Category: US poetry

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Roundup: 16 US poetry journals with submissions details

In my last post I explained that although I haven’t seriously tried submitting to US poetry journals, I’d like to, and have started doing the research.

What follows here is a list of sixteen journals – obviously far from comprehensive, but it’s a starting point. Many of these publications have large, rich websites with articles, features, blog, podcasts, archives and more. There are also competitions and other opportunities alongside general submissions (which is my focus on here). So do go explore.

I did end up cutting a few of the titles when I discovered they were either not seeking work from abroad, or their websites or submissions processes were just too clunky or broken to manage, or I wasn’t confident they were still active and current.

In general: assume that all magazines require original, previously unpublished work. Always wait for a response before submitting more material. I also recommend reading at least a sample of the work they publish before submitting.

Atlanta Review

Print only, twice yearly.

Editor: Karen Head

What they say:

Atlanta Review, an international, award-winning poetry journal based in Atlanta, Georgia, has been published biannually since 1994. Located in the Georgia Institute of Technology.

We publish poems, not poets. (All submissions are read blind.)

Our Spring/Summer Issue is guest edited with poems curated from living poets in specific regions or countries in the world.

Poetry submissions:

No more than 5 poems per submission, only one submission per submission period (deadlines June 1st and December 1st) – more details on the Atlanta Review Submittable page. General online submissions fee is $3 (but free if you submit by post.) They aim to respond within 4 months. This is a print-only journal published twice-yearly.

Payment? Unclear.

 

The Baltimore Review

Online, quarterly.

Senior Editor: Barbara Westwood Diehl  (17 other editors are listed)

What they say: 

The Baltimore Review was founded by Barbara Westwood Diehl in 1996 as a literary journal publishing short stories and poems, with a mission to showcase the best writing from the Baltimore area, from across the U.S., and beyond. Our mission remains just that.

In 2012, The Baltimore Review began its new life as a quarterly, online literary journal.

Poetry submissions:

Submission periods are August 1 through November 30 and February 1 through May 31. The theme for the Winter 2018 contest is “Food.” Deadline: November 30.  Non-theme, non-contest submissions will also be accepted throughout each submission period. Simultaneous submissions are accepted.  Response time – from 1 to 4 months.

More details on The Baltimore Review Submittable page.

Payment? Non-contest submissions:  a copy of the annual compilation in which the author’s work appears, and a small payment ($40 Amazon gift certificate or $40 through PayPal, if preferred). “We also nominate our contributors’ work for every possible prize, and we send copies of the print compilation to the Best American series and other prize anthologies.”

Sample poem: ‘Bone’, by Leslie Adrienne Miller.

Blackbird

Online, twice yearly.

Senior Editors: Gregory Donovan & Mary Flinn

What they say:

Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts offers visitors from around the world outstanding fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and reviews, as well as plays, visual art, new media, and video essays.

We believe that contributors should be paid—as a gesture of respect—as we endeavor to give their work and their lives as artists our sustained support and attention by taking note of their ongoing accomplishments.

Blackbird was founded in 2002 as a joint venture of the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of English and New Virginia Review, Inc.

Poetry submissions:

Send up to 6 poems at a time. Next reading period is from November 15, 2017 to April 15, 2018. Simultaneous submissions acceptable as long as they are ‘indicated as such’. Online submissions preferred – full details here.

Payment? Yes, but unclear what.

Sample poem: ‘I know who you are’, Dana Crum

 

By&By Poetry 

Online, quarterly.

Editor: Jason Sears

What they say:

By&By Poetry, founded in 2015, aims to provide an eclectic online showcase for both established and up-and-coming poets. We aspire to shape By&By into a celebration of poetry, a place where poets can congregate, read, and be heard….

“By and by” evokes the humid warmth of Southern hymns, the comfort of a grandmother or grandfather, the all-encompassing belief in the future. A term that once denoted a sense of immediacy, “by and by” now implies an eventual hereafter.

Poetry submissions:

Accepted year-round via Submittable (no fee). No more than 5 poems at a time. Include a cover letter, short bio and something about why you think these poems are a good fit with By&By. No payment for publication, but the editors “aim for a speedy seven day turnaround time. If we haven’t reached out to you within a month, feel free to gently prod us into action via Submittable.”

Payment? None.

Sample poem: ‘Pruned’, by Nicole V Bastia

 

The Carolina Quarterly

Print, twice yearly. Selected content published online also.

Editor: Moira Marquis

What they say:

The Carolina Quarterly has been publishing established and emergent writers for 65 years. It features a variety of poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, and artwork.

Poetry submissions:

Submissions are accepted year round, both by mail and through Submittable. ($2.50 fee.) No more than 6 poems at a time. Expect four to six months for a decision. Simultaneous submissions are OK but let them know if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Payment? Unclear.

Sample poem: ‘The Mudsuckers’ by Lindsay Wilson

 

Coal City Review

Annual. Thanks to Maggie Sawkins for suggesting this.

Editor: Brian Daldorph

What they say:

Since 1990, Coal City has published 20 annual reviews and 7 collections of poetry. Our contributors are tall, short, male, female, American, foreign, rich, poor, free, imprisoned, discontented, contented, rural, urban, suburban, liberal and not-so-liberal.  The traits they share are curiosity, compassion, insight and fierce commitment to good writing.

Poetry submissions:

Coal City Review welcomes submissions of literary poetry and short stories throughout the year. Send up to 6 poems. NB All submissions by SNAIL MAIL ONLY – see the submissions page for details.

 

Copper Nickel

Print, twice yearly. Selected content published online also.

Managing Editor: Wayne Miller

Poetry Editors: Brian Barker and Nicky Beer

What they say:

Copper Nickel is the national literary journal housed at the University of Colorado Denver—was founded by poet Jake Adam York in 2002. Work published in Copper Nickel has appeared in the Best American Poetry, Best American Short Stories, and Pushcart Prize anthologies, and has been listed as “notable” in the Best American Essays anthology.

Poetry submissions:

Submissions accepted from August 15 to March 15. Please submit four to six poems at a time. Simultaneous submissions OK but let them know if accepted elsewhere. They try to respond to all submissions within eight weeks, though response times can be longer—particularly in the late spring and summer. Submittable page (no fee).

Payment?

Starting with the spring 2017 issue, Copper Nickel pays $30 per page + contributors copies + a one-year subscription. (Per-page payment could vary slightly from year to year, based on funding.)

They also award a $500 prize per issue – the Editors’ Prize in Poetry -for what they consider to be the most exciting work in each issue, as determined by a vote of in-house editorial staff.

Sample poem: ‘New You’ by Allison Campbell

The Florida Review

Print, twice yearly. The sister online magazine is Aquifer.

Editor & Director: Lisa Roney

Poetry editor: Kenneth Hart

What they say:

The Florida Review publishes exciting new work from around the world from writers both emerging and well known. We are not Florida-exclusive, though we acknowledge having a jungle mentality and a preference for grit, and we have provided and continue to offer a home for many Florida writers. We have been in more or less continuous semi-annual print publication since 1975 and have recently (2017) added a new literary supplement in Aquifer: The Florida Review Online, which will feature new literary works on a weekly basis, as well as author interviews, book reviews, and digital storytelling.

We are looking for innovative, luxuriant, insightful human stories—and for things that might surprise us. We like writing that takes risks, affects us deeply, and yet also meets the highest standards of beautiful language and  syntax that supports the meaning of the work.

Poetry submissions:

International submissions are welcome via Submittable. Interested in well-crafted poems that sing and take risks—in style or subject. Traditional forms and free verse, any length. Send no more than 5 poems at a time. They strive to respond in 3 to 6 months, though sometimes it takes 8 months. NB read all the submissions guidelines as they are long and specific.

Payment? Starting this year they are awarding modest annual prizes to one non-contest-winner “staff pick” writer in each category (poetry being one).

Sample poem:  Two poems by Betsy Sholl (Aquifer)

 

Indiana Review

Twice yearly, print

Editors-in-chief: Tessa Yang, Su Cho

Poetry editors: Anni Liu, Emily Corwin

What they say:

Now in its thirty-ninth year of publication, Indiana Review is a non-profit literary magazine dedicated to showcasing the talents of emerging and established writers. Our mission is to offer the highest quality writing within a wide aesthetic. Works by contributors to IR have been awarded the Pushcart Prize and reprinted in The Pushcart Prize Anthology: Best of the Small Presses, as well as in Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, and The O. Henry Prize Stories.

Poetry submissions:

General submission period is September 1, 2017 to October 31, 2017. Send only 3-6 poems per submission. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. However, you must contact them ASAP if your work has been accepted elsewhere. “Please also note that because we are not influenced by cover letters it is perfectly fine to not include a cover letter with your submission.” Response time is usually 1 – 4 months, but may at times be longer. IR accepts less than half of 1% of work submitted.

Payment?

$5.00 per page ($10.00 minimum) and one year’s subscription, beginning with the issue in which their work appears.

Sample poem: This is a print magazine, but poems appear occasionally on the blog.

 

Kenyon Review

Print (6 issues a year) and digital version – either instead of print or as an optional add-on to print subscription. You can also buy digital versions individual issues.

KR Online is the online sister publication.

Poetry editor: David Baker

What they say:

Building on a tradition of excellence dating back to 1939, the Kenyon Review has evolved from a distinguished literary magazine to a pre-eminent arts organization. Today, KR is devoted to nurturing, publishing, and celebrating the best in contemporary writing. We’re expanding the community of diverse readers and writers, across the globe, at every stage of their lives.

Poetry Submissions:

Send up to 6 poems. Reading period September 15th through November 1st, 2017. Response time: they aim for within 4 months. NB: All submissions are considered for both the Kenyon Review and KROnline. The two are aesthetically distinct spaces – “we urge our submitters to read and become familiar with both.” The submissions page will contain a live link to Submittable when the window opens.

Payment? Yes, but unclear what.

Sample poem (from KR Online): ‘Guerrilla Theory’ by Kien Lam

 

The Manhattan Review

Print – two, possibly 3 issues per year

Editor: Philip Fried

What they say:

Founded in 1980, The Manhattan Review has won praise for its balance of American and international poetry, its distinguished interview series, and its many firsts. In the last decade MR has endeavoured to publish the best contemporary British poetry alongside the work of excellent American poets.

Poetry submissions:

Send 3-5 poems, any time. Avoid simultaneous submissions. Contributors from abroad my send by email. See the full guidelines here.

Payment: no mention of any.

Sample poem: ‘Vasari’s Last Supper’ by Rosalind Hudis

 

Poetry

Print, monthly

Editor: Don Share

What they say:

Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world.

Poetry submissions:

Send no more than 4 poems at a time. Response can take 7 months (they get a LOT of submissions!) Read the full guidelines on their Submittable page.

Payment:

Payment is made on publication at the rate of $10 per line (with a minimum payment of $300), and $150 per page of prose, for first serial rights. All rights will revert to the author upon publication. Authors will also receive two contributor copies of the issue in which their work appears.

Sample poem: ‘Ode with Interruptions’ by Rick Barot

 

Potomac Review

Print, twice yearly

Editor in chief: John W. Wang

Poetry editor: Katherine Smith

What they say:

Rooted in the nation’s capital’s suburbs, Potomac Review is the antidote to the scripted republic that surrounds it. By taking on D.C.’s values of international inclusion, Potomac Review looks out into the world from its lush Potomac River basin, collecting and absorbing the world’s literary diversity. Potomac Reviewseeks literature from emerging as well as established writers around the globe to facilitate in the literary conversation.

Poetry submissions:

Accepted all year round via their Submittable page. Send up to 3 poems. Simultaneous submissions are welcome but contact them ASAP if your work has been accepted elsewhere. They typically respond within four to six months.

Payment?

Two complimentary copies and a 40% discount for additional copies.

 

Radar

Online, four times a year

Editor: Rachel Marie Patterson

What they say:

We publish poems from established and emerging writers and welcome international submissions. Our taste is eclectic; we encourage submitters to read our past issues before sending work.

We are interested in the interplay between poetry and visual media. Each issue features pairings of poetry and artwork, selected by the editors and contributors.

Poetry submissions:

General submissions via Submittable open October 1 through June 30. Send 3 – 5 poems. They aim to respond within a month. From July to September they read submissions for the Coniston Prize, this year judged by Dorothea Lasky.

Sample poem: ‘Biography’ by Erin Malone

 

Rattle

Print, quarterly. All poems also published on the blog, a poem a day.

Editor: Timothy Green

What they say:

….more than anything, our goal is to promote a community of active poets. That means we care as much about submitters as subscribers. Lawyers, landscapers, homemakers, and Pulitzer Prize winners are all treated the same—and we’ve published them all. We only occasionally solicit work, and for representational balance, not prestige. At Rattle, anything always goes. If a poem is accessible, interesting, moving, and memorable, if it makes you laugh or cry, then it’s the kind of poem that rattles around inside you for years, and it’s our kind of poem.

Poetry submissions:

Submit year-round via Submittable. Send up to 4 poems. No fees to submit. Simultaneous submissions are encouraged – “if another journal beats us to the punch, congratulations!” Detailed submissions guidelines are here.

Payment?

Contributors in print receive $100/poem and a complimentary one-year subscription to the magazine. Online contributors receive $50/poem.

All submissions are automatically considered for the annual Neil Postman Award for Metaphor, a $1,000 prize judged by the editors.

Sample poem: ‘This has nothing to do with willpower’ by Ted Jonathan

 

The Seattle Review

Print, twice yearly, publishing long form only

Editor in Chief: Andrew Feld

What they say:

The Seattle Review is a print journal wholly committed to the publication of longer works of poetry, novellas, and lyric essays. It is our belief that this format offers a unique venue for the publication of significant and risk-taking works by both new and established writers.

Poetry submissions:

Accepted all year round via Submittable. There’s a $3 reading fee from June 1 to September 30. A ‘long’ poem means at least 10 pages in length, but there are other criteria – best to read the detailed guidelines here.

Payment? Contributors will receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears, and a year’s subscription to the Seattle Review.

Sample poem: poems occasionally published on the blog.

 

At this point I rather ran out of steam

– but wanted to mention a couple more briefly, even though they didn’t make this particular cut:

Tarpaulin Sky – chaotic website but brilliant and very funny (and that’s just the ‘subscribe to our press’ page). Submissions guidelines are here, although it sounds like they’re not open at the moment. Lots of great alternative, smart & interesting poetry & visuals on the site.

CutBank – I really liked the look of this (print and online) journal based in Montana, but it sounded like they perhaps aren’t looking for submissions from overseas. They say they are “global in scope, but with a regional bias.”

 

At some point I’ll review & update this list and would be happy to add to it – if you have any more suggestions please leave them in the comments.

Also, if you do submit to any of them let us know how it was for you… and I’ll do the same. Thanks.

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Submitting to US poetry journals, part 1

some US poetry mags

You know how it happens – you start following a link, then you get so engrossed in something you end up forgetting about your current ‘to do’ list. So there I was, reading a poet’s biog, I followed a link to a magazine I didn’t recognise, and got thinking ‘hmm, my XYZ poem could work well here’. It was a US online journal, and I remembered I was once going to write a blog post about submitting to US journals, aimed primarily at UK poets.

First of all, an admission: I don’t have a great track record of subscribing or submitting to US journals, but I enjoy Rattle and used to subscribe to Poetry (until they decided to make it very difficult for non-US residents to subscribe).** In the past I’ve never felt confident that my work would fit. Too British. But I’m starting to feel that may be changing.

** UPDATED 21/8 – after hearing from Don Share on Twitter, I can report that Poetry’s online subscription process now accommodates overseas addresses, so I have re-subscribed. Huge thanks to Don – I’m somewhat amazed that the editor of the most famous poetry mag in what was once known as ‘the free world’ should take the time and care to reach out to a humble subscriber. Truly deserving of a Mexican wave around the poetry community.

As with all journals, it’s a good a idea to sample a publication before submitting. This is of course where online magazines come into their own – you can read current and back issues and check out their aesthetic. Also, you’ll often find very specific information about a US journal’s mission and what they welcome (other than the not terribly helpful ‘send us your best work’ which always strikes me as odd. Why would I even want an editor to read and publish something if I don’t feel it represents my best work?)

So how do you start submitting to these magazines?

  1. The Poetry Society of America has a long list of magazines  – this is a great resource but I suspect it hasn’t been updated lately. There are forty-nine journals listed here which have broken links, and some magazines aren’t listed. Still useful though.
  2. Read poet biogs – once you start browsing US poetry magazines you’ll find poems/poets you like, or that you could imagine your work appearing alongside. Read the biogs, see where else they are published, and check out those places.
  3. Start collecting info on a spreadsheet – web address, editor’s name, submission window dates, link to submission guidelines, and so forth. It can then be a monthly task to check what windows are coming up, and decide whether to submit or not.

Deciding where to submit

Not every journal is going to be right for your work, and there may be other reasons why you are attracted to one magazine over another. For example I know I’m influenced by things like the stated response time and whether they use Submittable (which I like). I’m perfectly happy with paying a small reading fee, whereas I know some poets are not.

Getting the information together is a first step. Then I try to narrow it down to a few targets, revisit them and read more, think about what poems I might send them or set a reminder to do this once their window is open.

Personally I like to have a bit of a strategy because I feel it’s the best use of my time. I don’t have that many poems at any one time so a scattergun approach wouldn’t work for me. But I know some poets always have plenty of poems ready to send. If that’s you, and you target magazines who are OK with simultaneous submissions, then you could set aside some time and do a mass send out.

In my next post I’ll be listing some US magazines, with submission details and other info. Depending on how long this turns out to be, it may be more than one post.

Meanwhile, if you have any experiences of US poetry magazines that you’ve submitted to, or considered submitting to, or any stories/advice you’d like to share, do let me know in the comments.

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Some inspirational writing & poetry sites to enjoy in 2016

Awesome literary websites

Happy New Year, and welcome to the rest of your life. May it be a long, healthy and happy one.

Had a nice Christmas? Glad it’s over now? It’s OK to answer ‘yes’ to both, by the way.

I’m in a contemplative mood. It’s great to look out of the window and see just one car parked on the street where most days of the year they are nose-to-tail. It’s great to feel a great relaxing downpull like one of those huge blow-up Santas deflating.

Let’s look forward, not back. I thought I’d share a few of the blogs & online resources I’ve been enjoying, some of them old favourites and others relatively recent finds.

These are all sites I go back to regularly for insights, inspiration, learning and entertainment.

If you enjoy this post, please share it with your social media contacts and writer friends. These are excellent sites and many run on nothing much more than love and a prayer. Many thanks.

Literary Hub

I subscribe to the LitHub Daily, a brief email with one-line links to thought-provoking articles on sundry (brilliant) websites. So I guess you’d call Literary Hub an aggregator site of curated material. Like the other sites I mention here it’s much more than just a load of links – the true value of this type of site lies in the quality of the curation and presentation of content, the design and ordering of material to give the reader a seamless and exciting way in and through.

Their description: Literary Hub is an organizing principle in the service of literary culture, a single, trusted, daily source for all the news, ideas and richness of contemporary literary life.

Sample post: The Unheralded Monk who Turned his Small Town into a Center of Publishing – Martin Luther, Revolutionary Disruptor and Start-up Success Story

Transatlantic Poetry

Once a month, live poetry reading podcasts which you can then access afterwards at any time. Usually one US poet and one UK, reading from the intimacy of their sitting room. There are a number of different hosts doing the introductions, including Anglo-American poet Robert Peake and Timothy Green, editor of Rattle (my current US magazine du choix). A simple idea, well executed.

Their description: Transatlantic Poetry is a global poetry movement bringing some of the most exciting poets from the US, UK, Europe and beyond together for live online readings and conversations.

Sample podcast: Danez Smith and Liz Berry, September 2015

Divedapper

I came across this site quite recently – transcriptions of interviews with poets by Kaveh Akbar, the brains behind Divedapper (yes, it’s actually a bird – you have to visit the site to find out more.) Kaveh has a nice way of bringing out the candour in his subjects. I suppose the poets are all or mostly US-based, as I wasn’t familiar with most of the names, so that’s interesting too as an interview often makes me want to read more of a poet’s work.

Official site description: a new project devoted exclusively to featuring interviews with major voices in contemporary poetry. It has no affiliation with any institution, academic or literary or otherwise.

Sample post: Interview with Sharon Olds– ‘I write as much crap as anyone.’

Poetry Foundation

I know, I know – a longstanding (nay, towering) figure on the poetry scene, but impossible to leave out. There’s so much on this site that’s good, it’s easy to forget and think of it as ‘just’ the website for Poetry magazine. Listen to iconic poets reading their work, browse poems by title, poet, even season…read articles, find teaching resources (if that’s what you’re looking for) and explore the Foundation’s many initiatives.

Their description: The Poetry Foundation is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.

Sample: Winter poems

Jacket2

I’ve hardly scratched the surface of this rich site, but I’ve enjoyed listening to some of their podcasts in which poets gather for close readings of featured work, or interview poets and ‘poetry people’.  There are reviews, features and in-depth essays … it looks like an awesome resource.

Their description: Jacket2 offers commentary on modern and contemporary poetry and poetics. We publish articles, reviews, interviews, discussions and collaborative responses, archival documents, podcasts, and descriptions of poetry symposia and projects.

Sample podcast: Roundtable analysis of James Schuyler’s poem ‘February’, featuring the poet reading his work.

Entropy

It’s tough to describe this site adequately, plus it’s new to me to I’m only finding out as I go along. Its range is wide – from poetry to games. All I can say is DO take a look.

Their description: CCM-Entropy is the result of newly merged Civil Coping Mechanisms and Entropy, an independent literature community and portal that includes CCM: publisher & promoter of kick-ass independent literature, Entropy: a magazine and community of contributors that publishes diverse literary and non-literary content, and Enclave: a community blog that exists as an open and central space for contributors representing different literary communities, corners, and aesthetics to express themselves openly, urgently.

Sample post: Dear Blank Space: A Literacy Narrative by Jennifer S Cheng

Brain Pickings

Oh I know I’ve talked about this site before, but it continues to deliver wonderful content so I’ll say it again – it’s an amazing compendium of fine writing, insights, stories and inspiration, masterminded by Maria Popova. Subscribe to the ‘free weekly interestingness digest’ and you won’t be disappointed.

Site description by Maria: Brain Pickings is my one-woman labor of love — a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why. Mostly, it’s a record of my own becoming as a person — intellectually, creatively, spiritually — and an inquiry into how to live and what it means to lead a good life. Founded in 2006 as a weekly email that went out to seven friends and eventually brought online, the site was included in the Library of Congress permanent web archive in 2012.

Sample post:  Ursula K. Le Guin on the Sacredness of Public Libraries

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The Road Not Taken & FOMO

Two roads diverged

Just the other day Don Share posted on Twitter a link to a recording of Robert Frost reading ‘The Road Not Taken’. How wonderful to hear it in the poet’s voice. Here it is on YouTube:

Matthew Hollis, in his 2011 biography of Edward Thomas, Now All Roads Lead to France, tells of Thomas’s distress at this poem, taking it so personally, in fact, that it was the final push that sent him off to war (and his death). This, despite Frost trying to reassure him the poem wasn’t meant as an admonishment for Thomas’s (self-perceived) cowardice or indecision, but rather a very mixed message indeed, full of ironies and what the poet called ‘the fun of the thing’.

Then this morning I open up the latest email from Maria Popova’s excellent Brain Pickings, to read another beautiful essay, this week on the topic of all our roads not taken – In Praise of Missing Out: Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips on the Paradoxical Value of Our Unlived Lives.

In this early internet age of ‘fear of missing out’ – one of the truly troubling aspects of social media – the idea of being haunted by the road not taken, or the lives we might have lived or perhaps we feel we ought to be living, seems extraordinarily relevant.

As Philips puts it, “We have an abiding sense, however obscure and obscured, that the lives we do lead are informed by the lives that escape us,” going on to argue that our ‘wished for’ or fantasy lives, the ones we could have/might have lived, are as much a part of us as our real lives, and as Popova says, “the most ideal of these missed-out-on experiences reveal a great deal about the realest aspects of our lives.”

This is a fascinating read which got me thinking about so many aspects of online behaviour, not just FOMO or how the medium seems to fan the flames of envy, but also the holding power of online communities, fantasy worlds and games. I wrote an academic paper on the subject fifteen years ago entitled ‘You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave’ – props to the first person to tell us in the comments what song that line comes from!

Angst/

The poetry competition game

Compers NewsPerhaps that could be a poem title? Should I send it to the Poetry London comp, or is more of a Poetry on the Lake  sort of title? Could I get some kind of double meaning out of ‘game’ in order to make it a nature poem and would it appeal to Simon Armitage when judging the Rialto comp?

‘Games’ were fun things we did as kids, weren’t they? if you discount ‘games’ – that Wednesday afternoon ritual at secondary school that usually involved mud, cold and not being picked for the team. But now we have gaming. Gamesmanship. Game over. Not fun any more. Or is it?

If we decide to enter poetry competitions we could approach it as a game (ie a bit of fun). We give a go, and if we win it’s great – sometimes a cash prize, sometimes a prize giving event or publication. Or in the case of a big competition, career-enhancing. We don’t mind paying to enter because it’s a lot of work for judges and organisers. And besides, the entry fees are a way of giving something back to poetry – the promoters of competitions are usually publishers after all, or champions of poetry in some way.

Is there an alternative? In the wider world of ‘comping’, there are people who make a good living from competitions and win more iPads, Audis and holidays than they can cope with. Apparently the secret is to approach it systematically. Less beach cricket, more The Hunger Games. A serious comper will tell you it’s a waste of time NOT to approach it this way.

So is that also true of poetry competitions? I’ve read various posts about this – what makes for a competition-winning poem, what ‘due diligence’ should be done before entering a competition, whether you’ve got more chance in a smaller competition than a big one (not as obvious as it sounds!) Judges are often happy to give their side of it, either being helpful before the fact (Emma Lee has written a good article outlining exactly what she looks for when judging a competition) or in judge’s reports (which often tell is like it is – essential reading!) Personally, I find the shortlists and longlists (for those competitions that make them public) tell you a lot. I’m often amazed at some ‘big name’ poets entering competitions. And the sheer number of entries from some poets – either money’s no object or their strategy is spend big to win big…

I also read recently (can’t remember on whose blog – help me out, someone) that competition-winning poems don’t necessarily have a place in a pamphlet (and vice versa). I quite enjoy sometimes writing to a theme, but is writing ‘competition poems’ anathema to a poet working on a pamphlet or a collection? And yet that’s a bit of a broad judgement too –  look at Ian Duhig’s marvellous The Lammas Hireling, winning the National and then the title poem of a fine collection.

I came across this interesting piece by Jendi Reiter which, although it’s primarily to do with submitting to US journals and competitions, I still found useful. I rather like her reminder that if you enter competitions, “you’re going to get a lot more rejection than validation, and internalizing others’ opinions of your worth will lead to writers’ block or fearful, unoriginal writing.” I think this is one reason I’m so ambivalent about it. I’m not sure I can keep up a healthy attitude to writing poetry at the same time as entering comps. And yet part of me enjoys the game, and every now and then I can’t resist it.

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Christmas reading material

I can’t tell you how great it will be to get our dining room back in order – currently it’s awash with piles of music, half-made Christmas cards, newspaper spread about the place with things drying (paint, glue), various papers to do with work but not yet actioned or filed, plus books and magazines I haven’t yet read, and laundry. OK, so the laundry will be under control today I hope. But I’ve just scooped up a bunch of reading material that I’m hoping I’ll get to enjoy a read of over Christmas.

Books to read this Xmas

I’ve been sitting on the Vanguard #1Poetry Anthology for several weeks, and a glance at the list of contributors confirms that it’s going to be a strong read.

Then there’s Josephine Corcoran’s new pamphlet, ‘The Misplaced House‘. I’m familiar with a few of the poems in this and I’m very pleased for Josephine that she’s been published by tall-lighthouse, their pamphlets are invariably excellent.

Recently arrived in the post is the BlueGate Poets Anthology 2014 which will be fun to delve into. I’m a sort of associate member of BlueGate  – I live rather a long way from their Swindon heartland, so don’t get to join in things much, but I’m there in spirit!

Also just in is the December edition of Poetry – the first issue of my new subscription, and I couldn’t resist a quick look through when it arrived, reading the introduction to the section on Larry Eigner. I’m very excited about being introduced to a wider range of contemporary poets and learning more about the US scene.

You might wonder what Thoughts on Design by Paul Rand is doing here. Not poetry, but close – Rand was a highly influential graphic designer who wrote this ‘manifesto’ in 1947, updated in 1970, and it’s still considered to be a classic. I’m halfway through this super book, illustrated throughout with Rand’s own designs, many of which are very familiar (for example logos for IBM and ABC).

More christmas reading

And that’s not all! Last week at the very jolly Brighton Christmas Extrava-Stanza, poet friend Antony offered me his copy of Frank O’Hara’s Selected Poems, having moved onto his ‘Collected’… it’s already proving to be a wonderful ‘lucky dip’ sort of book (yes I know, call me superficial!) and I’m so pleased to have this to hand. O’Hara is one of those poets whose name comes up often and I’d already had him down as a poet I wanted to read more of.

Add to the mix Allison McVety’s Lighthouses which has been sat patiently awaiting reading, Jayne Stanton’s pamphlet ‘Beyond the Tune’ and D A Prince‘s luscious-looking book Common Ground, which I have started but not had a chance to return to, that’s probably enough reading material to keep me out of mischief.

Oh, and I’m launching a new ‘regional focus’ series on this blog – starting with Leicestershire  – but that might have to wait until the New Year, as I’m in the middle of a blog tour to promote ‘Blogging for Writers’…ack!

SUBMISSIONS UPDATE: following last week’s blog post – thanks for all the discussion around this, on this blog, on Facebook and by email –  I can report two sets of rejections, both mags responding within days of the blog post …. interesting! Let’s hope it’s not toooooo long before I can report something more positive!

Courses/

Notes from a Don Share masterclass

Don Share

What is it about poets called Don? There’s Don Paterson for starters. Don. Paterson. And now Don Share.  Maybe it’s the the power/mafia connotations (Don Corleone). Or the suggestion of raffishness (Don Juan). Or the hidden warning: not DO but DON’t.

So here’s the thing: picture sixteen or so poets perched in a circle, hothoused in a room of the Richard Jefferies Museum on the edge of Swindon. All eyes and ears are on the Editor of Poetry, Don Share, who’s been flown in from Chicago for the Swindon Festival of Poetry. No-one quite knows what to expect, but I for one am hoping not to have to do any work at all, other than listen and take the odd note. And that’s exactly what happened.

After the initial introductions, Don had a pretty good idea of just how much ambition and urgency was present in the room, and he set to answering our (mostly unspoken) questions. In the afternoon, there was some expectation that we’d all subject Don to one of our poems, for him to offer some pointers. We’d lost two participants (including one of the only 2 men) by then, but there still wasn’t time for everyone to have a go. But no-one really minded, especially as Don offered to email his comments to anyone who’d been left out.

I admired the way Don kept the energy going throughout the day when others might have wilted. Some of the funniest moments were clearly unscripted, such as the ten minute discussion about how he’d agonised over publishing a poem, the problem being the poet’s use of the word ‘slab’. And when he said with no hint of irony that he’d always wanted to visit Swindon (“it’s in the Domesday Book!”) Or pronouncing on the poetry greats: “I’ve no idea what they were setting out to do, what was going through their minds – maybe they were just geniuses and we’re all screwed!” And later on “The Waste Land is just crazy-ass!”

Of course there was also a huge amount of fascinating stuff…although you ‘had to be there’, here are my notes which I hope give a flavour of it. Huge thanks to Don for his generous sharing (no pun intended).

Don Share in Swindon

On the editor’s role

There are good editors who are not poets. There are good poets who are not great editors. Don sees them as 2 distinct roles. He reads a LOT of poetry – the magazine gets 120,000 submissions a year, for starters, and all are read by Don and Consulting Editor Christina Pugh.

Editors must be ‘pitiless and undeceived’

Editors can’t be publishing only poets with an established reputation – if that were case then (for example) Poetry wouldn’t have published T S Eliot. (As it was, the publication of ‘Prufrock’ in 1915 resulted in years of hatemail.) He still gets hatemail from people about stuff that’s published. “If we go down the route of only publishing what everyone thinks poetry is/should be, then we’re lost.”

Don doesn’t necessarily like most of the poems he publishes. It’s not about liking – “the most powerful poems are infuriating”. Christina Pugh’s judgement on the majority of ‘perfectly competent’ poems is “there’s nothing at stake here.”

On comparing oneself to the great poets

It’s absolutely correct to say ‘I’m not Ted Hughes’ or ‘I’m no Emily Dickinson’ – because they were themselves, and so must any poet be. “you can’t imagine Emily Dickinson in a workshop.”

Don read ALL the back issues of Poetry and he says that 94% of the poetry published in it over the hundred years or so is not good (ie it hasn’t stood the test of time).

The key for ‘competent poets’ – ie those of us getting published, writing perfectly OK poems, making a bit of a poetry name for ourselves – is to not just aim for mere competence. Don remembered when Derek Walcott became his mentor, looked over one of his poems and said ‘This is very good, well done … you could write these kinds of poems all your life… but is it your life’s work?”

Don’s advice – list ten poems that for you are absolute favourites, poems  you aspire to, and ask yourself  “are these competent poems? What makes them more than that?”

What can the poor aspiring poet do??

Eliminate the ‘obvious stupidities’:

  1. Be honest – ie true to what you know, where you’re from, what you’ve lived. (This wasn’t discussed exactly but it made me think that perhaps the ‘poetic’ elements that can creep into a poem are to do with adopting a register that’s foreign to us in everyday speech. There was some discussion afterwards about how playing up to one’s ‘roots’ was a big trend in poetry at the moment – leaving those of us with very little in the way of distinguishing features – ethnic, regional, class etc – feeling a bit disadvantaged!)
  2. Be specific. Make the reader live it/see it/ feel it like you do. “As soon as I see the word ‘bird’ in a poem, I’m done.” What kind of bird? “If it’s not coming from something you know, it’s scenic … it’s got to come from a place of honesty. When an American reads Ted Hughes, they see what he sees, it’s as if they were where he was – it’s not about a kind of realism, it’s about being able to inject a reader with an image.”
  3. Another problem is that students of poetry are shown (or study) the great poems, and if that’s all they read (rather than reading broadly from a poet’s body of work) – that is a problem. If you only read the exemplars then you don’t have a feel for how the poet got where they did. Even the great poets wrote some crappy poems, went through stages when they couldn’t or didn’t write great poetry. “The work that your worst poems do has to be the work that your best poems do” … “make something of what you’re bad at” – (I’m still pondering what this means exactly).

“The things you worry about least in your poem are the things that can set the poem apart, if you pay attention to them.”

“If you start off knowing what you’re trying to say then the poem becomes predictable.”

“Readers are like editors – they catch you out.”

Tips/ comments from the workshopping session

  • Form – how a poem’s laid out on the page – is the first thing the reader/editor notices. Have a reason for the choosing the form you’ve chosen. Things like stepped lines, right aligned, spaces, one word on a line – what’s the reasoning? If you were to read it out loud, is the form obvious to the reader, and if not, why not put it into a form that matches how you read it? The rhythm might shape the poem. Play around with form. Try different things.
  • The title is the next biggest thing – if it says too much then the poem isn’t a surprise.
  • Pay attention to consistency of tone/language / register
  • Some of the lines of your poem may be scaffolding – it serves a purpose while the poem is evolving, but can be taken out at the end (I liked this a lot!)
  • Similarly, you can often edit out the first few lines – they’re often just like the vamping that musicians do before they start the actual piece of music
  • Using the pronouns ‘she’ or ‘he’ – why not ‘I’? It’s a distancing thing so maybe there’s a psychological purpose for it? Don’s advice is that readers prefer not to be put at a distance, want to feel the speaker is talking directly – more powerful.
  • Why not give people names? Character come to life when they’re given a name – readers care more if it feels like direct speech not just a story told by someone else. Don gives the example of Ted Hughes’ Letters – it’s the fact that it’s Ted & Sylvia that we’re reading that makes it so fascinating, not “just another guy in a crappy relationship.” If a poem is about a couple, their relationship, why not tell us their names?
  • Details, specifics. They can make a poem more memorable, different, unique even. eg ‘Adlestrop’. Think of Betjeman with all the proper names he uses. Larkin.
  • If you allude to something, the observation has to be good enough to stand alone, in case the reader doesn’t get the allusion
  • Be careful with words like ‘gush’ and ‘spume’ as they can overpower others. (Perhaps this should be the basis of a list – ‘words that overpower’?)
  • Somebody or something must be changed in the course of a poem – either in the poem itself or in the reader or both. There’s a shift – what is it?

I have some back issues of Poetry from when I took advantage of a freebie offer I think, and it’s a great magazine – I’m now motivated to subscribe properly, as one of my ‘rolling subscription’ system whereby I try to get around to subscribing to different magazines for at least a year at a time. The Poetry Foundation website is a fantastic free resource in itself, and every month there’s a Poetry Magazine Podcast that’s definitely worth a listen.

Robin Houghton & Don Share
Star-struck selfie
Angst/

On persistence, or, another submissions stock-take

Broken Giant sculpture

Being back early from our hols due to N spraining his ankle, I found I had a day ‘in hand’ and was strangely at a loss. Until I remembered I’d been waiting for such an opportunity (ie an unallocated day) to sit down and open the ‘poetry’ folder on my computer.

I find it hard to get into writing poetry after a break, until I’ve done all the preliminary activity – checking what I’ve got still out, what’s in the ‘almost ready-needs work’ pile, a quick flick through the ‘rejecteds’ to see if I’m moved to re-work any of them. Then there’s the catching up with all the blogs I’ve not read in a while. I might check on what submission deadlines are coming up, and decide whether to go for them. It feels a bit like circling in a plane before landing – checking the terrain, the wind speed, the ‘big picture’, waiting for the best moment to touchdown.

One blog post that really got me thinking was this from the ever-excellent Jeffrey Levine: On reading and reading fees – how things happen round here.  Jeffrey is the Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Press, currently accepting pamphlet and full-length collection submissions, and this blog post addresses the issue of why they charge reading fees. Apparently some poets have questioned why a reading fee is charged every time a manuscript is submitted, even though it may be the exact same manuscript as previously sent. Personally I have no issue with this – I think if one expects one’s manuscript to be read and considered then it’s right to pay for the reader’s time, expertise and thoughtfulness. If you send the same manuscript again, you can’t expect it to either be read by the same person (necessarily), or even if it is, for that person to remember it from before.

But the article covers much more than that – Jeffrey goes into a lot of detail about how he reads and responds to manuscripts, and it’s fascinating. Apparently it’s not uncommon for poets to submit the same manuscript again and again – ‘virtually everything we’ve ever published has been submitted to us several times over, even by those you might think of as Tupelo’s “big names.”’ One of the reasons I created my own pamphlet was because I was convinced that submitting the same pamphlet (more or less) to the same publishers again and again (and having it rejected) was a useless exercise, and that if a reader came to recognise the same set of poems it would just reinforce a sense of that poet having nothing fresh to offer.

I guess this just shows how much I have to learn. As Jeffrey says: “Sometimes big revisions make a big difference. Sometimes small revisions make a big difference. Sometimes a fresh reading makes a big difference. Often, even subtle changes in the order of the poems makes a huge difference. And sometimes, between one submission period and the next, a poet has an epiphany about how to make his/her poems or manuscript work—something snaps into place and s/he just gets it…..Moreover, I am not the same reader every time I read a manuscript. My tastes evolve. My reactions aren’t predictable. Being human, my attention span varies. Being human, what makes me want to turn the pages one day may not work for me the next day.”

It got me thinking about my attitude to individual poems. Last year I did a rough stock-take of how many times I’d send out a poem before putting it away in the bottom drawer. It doesn’t show a lot of persistence. I tend to only persist with those I think have something. And yet I know full well that my own appraisal of a poem has no bearing whatsoever on whether it meets the approval of an editor or competition judge. It always puzzles me when editors say on their websites ‘send us your very best work’ – would a poet really send something out if they didn’t think it was good? But then again – and perhaps more to the point – what difference does it make if the poet doesn’t think it’s good?

I’ve stalled a bit this year, in terms of getting poems published, but that’s mostly down to my own lack of temerity (I think) – I just haven’t been sending enough stuff out, because I haven’t been writing much new material, and I’ve lost faith in all the ‘rejecteds’, when what I probably should be doing is looking hard at the rejected poems. Maybe there are some I can improve. Or maybe I just need to try sending them to different publications. Or both. One thing I have been doing this year, even if not writing, is reading. I’ve subscribed to some different magazines to see what’s out there, I’ve enjoyed a lot of readings and acquired a variety of new pamphlets and collections along the way. But I need to make sure that being inspired by or admiring of others’ work doesn’t stop me from sending out. I think this may be what has happened – I’ve just lost a bit of confidence and momentum. But I think I’m in the mood now to tackle that.

N’s ankle is fine, by the way – two days ago he was hobbling into the hospital and now he’s playing the organ and desperate to take off the strapping. That’s confidence for you!

Books/

Share crazy | Dickinson poem found | Hot stuff

Don Share

It’s all been a bit hectic lately, but I thought I’d just check in with updates on a few things.

Readings  – On Wednesday I’m at the Poetry Cafe with 5 other Brighton-ish based poets, talking on Palmers Green in a Stanza Bonanza. I’m wondering how little clothing I can get away with, given the typical ambience of the Poetry Cafe basement even in February (think Brazilian rainforest). From 7pm – come and support us if you dare!

Workshops – the amazing Hilda Sheehan has pulled off a right royal coup – she’s only been and got Don Share to come and give a workshop in Swindon in October – blimey! His fan club has got its antenna up and the Share-heads are already whooping it up on Facebook. I am so there – although of course I already have my autographed copy of Union – yeah, baby!

Found poem – Not strictly ‘found’ in that sense, but it recently came to my attention that a poem I sent to poetsonline.org has appeared on their website. It was in response to one of their periodic prompts, this one being Emily Dickinson’s first lines. Naturally I thought of ‘Poem beginning with a line by Emily Dickinson’, a little number I had written for the 2013 Brighton Stanza Anthology. So nice to see it given an online home.

Submissions – nowt happening on that front, alas, although I think I’ve written a couple of good poems this year. They’re either sat in someone’s slush/pending/unread pile, or underneath 5,736,204 competition entries somewhere, or stuck in the wrong box in a sorting office, never to surface until one day in 2196 when they might make it into a museum of curios. Who knows?

 

(Photo of Don Share from http://www.everseradio.com/)