I was the reincarnation of Emily Brontë

The new issue of the Griffith Review (Spring 2006, Edition 13: The Next Best Thing) has been published.

This issue of Griffith REVIEW is the result of a call for new and emerging writers to describe the world as they see it and live it. The voices are fresh and exciting, the insights provocative, the writing outstanding. The Next Big Thing celebrates some of the best new talent in Australia.

Among these new talents we find Daniel Wynne. The name of his story is Emily, and yes.. we are talking of the same Emily. On the author's blog, it can be read:

My short story 'Emily' has been published in the Spring edition of The Griffith Review, an excellent quarterly anthology featuring essays, journalism, reporting, poetry, memoir and fiction.

The story is about a struggling author who tries to get his novel published by telling publishers that he's the reincarnation of Emily Bronte.

This is the beginning of the story as it can be read on the The Griffith Review table of contents:

Fiction: Emily Author: Daniel Wynne

In order to get my novel published, I told book publishers Allen & Unwin that I was the reincarnation of Emily Brontë.
I know it sounds ridiculous, but I really wanted to get their attention. I didn’t want to be another unpublished nobody with a failed novel rotting away at the bottom of the slush pile. I didn’t want to write another letter that said “Dear Allen & Unwin, I have written a novel that you may think worthy of consideration … blah blah blah.”
I wanted something that would make an impression. So I told them I was Emily Brontë, the young English girl who wrote the tragic Gothic romance Wuthering Heights. I told them I created every character: the passionate Catherine, the dangerous and bad‐tempered Heath‐cliff, the pompous rich snob Edgar Linton. I told them that literature fans everywhere would celebrate the news of my resurrection.
And in return, they sent me a letter that said:

Dear Emily,
If this is the best you can do after Wuthering Heights, we’re in serious trouble.
Yours sincerely,

Allen & Unwin

My girlfriend Patricia was mad. She was always mad. She spent most of her waking hours looking for a reason to yell at me. I had just given her another opportunity.
“You are such an idiot, Tom!” she yelled. “How can you honestly expect them to take you seriously with such a stupid made‐up story? Your novel isn’t even a damn thing like Wuthering Heights. It’s a fantasy epic about dragons and knights, and it’s a pretty bad one.”
I was hurt. She didn’t have to be such a bitch. (...)

Categories: Journals, Emily_Brontë, Fiction