Cathy Wald's career as a rejected writer began when her poems and short stories were turned
away by her high school literary magazine. She studied French in college and, after failing
the United Nations exam for translators, entered the world of corporate communications, where
her articles for corporate publications were roundly critiqued and sometimes 'killed.'
Aside from a handful of short-lived publication successes and a smattering of obscure awards,
Wald's writing career has been unmistakably marked by rejection. Since embarking on a freelance
career in 1987, her essays and articles have been nixed by most national consumer publications.
Her novels have been turned down by major publishing houses, and her short stories have been
tossed into the wastebasket at leading magazines such as The New Yorker, among others. Each
year her applications to prestigious writer's colonies are rejected on a regular basis, and
she consistently fails to make the finalist's list in a wide variety of fellowships and
award programs.
Despite this regular experience of 'just being told no,' Wald has retained the ability to
experience each new rejection with as much freshness, raw pain, devastation and feeling of
personal unworthiness as she received from the first rejections of her early years. She
shares her in-depth, agonizing experience with her fellow artistic rejects at
rejectioncollection.comSM and her monthly e-newsletter, The Reject's Rag.
For more about Cathy, visit writerwald.com,
contact her at cathy@rejectioncollection.com
or write to rejectioncollection.comSM, P.O. Box 443, Shrub Oak, NY 10588-0443.
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