Autobiography of a Book at Second Chance Lit

The chapter, “in which the book keeps up its end,” appears in issue #2, April 2021. 

Second Chance Lit is a handsome ezine, each photograph on the main page a link to a poem or story. 

The site’s navigation enforces browsing — or methodically clicking on every picture — unless I overlooked a contents page or search box. Some of the pictures do seem to be captioned with the titles of the underlying poems. 

“In which the book keeps up its end” is included in the fourth section when scrolling down, the “peony” section, under the photograph of many books laid open. That image is a good match!

From their Mission Statement: “Second Chance Lit is … a place solely for previously rejected poetry and short prose - founded in 2020 by editor-in-chief David Wasserman. It is our hope that Second Chance will be viewed as a spot to showcase those amazing pieces that didn’t quite fit somewhere else and that other lit mags will point writers in our direction when they have an exceptional submission which doesn’t quite fit their current issue or aesthetic. Your work was good — is good. It just wasn't the right fit or at the right time or at the right place.”