It's unhealthy, really, to spend too much time obsessing over who's reading what right now. That doesn't mean I don't do it--I'm always logged into Submittable to see if any of my submissions are moving forward.
Four out of five first book awards are now reading my manuscript--the fourth just flipped to "In Progress" today. Two of the chapbook contests have started reading, too. I know that none of them are announcing winners until spring, but I'm really excited.
I also have a submission out at Kenyon Review that just flipped to "In Progress" within the last few days. As far as I''m concerned, every day that I don't receive a rejection letter from them is a step in the right direction. Having a poem published in KR is one of my career goals--I'll never not submit there. I think the poems they're considering are representative of some of my strongest work, so hopefully something will stand out. I also had to withdraw a poem from that submission--I like to think that that might add a layer of thinking that other editors are finding something relevant in my work. I also like to over-analyze everything.
I realize this may not be the year that I publish my first book, but this is definitely the year I started taking my first book seriously.
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