LENOX — It was early morning and Maria Black was putting on her sneakers, getting ready to go for a walk, when she thought, “Maybe I should check my email…” she recalled.
When she opened her inbox there was an email from The Sun magazine, saying that she had won a Pushcart Prize for her fiction story, “Mark on the Cross,” which had appeared in their Spring 2020 issue. “I initially thought: ‘This isn’t real, I’m being pranked…it’s a hoax,’” recounted Black, a 30-year Lenox resident who is currently living in Northampton, Mass. But then she read the email again, and it was indeed correct. “I was just shocked that I had won.”
In 2016, five years earlier, Black had started sending out the fiction story in an attempt to get it published. It was rejected over 35 times.
“The piece was rejected so many times, I thought, ‘Well, it’s just not good enough,’” she recalled. “A story gets repeatedly turned down and you give up.” But she had sent it to the New Yorker and even though they rejected it, they had responded with feedback, saying it was “too melodramatic.” So Black “toned it down” and continued to send out the revised piece to publications between 2017 and 2019. “The New Yorker’s comments really helped me.”
Then she finally submitted the fiction story to The Sun magazine in December 2019, they accepted it, and it was published in the Spring 2020 issue.
She’s been writing for 30 years. Her very first published story was in 1996, also in The Sun. “I have a dear place in my heart for the magazine.”
She worked on the 4,400-word award-winning story for three years before it was accepted for publication. “Writing is hard work, and you spend years on it, for not a lot of money. It’s hard to write well.” Her fiction has appeared in the Harvard Review, Indiana Review, Seattle Review, and Gulf Coast.
The Pushcart Prize literary award was founded in 1976 to honor and recognize the “best of the small presses and magazines.” Previous recipients include Raymond Carver, Mona Simpson, and Junot Diaz. Each year small presses and magazines nominate six pieces of writing they’ve published, including short stories, essays, poems, and novel excerpts. Out of approximately 10,000 nominations, only 60-70 people are awarded the prize.
“You have to trust yourself with what you write…go with your gut,” she said. “Ask yourself: ‘Do I like what I just wrote?’ You have to like what you’re writing.” She pointed out that the writer knows when something is worth saving versus when it’s not.
“For years I slogged away on novel after novel, only to be rejected. I didn’t really know what I was doing…I wasn’t good enough,” admitted Black. “Now, I know more about the process…it can take a while to understand what is motivating and driving a character, and what the situation is.” It’s taken years of writing, rewriting, and editing to feel like she’s closer to mastering the nuances and intricacies of the craft.
Revise more than you think. “I just keep revising and rewriting until there’s nothing else left and I like everything,” noted Black, who went back to school in her 50’s and earned a Master of Fine Arts in fiction from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In addition, she holds a Masters of Business Administration from Yale University and a bachelor’s in English literature from the University of Texas at Austin.
Let a piece sit and then go back to it. “Often the urge is to write something, get excited, and send it out.” But Black has found that letting a story rest for a while and then going back to it helps to produce a stronger, better piece of writing.
Don’t worry about getting published, said Black. Editors have different personal tastes and preferences. “It’s about finding the right fit,” she stressed. “Just stay with it and write the very best you can.”
Black hosts weekly online and in-person writing groups which are open to community members. Both fiction and nonfiction writers are welcome. For more information on how to join an upcoming fall writing group, contact mariablack1@gmail.com.
