My poem, "Slips," kindly published by The Atticus Review this week, is based on a true story. A friend of mine who used to work at Mailer's publisher used to be one of the people who had to send rejections to aspiring novelists. The publisher, which was proud of its literary stallion, like for these rejections to mention its affiliation with Mailer.
This struck me as painfully funny. As if rejections aren't painful enough, you'd get a nice little reminder of how awesome you aren't. Between that reality and Mailer's own reputation, the story seemed like a gift. Hope writers especially will enjoy it -- along with this little gem where Rip Torn (a nice naming synchronicity, given the incident) gets his ear eaten by a literary giant. (Seriously.)