Sunday section of The New York Times.

Ignoring the well intentioned advice moved my career forward. Since then, I have left my work as a guidance counselor to commit myself to writing full time. I have published short stories, essays and memoir in anthologies, online and print literary magazine, and German newspapers. I have read at the New York Public Library, the KBG Bar and the Cornelia Street Cafe. An agent who represents Amy Tan read one of my essays, liked it and inquired if I had any longer work available.

I have a wonderful life; writing is at the center of it.

BIO - Anna Steegmann, born in Germany, has lived in New York City since 1980. She worked as an actress and psychotherapist until making writing her priority. She writes in English and German. Her stories, essays, poems, and translations have appeared with W.W. Norton, The New York Times, [sic], 138journal, The Wising Up Press, Promethean, Epiphany, The Absinthe Literary Review, Boomer Women Speak, Dimension2, as well as several German newspapers. Her essay Mein Harlem has been selected as Notable Essays of 2007 in The Best American Essays (2008). She teaches writing at The City College of New York and the International Summer Academy in Venice/Italy. http://annasteegmann2worlds.blogspot.com/