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The Day I Let Go of My Darling: A True Story of Courage, Closure, Community, & Rebirth
Welcome to the ILLUMINATION Writing and Reading Academy on Substack, to offer curated content for readers and promote the work of writers as a novel discovery tool
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Turning Setbacks into Opportunities with Empathy
It was a cold Saturday morning in Melbourne, June 2024. I had just finished a 30-minute meditation on a longer fast at 4:30 AM when I checked my email. Six messages from Medium curators were waiting for me — all rejecting stories we had nominated for Boost from former ILLUMINATION-Curated. For each, I invested at least one hour of review, follow-up with their authors, editing, and pitching time.
Each of these stories was written by established writers who had poured their hearts into their work. Our senior editors had spent days — sometimes weeks — polishing, guiding, and supporting these writers to ensure every nomination met and exceeded Medium’s editorial guidelines.
Given my previously positive working relationship with the Boost program manager, I reached out via Slack — the same workspace I had…
