Dear oh dear. Well, I promise to deliver the ‘ups and downs’ of poetry submissions, and 2018 was slim pickings for sure. Number of poems sent out to journals: 25 Number accepted: 4 Number declined: 15 Number awaiting reply: 6 (3 have been out for 300 days/43 weeks, 3 for 53 days/8 weeks) Number poemsRead more ⟶
Tag: acceptances
The rejections behind poem acceptances
Apparently I’m well known for broadcasting my rejections, but that’s no reason not to tell of the acceptances. Just when I was thinking I’d lost my way (the second half of 2015 was particularly bleak in terms of one rejection after another) some poems have come good. Specifically: a poem forthcoming in Poetry News, another inRead more ⟶
News round-up: poetry submissions, readings etc
Just a quick update… I haven’t been blogging as much lately as I am knee-deep in a job, and paid work must be paid attention to! But a few things to report: Submissions Those nice chaps at Prole magazine are taking a poem of mine for their April edition, which is fab news, and THANKRead more ⟶
And lo … the teeny window of acceptances doth open
Waiting to hear the results of submissions can be like waiting for the interest rate to change – something could happen today, next month or not for a year or so. You know how I like to moan a bit about it (ahem!)…but come on, I do seem to have had a fair amount of badRead more ⟶
Bring up the poems (are they dead or sleeping?)
As part of my autumn poetry reactivation plan (sounds good, eh?) I’ve signed up for an online course from the Poetry’s School with Karen McCarthy Woolf. It’s a feedback course for the ‘general improvement of left-for-dead poems in need of resuscitation’. This premise really appealed to me – having quite a few poems languishing atRead more ⟶
A reading, not much writing & feeling a bit humble
Last Thursday I had the pleasure of taking part in a reading at Tunbridge Wells library, organised by the wonderful Abegail Morley and featuring also Jo Hemmant, Emer Gillespie and Margaret Beston. A lovely variety of poetry and styles, and a good size audience – there must have been more than thirty people there. Margaret runsRead more ⟶
Nice to end the week with an acceptance
Although I was delighted to hear that Antiphon is taking a poem of mine for the next issue, for a moment I had a panic because it’s a piece I’ve altered drastically since, and I was thinking of sending it into the National in its new form (but same title). As it happened, I was soRead more ⟶
Submissions update
Good news and bad news! Quick update first of all to my October ‘working on, waiting on’ post: Poetry London – standard rejection slip. Shearsman – standard rejection email. The North – a very nice personal reply, but no. Envoi – yes (yay!). I’ve also just heard that The Interpreter’s House (now edited by MartinRead more ⟶
How many times do you send out a poem?
Since my last post I had a very welcome email from Jan Fortune at Envoi to say she would take for the next issue all five of the poems I’d sent her. Just the sort of thing you want in your inbox, and on National Poetry Day too, hurrah! I’m particularly pleased about one ofRead more ⟶
Hurrah! Poem finds des res
As a poet friend once said to me, it’s always lovely when a poem finds a home. It’s true – it gives you permission to stop worrying about them, messing with them and trying to make them something they’re not. And if they really luck out then they land up somewhere de-LUXE. Like The Rialto.Read more ⟶