Author previews new short story, provides writing advice

Laughter echoed throughout the Shippensburg University Grove Spiritual Center on Thursday night as a professor and author shared a short story about the rejection and the hardships of being a writer.

Neil Connelly, SU associate professor of English, read a short story titled “Dear Literary Agent, Editor, or Publisher” from his book “In the Wake of Our Vows.” The story is a cover letter from a writer asking for his publisher to send him a rejection letter.

The story follows the life of the writer as well as the characters in the novel, Larry and Laura.

A judge ordered the writer to submit at least six letters of rejection from literary professionals every 30 days in order to avoid being held in court, fined and jailed. After the judge declared that 40 percent of the proceeds from his novel would go to his wife, Brenda, she divorces the writer and sends a rejection letter to him about himself.

Connelly wrote the story 20 years ago. Reading a story from so long ago, Connelly said, felt nostalgic.

“It puts me in touch with who I was then. It feels like a message in a bottle,” Connelly said.

When a member of the audience asked him to describe his process of creating characters, Connelly said writers are different from their characters but similar at the same time.

“Who’s on the page isn’t me,” Connelly said, “I write about things that I fear.”

SU English professor Sharon Harrow said Connelly did a great job talking about writers’ self-reflection and lives. Harrow said she could relate to the narrator of the story.

“As someone who went through grad school and sent work out, I know how gut wrenchingly painful that experience can be,” Harrow said.

Another SU English professor, Nicole Santalucia, described Connelly’s stories as reminders of how to cope with the world and escape.

“His stories enhance, alter and transform the way we see the world around us,” Santalucia said. “It is writers like professor Connelly who reminds and teaches us how to reflect, to be ourselves and to be aware of the delicate nature of the lives we live.”