Let’s talk about writing and submitting essays again

Yesterday afternoon, the Chuxiong Prefecture Federation of Literary and Art Circles held a symposium on the poetry creation of Li Changping, Zhu Shaozhang and Qin Ershu at the Dongbao Hotel, and distributed scholarships and subsidies to the three writers. More than 40 writers from various counties and cities in Chuxiong Prefecture participated in the symposium. The writers spoke freely, evaluated the excellent works of the three writers, talked about Chuxiong Prefecture's literary creation, and talked about writing and submission.

I was lucky enough to attend the symposium. At the meeting, what impressed me the most was Zhu Shaozhang’s words: “I have been writing poetry for more than 20 years and have contributed to the magazine Poetry Magazine. I have records of submissions more than 200 times, and I finally published them for the first time. "Poetry Magazine" published poems. It is this perseverance in the pursuit of poetry that has enabled Mr. Zhu Shaozhang to achieve remarkable creative achievements. He has had poems published in national poetry magazines for three consecutive years and ranked first in Chinese poetry. The publication of "Poetry Magazine" can be said to be an impressive achievement in Chuxiong, a small city located in the southwest corner, and even in Yunnan Province.

After listening to Teacher Zhu Shaozhang’s words, I built up my confidence again, and secretly decided that I would continue to submit articles to famous journals such as "People's Literature" and "October" to continuously improve my writing level. , and always welcome with a smile the result that the submitted manuscript will disappear into the sea, receive no news, or be rejected and have a ladle of cold water poured on it.

After listening to the creative remarks of the three writers, I was in awe. These three writers from the small town of Chuxiong, who have the ambitions of a swan and a bird, and whose eyes are always on the sky, make me dare not have the thought of being able to "fly among the basils and be complacent".

Li Changping is a county official and a typical writer-official. In addition to his extremely busy official duties, he wrote a large number of poems and essays with exquisite atmosphere, trendy and avant-garde techniques, and profound ideological content late at night, on weekends and holidays, and they were continuously published in Poetry Magazine, People's Literature, Frontier Literature, and Yunnan Daily" and so on. Their diligence and endless passionate inspiration often make me moved and admired.

Zhu Shaozhang is a teacher who has taught Gao Zhi for 26 years. I am very aware of the great pressure and heavy tasks of his teaching. I myself was a high school Chinese teacher until August last year, teaching for 19 years. In addition to the extremely busy high school teaching, Mr. Zhu Shaozhang continued to write and published several collections of poems and essays. His works were often published in "Poetry Magazine", "Poetic God", "Xingxing Poetry Magazine", "Border Literature", etc., at the age of 40, He became the youngest middle school special teacher in Chuxiong Prefecture. I have always wanted to read Mr. Zhu Shaozhang’s collection of poems and essays. Unfortunately, perhaps due to arrogance, unfamiliarity or unusual busyness, he published a collection of poems and essays and never sent them to me. I published two collections of essays, but I personally sent them to Chuxiong No. 1 Middle School for criticism and correction.

Qin Ershu, a female writer who is several years younger than me, is also much smaller than me. She is small and exquisite, but she is smart and talented. She was published before she was forty years old. He has written six novels and several short and medium stories, which often make me awe-inspiring when I think of them. Recently, her excellent novels have appeared on the headlines of a certain issue of "Yuhua" sponsored by the Jiangsu Provincial Writers Association and a key national security journal, and the large-scale journal "Qingming" sponsored by the Hui Province Federation of Literary and Art Circles, etc.

I have known Teacher Zhu Shaozhang for twenty years. In July 1994, when I just started working, a teacher and friend of Zhu Shaozhang showed me the manuscripts of several poems by Zhu Shaozhang and asked me if I liked them and whether these poems were good. Unfortunately, it has been so long that I may have accidentally lost the original manuscript. I only remember one of the beautiful sentences about moonlight, "Moonlight flows down like milk... Please let me caress your milk." When I first started teaching, I taught Xia Shaoneng, a cousin of Mr. Zhu Shaozhang. He often came to our school to see his cousin and play with his friends in our school, so I met Zhu Shaozhang several times. Later, I taught a child of Zhu Shaozhang's fellow villager who got along well with him, and I met Zhu Shaozhang several times because of this.

Teacher Zhu Shaozhang started writing poetry relatively early. He was a few years older than me and worked four or five years earlier than me. The year I was admitted to Yunnan Normal University, he went to teach in Chuxiong No. 1 Middle School and began to write poems and frequently publish them in various publications. At that time, our two state key middle schools often communicated with each other, and most of the teachers were familiar with each other. Many teachers in our school often talk with admiration about Zhu Shaozhang, the political teacher at Chuxiong No. 1 Middle School who writes poetry. Their teachers at Chuxiong No. 1 Middle School also often talk about me, who writes prose at Zhou Minzu Middle School. Although we don’t meet often, Teacher Zhu Shaozhang and I are actually very concerned about each other’s writing and publishing.

Li Changping is an official, but because he was also born in the countryside, many of his poems and prose are about the living conditions of rural farmers in the past and present. I was also born in the countryside, I am a farmer's son, and I also serve as a farmer. I have been a middle school Chinese teacher for many years, so I prefer Li Changping’s works. Li Changping's poems and essays about family and rural areas often made me cry for a long time.

Qin Ershu is my daughter-in-law’s fellow villager in Yongren County. My father-in-law, Yu, and her father are both the department heads of Yongren County. We know each other very well and respect each other, so our whole family loves to read Qin Ershu. Shu Shu’s novels, I often comment on her works before and after meals. My father-in-law and his whole family are full of praise for Xiao Qin’s novels. They even talk about Xiao Qin, a talented girl who came out of Yongren County, and her novels. We are proud to be a member of Yongren people.

Following such respectable writer friends, what reason do we have for slacking off and complaining? Why do we have any reason to be complacent about being able to "fly among the basil"?