Poetic Asides with Robert Lee Brewer - Poetry News

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:05:39 GMT

That's right! We're still getting April sorted out, but the 2nd annual November PAD Chapbook Challenge is just around the corner. Every day in November, I'll post a prompt and poem. If you want, you can join in the fun, too.

At the end of November, each poet should have 30 (or more) poem rough drafts. During the month of December, you can edit, revise and organize a manuscript of 10-20 pages of poetry (no more than one poem per page) that you'll submit by January 2, 2010.

Then, Tammy and I will go through the manuscripts and select a winner, which will be announced on February 2--along with a handful of honorable mentions.

I'm not sure what the prizes involved with the challenge may or may not be, but it's more about the challenge of writing a poem a day in November and getting a chapbook manuscript together. I know I'm getting excited thinking about it.

More details will be on the way, but I just want everyone to start preparing and getting psyched up for the challenge now!

2009 April PAD Challenge Update!

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:02:03 GMT

As we get ever closer to announcing the completionists and Top 50 poems of the 2009 April PAD Challenge, I wanted to at least share some great news about one honor that's been officially decided: Marie-Elizabeth Mali has been named the 2009 Poetic Asides Poet Laureate!

Not only did Marie-Elizabeth help screen poems for two days of the challenge (and volunteered to do even more), but she also made the first cut of many other screening judges. So, she's not only a great friend and help to the poetry community, but she also has excellent writing skills.

This year's challenge produced some truly amazing work. As my wife Tammy can verify, there were days where I had to cut 20 or more great poems down to five. And these are early drafts--so the talent of this group just continually amazes me!

More April PAD Challenge updates are coming soonish, but in the meantime, please congratulate Marie-Elizabeth on her wonderful accomplishment.

I'm not going to share her poems just yet on the blog--just to try and keep her poems anonymous for any guest judges who read this blog, but you can hunt for some on the blog by viewing the Poetry Challenge 2009 category posts.

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In the meantime, do you have any nominations for other award categories, including who you think is most deserving of the award?

Poetry Tuesdays on Twitter!

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:36:37 GMT

Let's start assembling on Tuesdays at Twitter to discuss poetry. I'll probably roll onto the site around 10 or so in the morning ATL time, but y'all can get started before or after that.

If you're not a follower on Twitter, find me at @robertleebrewer.

If you don't have a Twitter account, it's free and only takes a minute or so.

We'll use the hashtag, #poettues on all of our Tweets. That means, you can use the search box on the right-hand side of the page to search on "poettues" to see the conversation as it's happening.

I figure we'll try this out throughout October. If it catches on, we'll continue doing Poetry Tuesdays every week into infinity. If it doesn't, we'll always have October of 2009.

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Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 059

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:47:29 GMT

(Sorry for the late prompt today. The day job has required a lot of my immediate attention--like 14 hours yesterday and another 9 already today--so I'll go out on a limb and predict that the Poetry Workshop will not happen tomorrow and possibly not even next week. However, I do have some great news: We received copies of Tammy's 2nd chapbook today, No Glass Allowed, published by Amanda Oaks at verve bath press.)

For today's poem, I want you to write a mistake poem. That is, I want you to write a poem about a mistake you've made, someone else has made, or even what can happen (or has happened) as a result of a mistake. How do mistakes affect people? The environment? Etc.? There are a lot of ways you can attack this prompt.

Here's my attempt for the day:

"Albuquerque"

He should've taken a left he tells her,
and she smiles. She didn't expect to find
him or this coffee shop today. "I was
just following my feet," she says, "and they
led me here." "Where are they headed next,"

he asks. "That's a pretty personal question,
mister," she says. "I had a destination,"
he says, "but it's not important now. I'm
sure my friends will understand." She
smiles, he thinks, like a model. "Anyway,

I have no plans the rest of the day."
She says, "I guess that makes two of us."

*****

Looking for more poetry-related information?

For poetic forms, CLICK HERE
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For discounted poetry references, CLICK HERE
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Promoting Poetry-Related Stuff

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:55:50 GMT

While I love being able to offer all the free and valuable content on Poetic Asides, I'm also not ashamed of the fact that I have to sell stuff to keep working as an editor. I've been working for nearly 10 years on Writer's Market and other writing titles, and I jumped at the opportunity to edit Poet's Market last year. After months of hard work, the 2010 Poet's Market is now ready for consumption.

It includes all the listings for magazines, book publishers, contests, conferences, and more that you'd expect from Poet's Market, but I'm also proud of the amazing articles in this edition. From well-known slam poet Taylor Mali giving poetry reading advice to an article on poetry translations, I really feel the 2010 Poet's Market has significantly raised the bar as far as editorial content. (In fact, I've got my work cut out for me to figure out how I can top myself for 2011.)

Oh yeah, each copy of the 2010 Poet's Market also includes an activation code that provides access to the poetry listings on WritersMarket.com for a full year (from when you sign up).

Anyway, the book is now available at a great discounted price on our WritersDigestShop.com site. With a cover price of $29.99, you can get it off the site for only $19.79. And it's brand-spanking-new. Can't beat that.

Check it out at: http://www.writersdigestshop.com/product/2010-poets-market/

Since I don't communicate with the promotions people too often, I'm not sure if that price is permanent or temporary--so it's probably best to order as soon as you can before they come up with some new pricing strategy.

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And earlier this year, I led a very successful online seminar for poets titled: Get Your Poetry Published. Many people asked if we'd be offering up a recorded version of the seminar, and I'm happy to say that we're offering that now as well.

In this seminar, I explain how to identify appropriate markets; avoid mistakes many poets make when they submit their writing that can garner an immediate rejection (before the editor even reads any of the poems); write good cover letters; and I give tips on how to track your submissions.

If you're interested in learning more about this recorded seminar (or even if you just want to see a staff headshot taken of me from earlier this year), go to: http://www.writersdigestshop.com/product/get-your-poetry-published-download/

Interview with poet Kathryn Stripling Byer

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:24:27 GMT

Kathryn Stripling Byer is the former poet laureate of North Carolina. She has published five poetry collections, most recently Coming to Rest (Louisiana State University Press). She's also one of those rare poets who have a business card.

Coming to Rest is a great collection--even has two Halloween poems. Here's one of my favorites:

Coastal Plain

The only clouds
forming are crow clouds,

the only shade, oaks
bound together in a tangle of oak

limbs that signal the wind
coming, if there is any wind

stroking the flat
fields, the flat

swatch of corn.
Far as anyone's eye can see, corn's

dying under the sky
that repeats itself either as sky

or as water
that won't remain water

for long on the highway: its shimmer
is merely the shimmer

of one more illusion that yields
to our crossing as we ourselves yield

to our lives, to the roots
of our landscape. Pull up the roots

and what do we see but the night
soil of dream, the night

soil of what we call
home. Home that calls

and calls
and calls.

*****

What are you up to?

Just now I've been reading online Eavan Boland's essay in the May issue of Poetry, finding her description of the two contradictory ways of being a poet extremely helpful. With my term as North Carolina's first woman Poet Laureate coming to a close, I've felt the pull of the private grow stronger and stronger, even as I never doubted the importance of the position I held as Laureate. It's rejuvenating to find an essay giving voice to what's been milling around inside my own head, giving it context, both literary and historical, so that I can say, "Yes, I understand the lay of the land a lot better now." The two seemingly antithetical "types" exist in most of us, I think, and I know they do inside me. One minute, get me out of here, then the next, what can I do to bring more North Carolina poets to public notice?

Having finished Boland's essay, I'm now worrying about the tomato plants in our garden. Two of them aren't thriving and one of the heirlooms is being nibbled by something. Rabbit? Raccoon? This afternoon I will hope to get back to some of my own work, print it out, scribble on the pages for a while. I've a new manuscript I'm hoping to place, Descent, which takes me back to the landscape of the deep South from which I came. And what must be dozens of notebooks scattered all over the house containing drafts of poems, essays and stories--I have to track them down! I'm hopelessly disorganized.

You were the poet laureate of North Carolina from 2003 to 2009. What were your responsibilities as North Carolina's poet laureate?

I was told at the outset that I could write my own job description. Well, with Fred Chappell as your predecessor, that's not going to be easy. Fred set quite a high standard, and I knew I was going to have to work hard to meet it. Mostly I wanted to help make poetry accessible in as many ways I could, whether to other poets (we have so many in our state!) or to readers, students, teachers, anyone at all who cared to listen to me on my soapbox.

Right away the Literature Director of the NC Arts Council, Debbie McGill, and I began a web page on the Council site devoted to NC writers, with a poet of the week, new books section, and news. Finally we had to give up the week by week poet; it was a lot of work to keep that going. We moved to a Poets of the Month, and finally to a quarterly web page. I decided to set up my own laureate blog to facilitate what the Council was trying to do, especially now with the budget freeze in place.

So, what else did I do? I wrote occasional poems for libraries, events, really, all sorts of requests. One, even, for someone's 60th birthday! I visited classrooms, gave a lot of readings, answered a lot of e-mails, and wrote a lot of blurbs. I'd say my job description was "always available." I was always trying to track down new voices to share with an audience. Although the council can't afford to search for and select a new laureate till state finances improve, they've asked me to continue the blog, which I'm happy to do. Working on it gives me a lot of satisfaction.

How important do you feel community is for poets?

So many of us, of a certain generation anyway, have embedded in our imaginations the image of the solitary poet, the Romantic standing alone on the summit, brooding over the world below and its connection with the world inside. At the same time, we know that poets need each other, just as they always have, maybe now more than ever, and they need to feel that they are part of their own communities, where they become involved in the cultural and political life of that community. I've tried myself to become involved in various issues important to me locally—the new library, for instance, writing a poem for the groundbreaking, letters to the paper and so forth. The moratorium on new development in our county drew me into writing guest editorials as well as poems.

We are lucky to have a local weekly that cares about such things. The larger newspapers are turning away from their literary pages, even their guest editorials. I know the internet is picking up a lot of the slack. Blogs. Facebook. Twitter. I've just joined Facebook after keeping my distance for a good while. I was warned by a friend, "You will be falling into a black hole." So far I'm still ok, and I'm discovering that I can post news there about my latest laureate features and other literary matters of interest to me. The definition of "community" is changing, no doubt about that, and I still prefer face to face community, but I'll use what I can to make the case for poetry.

North Carolina may be the best state in which to live if you are a writer. The NC Writers Network was begun nearly 30 years ago, and it has worked hard to bring real literary community to the state, a state that for so long had its regions strictly marked—mountain (where writers got little notice), Piedmont (Mecca, as we used to call it) and eastern/coastal, as isolated as the mountains. Now, thanks to NCWN and umbrella organizations like Netwest, among others, I can say that the whole state is Mecca. It didn't happen overnight. It took years of ground-breaking by good people, like Debbie McGill of the Arts Council, Marsha Warren and her stalwarts at NCWN, and all the local folks who came together to form their own literary organizations. Writers need each other and they need to feel a connection with their readers and future readers. It's fine to stand on a mountain-top and brood—I've done that myself--but we have to come back down again and live in our communities. Let our voices be heard.

In Coming to Rest, location factors into several poems. How important do you feel location is to a poet?

I firmly believe a poet has to feel located somewhere, in some physical place where light falls on the ground, the earth grumbles and sings, the leaves fall, the sewage stinks, and so forth. "You have to be from somewhere before you can write about anywhere else," as Fred Chappell, our resident genius, once said. Or as Flannery O'Conner said, "Our limitations are our gateways to reality." My gateway literally squeaked, rusty and old, there was pig-stink all around, my people were hard-scrabble farmers, but it was a way into my first poems. And from there, I could go anywhere. Anywhere!

You work in relationships with your daughter and husband in first person narrative poems. Where do you draw the line between reality and fiction?

Sometimes it’s hard to know where to draw the line. I let the poem itself guide me. The poems drawing in daughter and husband in Coming to Rest were different in that personal inclusion. So many of my earlier poems had been "persona poems," where I could work out any inner narratives through a fictional character--the mountain woman named Alma, for example, or the aging Evelyn. James Dickey's famous statement, "Poetry lies in order to tell the truth," seems apt here, as does Richard Hugo's, "You owe reality nothing, your emotions everything." What I mean is, you fictionalize, you improvise when you come up against what you can't or can't yet say or may never want to say outright. Yes, let's don't forget Dickinson's, "Tell the truth but tell it slant." There are ways of getting around reality into a poetic reality. The poem itself has seemed to draw the line for me when I am paying adequate attention to language and craft. The reality in a poem is, finally, language and how it is used.

How do you handle the submissions process?

Right now I'm not submitting much at all, though I'm happy to oblige if an editor asks me to submit some work. Otherwise I'm dealing with the day-to-day business of being wife, mother, daughter, laureate, friend, and as you see, at the bottom of the list, poet. But can't poet be intertwined with all of the above?

I used to be diligent about the submissions process, keeping records, reading Poets & Writers faithfully, but I came to find the process taking up so much energy—what to send where and when, then the irritation (that's putting it mildly) of rejections, the envy of seeing friends with poems in magazines that had rejected my work, and so on. It began to be tiresome. I'm ready to try again, though, with the new work I've done over the past few months. I've been in P0-biz for 40 years. I still get a thrill from having poems accepted, and I still get pretty testy when they are rejected. I don't want to think of myself as over and done with. I simply won't, and that's all there is to it.

Why do you write poetry?

It's the best way I know to sing with the world. And because I couldn't be Renee Fleming or Emmy Lou Harris. Or Nina Simone.

Who are you currently reading?

Stacked at my bedside are books by Mahmoud Darwish, Tomas Transtromer, Zbigniew Herbert, Sandor Kanyadi, Chitra Divakaruni, Marie Ponsot, Adam Zagajewski, and Nazim Hikmet. I pick up one of them on any given night. Chitra's novels, of course, I read straight through, but I enjoy going back to favorite passages. I'm especially fond of her The Vine of Desire and the novel that comes before it, Sister of My Heart. I'm staying away from most American poetry at the moment, but not NC poetry. You can read my laureate blog to see that I'm keeping up with that.

If you could share only one piece of advice with other poets, what would it be?

I'll have to go with what Maxine Kumin told me years ago, "You have to be stubborn to make it as a poet." That advice was for a young poet struggling to see her first book published, but I think it still stands. By "making it," I now mean keeping it going, growing, digging in your heels and saying, "Here I am." We are a youth obsessed culture, including our literary culture. But women of a certain age like me must keep on keeping on. Living in the South, being thought "regional" by the literary powers-that-be doesn't help. But it doesn't hurt, if you pay them no mind.

It may seem paradoxical that to keep moving, you dig in your heels and stand your ground, but poetry can deal with those paradoxes. All of art can.

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* Check out Kathryn's North Carolina Poet Laureate blog at: http://ncpoetlaureate.blogspot.com/

* Check out Kathryn's personal blog at: http://kathrynstriplingbyer.blogspot.com/

* Learn more about Coming to Rest and LSU Press at: http://www.lsu.edu/lsupress

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If you're a poet or publisher interested in an interview on this blog, click here to find out how we might be able to make that happen.

Interview with Poet Emma Trelles

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:31:12 GMT

Emma Trelles is the author of Little Spells (GOSS183 press). She's a Pushcart Prize nominee for poetry and an arts and culture journalist. Her work has been published nearly everywhere, including OCHO, Gulf Stream, Newsday, and the Miami Herald. She also teaches creative writing at the Art Center of South Florida and the Florida Center for the Literary Arts.

Little Spells is a fun chapbook, and here's one of my favorite poems:

Gua-Gua

Could be the cry of a dog
or a cartoon baby's mouth
open to a pink cave of tonsils,
the squiggle lines of an animator's pen
bursting from his bald head.

Guaaaaa-Guaaaaa
the blank drone you hear when
you dial out of the Casa Bella in Oaxaca,
or the bleat of dusty buses charging
streets alongside wagons dragged by mares.
In Mexico, it's boooos,
the slurred song of a beer-heavy ghost,
or the love charm Frida sang that lured
men and monkeys from the tamarind trees.

In Miami, Cuba, it's gua-gua,
the "W" sound of water brushed into a dream,
the war between why and wait.
Gua-gua,
the clipped cry from an imperfect memory,
a wish to travel in reverse to an island
shaped like a boomerang.
You can fling it as far as 90 miles and still
feel its edge in your hands.

*****

What are you currently up to?

I'm writing and revising poems for my full length collection, tentatively titled Tropicalia. I should be ready to start sending it out this fall and I'm looking forward to releasing it into the world. I'm also preparing to read in a few weeks at the Palabra Pura series at the Guild Literary Complex in Chicago. Besides that, I've been sending out poems, freelancing art and book stories, teaching creative nonfiction and savoring the rain that's made every garden and lawn in South Florida a blazing green.

How has working as a journalist informed your poetry writing efforts?

I've worked as a full-time journalist since I finished my M.F.A., and writing on deadline for so many years really helped me shape my voice as a poet. In grad school, I was always trying on the diction of others--Sylvia Plath and Campbell McGrath come to mind--because I couldn't quite figure out how to sound like myself and also approach language as art. Writing consistently, even in a completely different genre, helped me discover my own poetic tongue. Journalism has also led me to fodder for poems. Some of the poems in Little Spells, for example, were drafted while on assignment (such as "Gua-Gua" and "Billy Bragg Rescues Us at the F.T.A.A. Protest") and covering visual art has also made me think more deeply about how color and form are used in verse.

You teach creative writing; does that influence your writing?

Definitely. Just last week I was babbling on about how important it is to immerse yourself in a writing project, how accumulating artifacts around your desk or in your notebook is vital to creating. I cited a Diane Arbus print that hangs over my desk as an example: I often consider the photograph--a circus woman & sword swallower--as a metaphor for gender and writing. I watched while one of the writers in the group took notes, and I realized that I was not doing enough of this very immersion.

I'm working on a book; why am I not surrounding myself more with its themes? Where is my own physical shrine to its images and intent? I shared my discovery with the class, and it was a great example of how teaching teaches. You are constantly clarifying process, and your own is illuminated.

How important is location to your writing?

Thus far I've used place as a kind of bedrock for my work. I suppose that's, in part, because I've lived in Florida all my life, and I believe that staying in one place gives a writer, or any artist, the chance to peel away the cliches, the superfluous, the gauze and busyness that keeps us so often from seeing the heart of a thing.

Proust said that the real voyage of discovery exists not in having new landscapes but in having new eyes. I love that quote. Whenever I read it, I remember to burrow into a setting: the shoreline, the kitchen, the causeway serried with cars. I keep looking and writing and and trying to re-imagine it. A poem is a tiny compass that should point you to somewhere.

As a guest editor of MiPOesias (March 2008), did you gain any insight into your own writing?

It made me think about my place in the tradition of Cuban-American writers, which the issue featured, and also how that tradition is mutating as first and second generation poets move farther into this country's culture. There was a time when Cuban American poets wrote mostly about exile and loss through the lens of lament. Now I see these themes explored through speculation, surrealism, urban living or even humor. I can't wait to see what the third wave of writers will offer.

What do you feel makes a great poem?

The best words in their best order! That's Coleridge, of course, but I'll add the ubiquitous "heightened language" and "original thinking" because I think they bear repeating.

Ultimately, what I think makes a great poem is the same as what makes any work of art a stunner--the concurrent feelings of recognition and astonishing discovery.

Who are you currently reading?

Mostly poets. I'm a few pages short of finishing Mark Doty's Fire to Fire. I'm also reading The Light at the Edge of Everything, by Lisa Zimmerman; The Neighborhoods of My Past Sorrow, by Jesse Millner; Hoops, by Major Jackson; and The Life of the Skies, a nonfiction book about people and birds by Jonathan Rosen.

If you could offer up only one piece of advice to your fellow poets, what would it be?

Cultivate your own voice and your instincts. Tend to your work.

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* To learn more about Emma's publisher GOSS183, go to www.mipoesias.com

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If you're a poet or publisher interested in the possibility of a Poetic Asides interview, click here to see how you might be able to make that happen.

Poetry and Horticulture

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:45:58 GMT

My buddy Guy Gonzalez has been doing his best to get poetry a place in Horticulture magazine. For instance, take this new contest the magazine is offering until September 1: www.hortmag.com/gardenversecomp

First place gets $250, plus publication in an issue of Horticulture. Second place receives $100 and third place $50.

MFA Confidential Contest

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:25:18 GMT

The folks running Writer's Digest and WritersDigest.com are searching for a student blogger who will be in an MFA program during the 2009-2010 school year. If you're going to be such a student, I'd suggest you try entering the contest as you'll get extra exposure in the writing (and publishing) world with a blog connected to WritersDigest.com. It's a free contest, so what've you got to lose?

Check out the guidelines and other details here: http://www.writersdigest.com/mfacontest

Interview With Poet Campbell McGrath

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:04:36 GMT

Campbell McGrath's epic poem Shannon has just been released by Ecco. McGrath is the author of seven previous collections, including Seven Notebooks, Pax Atomica, and Capitalism, and is an award-winning poet. He teaches at Florida International University in Miami, where he is the Philip and Patricia Frost Professor of Creative Writing.

Shannon was a nice breath of fresh air. It's an epic poem and a poem that tells the story of George Shannon, the youngest member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The poem is a fictionalized account of what happens to Shannon during a 16-day stretch he was lost from the rest of the group. The poem was a very fun read.

Here's a small excerpt from one of the sections:

This land is grown chastened
& changed somewhat
These past days
Hard traveling. Dust-ridden
Scoured & coarse
Not a tree
On the horizon all day
Only buffalo herds
Unbroken some hours keeping pace.
All these grazing creatures fed upon
The grass of these plains
Is it not strange
To believe that I might feed
A host of nations
Upon my own heart, feeling it swell so?

In a land of plenty
I travel hungry.

In a country of herds
I wander alone.

On a journey of discovery
I am the lost.

*****

What are you up to?

I've got three new books I'm currently working on. One is a collection of poems "about" poetry, many of them addressed to American poets I admire, from Whitman to contemporaries. Another is a collection of lyrical prose poems, a kind of thing I haven't written in a long time. The third is another "historical" project, a book about the 20th Century, comprised of one hundred poems, one per year, each dated and in the voice of a historical figure.

Shannon is a long poem about George Shannon, the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery. How did you come across his story?

I have a poem about Meriwether Lewis in my very first book, CAPITALISM, and while researching that poem, 20 years ago, I first encountered George Shannon, who got lost and wandered alone for 16 days, and I thought--that would make a good long poem. Over the ensuing years, I would occasionally tune in to George Shannon's voice, and take down notes about his time on the prairie, but never knew exactly what to make of them. Then I had a semester off from teaching, three years ago, and sat down to really write his story.

How did you decide to write an epic poem? Also, how long did it take to write from idea to final draft?

Once I really focussed on Shannon, it went surprisingly quickly--I wrote the poem in about six or eight weeks, and then revised it for another year. Because I knew the beginning and end of the story--Shannon gets lost, then he gets found--I only had to create the narrative of those sixteen days alone. It becomes an epic poem in the sense that Shannon represents many things in American history and culture, and speaks to us from a time, two hundred years ago, when America was still creating itself, literally and symbolically.

What was the greatest challenge you found in writing this poem?

Just keeping it going. Getting the narrative to work. It was a kind of novelistic struggle--how do you keep the reader interested? How do you create tension, create a voice for Shannon, create a shape for the poem?

You teach at Florida International University. What is the most common mistake you find younger writers making?

Young writers make all kinds of mistakes, but so do not-so-young writers. I prefer the mistakes of younger writers, because they tend to be mistakes of enthusiasm rather than mistakes of excessive caution.

How do you manage your submissions to publications?

I just send out poems to magazines when I feel I have a bunch of finished poems lying around. Sometimes, I might not really have anything for a year or two--as when my energy went into Shannon, a long poem, which I did not really submit to periodicals. Getting published is like going fishing--some days you catch a fish, some days you don't. It might have to do with the bait you are using, or your technique, or where you are casting your line--but there's a lot of luck involved, too.

Who are you currently reading?

I've been reading novels, biographies and history recently, books about Picasso, Matisse, and Chairman Mao, among others.

If you could share only one piece of advice with other poets, what would it be?

Write more poems. Ignore things you can't control--like getting published--and write as much as you possibly can.

*****

* Check out Campbell McGrath's Wikipedia page (don't usually get to say that, huh?) here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell_McGrath

* You can learn more about Ecco at http://www.harpercollins.com.

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Also, if you're a poet or publisher interested in a Poetic Asides interview, then click here to see how we might be able to make that happen.

Interview With Poet Shaindel Beers

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:24:53 GMT

Some of you dedicated Poetic Asides readers may recognize Shaindel's name as a person who's commented on the blog and even shared advice in previous Poets Helping Poets posts. She's a Facebook pal and an internationally published poet.

Shaindel is currently an instructor of English at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon, in Eastern Oregon's high desert and serves as Poetry Editor of Contrary (www.contrarymagazine.com). She previously hosted the talk radio poetry show Translated By, which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/onword.

She recently released her first full length collection, A Brief History in Time, through Salt Publishing. Here is one of the poems I enjoyed the most:

A Man Walks Into a Bar

He was tall, well-built, blue-eyed,
a guy most girls would want to take to bed.
Then he reached for the beer with his left hand,
revealing the stump of his right.

We could tell the second he knew that we knew.
We'd smile, but the smile wouldn't travel
all the way to our eyes. He'd turn back to the bar,
fold his arm closer so that we could
no longer see

as we rushed off to sling beers for guys
not as good-looking but more whole,
the ones who leered lecherously,
on "Short-Shorts Night"
and left ten dollar tips for two dollar beers

always expecting more, always bitter when we didn't deliver.
The quiet one, we wounded week after week, a guy
any of us would have considered "out of our league,"
"a long shot," if he had been unbroken,

the sad, blond man we were afraid to love.

*****

What are you up to?

Right now, I am grading tons of papers because it is the final week of classes where I teach. Next week is finals week, then a week break, then I teach summer classes. I've managed to get my summer classes scheduled to just Mondays and Tuesdays for six weeks, so I hope to write and read like crazy during the summer. I have a two-book deal with Salt, so I'm going to keep working on the poems for my second book with them, and I need maybe another three to four short stories to round out a short story collection, so I hope to make that happen. My other fantasy is to write a poem a day, starting with where I fell off the wagon during National Poetry Month and then start on prompts from the previous years.

I noticed a few sestinas and a ghazal in your collection, A Brief History of Time. Do you have a favorite poetic form?

I really like sestinas. There's something comforting and scary at the same time about setting up a Word document or a page in a notebook with those six end words all down the page. The rush of all of the possibilities. I want to get better at villanelles, though. Even though there is a villanelle in my collection, I don't think it's as good as the sestinas. I still need practice. And I want to work on other forms, too. So, yes, I do have a favorite, but I need to work on all of it.

You have a confessional voice in your poems. Where do you draw the line between reality and fiction?

I think John Ciardi said it best when he said, "Poetry lies its way to the truth." Most of A Brief History of Time is autobiographical, but sometimes details are changed for the sake of sound or rhythm or meter or to make something a little more dramatic. For instance, in the title poem, I say that my mother was in jail for two counts of attempted murder, but it was attempted manslaughter. I don't know if anyone's going to pick bones about that.

You're the poetry editor of Contrary. As an editor, what are common mistakes you see writers making in their submissions?

The biggest mistake is people sending in things that just aren't ready. It's like the second they finished writing the first draft, they sent it. Sit with the poem for a while, think about it. Go through and make sure each word is the right word, that each word is necessary.

The second thing that happens is that people leave words out or have typos. And sometimes this happens in the most brilliant works of the most brilliant poets, and it's really painful then, because I ask my co-editor, Jeff McMahon, "Can we ask her if she meant, x, y, z?" and then we're deliberating with a poet, when our instinct should be just to put it in the "no" pile. I really think we are surprisingly nice and patient for editors who get thousands of submissions for each issue. Editors shouldn't have to do that; if you're sending it out, it should be flawless, the best work you can produce. There are thousands and thousands of other writers you're competing against out there.

You host a talk radio show, Translated By. What's the most fulfilling aspect of the show?

Sadly, I don't do the radio show any more. I have a teaching load of five courses a quarter, three quarters a year, and then I teach two six-week summer courses for extra money--so seventeen college courses a year. (And I have two part-time jobs on top of that, so I'm usually working seven days a week.) It was really hard to read a book a week to be properly prepared for the show and be emailing writers and publishers constantly to keep the show booked.

The most fulfilling aspect of the show was learning more about writers all over the world. Despite the outcry that Horace Engdahl caused when he called American literature "too insular," there's a lot to what he said. I loved having to read a book (in translation) by a non-English language writer once a week. I learned so much about writers from other cultures and what is going on or has gone on around the world. It was like a global perspectives or world history course every week.

How do you manage your own submissions process?

It's a lot different than it used to be, and I'm trying to figure it all out. I used to have tons of unpublished works, and I would send out everywhere, and then collect all of my rejection slips and a few acceptances. I still use Allison Joseph's Creative Writers Opportunities list (CRWROPPS) and Duotrope's newsletters. Now, I'm in the strange position of nearly everything I've written having been published, and I really need to get to work at producing more writing. Also, I get contacted a lot by editors and publishers asking if I have work for an upcoming issue or sending me invitations for a themed issue or anthology. This, of course, is a double-edged sword. It's really nice to get first consideration, but it really hurts when you get rejected. There's nothing like getting asked to the prom by the starting quarterback and then being stood up.

Who are you currently reading?

If it weren't a FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) violation, I would type the name of the student on the top of my stack right now. I was "sort of" reading Ellen Gilchrist's Nora Jane: A Life in Stories. My husband and I have a tradition of going to Artifacts, a used book store in Hood River, Oregon, when we go camping and fishing at Deschutes River State Park, and buying books to read in the tent each night. So, I read non-student work then. I really like Ellen Gilchrist and secretly wish I was Nora Jane. I also have a book review that is overdue (please forgive me, Jeff) of C. E. Chaffin's Unexpected Light. I've really admired Chaffin's work in the past, and I can't wait to get into the book after all of this grading is behind me.

Then, I have a giant stack of friends' (a mixture of online and in-person) books to read--Kyle Minor, Christopher Coake, Idra Novey, Kim Barnes, Patricia Smith. Just loads and loads of summer reading to catch up on.

If you could share only one piece of advice with fellow poets, what would it be?

Read and read and read. Read writers you admire; dip into bad writers occasionally to reassure yourself that you're not one. Read poetry, read fiction, read nonfiction about things you'd like to write poetry about. Just read.

*****

* You can try and win a copy of Shaindel's book from Goodreads.com at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6135468.A_Brief_History_of_Time. Winners will be chosen June 29.

* She also invites poets to hunt her down and friend her on Facebook.

* And she has an author site at Red Room as well: www.redroom.com/author/shaindel-rebekah-beers.

* Plus, more info on her book is available at Salt Publishing's website www.saltpublishing.com.

*****

If you're a poet or poetry publisher and want hooked up with a Poetic Asides interview, then click here to see how you might be able to make that happen.

Interview With Poet Frank Giampietro

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:53:54 GMT

I first came across Frank Giampietro's name during an interview with Julianna Baggott last year. Since then, I just kept running into either his name or the title of his collection, Begin Anywhere. Finally, I decided to ask him for an interview (he's a Facebook friend--see the power of social networking?).

One of the things I personally love about this collection is that it constantly surprised me. Every time I thought I was going down a predictable road--one I didn't care to go down--the poem would take interesting side streets to get to our destination, which may or may not have been where I thought we were going originally. Eventually, I quit trying to predict our destination. Instead, I just let myself enjoy the ride.

Here's one of my favorite poems of the collection:

Juice

I'd like to begin with my addiction to heroin,
though I never shot it, I only sniffed it.
(Snorted is so, what? Crass?)
Once after seven years without it, I talked
to an Italian ex-junkie who was still smoking hash.
Because she shot it,
she claimed that she was more addicted to it.
Instead of admitting she was right, I went on
about the purity of American heroin
while she repeated no, no, no emphatically.
I found her sexy in a big-boned
Elizabeth Bishop sort of way.
If I were Elizabeth Bishop,
with my history of addiction,
I would have to write a villanelle
like "One Art,"
but my refrains would be
A1: I shared crack with a pregnant Dominican woman
A2: at the top of a five-flight walk-up on 109th Street in Harlem.
They say you can let the arms
of the repeating lines
wrap themselves around you
for comfort. It's a great form for subjects
that might otherwise be a threat.
I wish I could say that my best poems
are written when I'm afraid. Sometimes
when my four-year-old wakes up, he's afraid.
The first words out of his mouth are
I want some juice. Now I sleep with him,
and I wake up to the request
nearly every day. Honestly, there's no better way
to slip from my dreams. I worry I won't sleep at all
when he kicks me out of his bed.
When I sniffed heroin, whole parts of my body
would go completely numb as I slept.
One morning I woke unable to move either arm,
but after a minute or two, the feeling came back. It's not
that I'm afraid to write about addiction--it's just
that this is nothing like that.

*****

What are you up to?

This summer I'm working on a second book while teaching creative writing to undergraduates here at Florida State University. Otherwise I'm making video poems I call "voems" (very original, right?) and posting them to YouTube. You can see two of them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Wn_i0PezM.

Your website lafovea.org is rather interesting in how poets become nerves that connect to each other. Could you speak a little about how the site works and what the inspiration was behind the site?

One day after hearing the usual grousing about how nepotistic the publishing world is (an idea that doesn't hold much water, by the way), I had an idea to use nepotism productively, interestingly, as an alternative to publishing in the usual submission rejection sort of way. I thought why not have an internet site that publishes poems by invitation exclusively. And then I thought about how to do that and allow the largest variety of voices to be heard. I envisioned teachers inviting students and students inviting teachers. I also thought and hoped La Fovea might get poets from outside academia too. So I came up with the idea of publishing poetry nerves, nerves all extending from a giant poetry eyeball. I started with twelve poets with very different writing styles, all of whom I know and admire, all of them gathered around the eyeball on the homepage, and had them post two poems. Then they had to invite at least one poet. That poet then invited a poet and so on. We now have over 160 contributors. It's really working well and has been a lot of fun to see grow.

Your poems deal with topics such as being a father and husband. You are both a husband and father in real life. So, where do you draw the line between reality and fiction in your poems?

I guess I don't, in my poems that is. For instance, I have a poem about my son shooting me with an arrow. And knock on wood, he hasn't shot me with an arrow yet. But we have played with a bow and arrow, and he has scared the bejesus out of me a time or two pointing the arrow inadvertently at me or his sister or the cat. That's where I get the poems from, the possibilities for drama in real life rather than the life itself. Life itself is usually dull, as far as I can tell (maybe because I have no "inner resources").

Begin Anywhere is broken into two sections. How did you decide to organize the poems in this collection?

I had a lot of help from my editor at Alice James Books, April Ossamann. She showed me some ways of organizing the book that I just couldn't see on my own.

Your poetry has been published in several literary journals. Do you have a method for handling your submissions?

I send in spurts, usually, and then wait for the rejections to come in. One day recently I got three in the mail at once. I think that might be a record.

When do you know a poem is finished?

After I've sat with it a week or two and shown it to one of my trusty couple of readers and gotten his or her feedback, that's when I know it's ready to send out. Finished is another story. I'm more of a poem abandoner than a finisher. I never feel like my poems are finished.

If you could begin anywhere, where would you begin?

Ha, ha, very funny. I like the 12-step program notion that one can begin one's day over at any time during the day. One can just say okay enough. Let's begin this day again. I do this with my kids sometimes when they are acting up. If things are getting hairy at the dinner table one of us will say "stop, let's start our day over." And then we have a little good morning ritual and then we start again. But even on my own, without the kids, I begin my day over lots of times as a way to keep my head on straight and my attitude and outlook rosy.

Who (or what) are you currently reading?

Right now I'm reading Joel Brouwer's new book "And So." It's really amazing. He's a poetry dude. I'm also reading Anna Karenina on my Kindle iPhone application. I have a house full of books and love paper books just like the next poet, but I have to say it's great reading on my phone because the phone is so much easier to hold than a book. Plus, since I always have my phone, I always have my book and can read while in line at the post office mailing my soon to be rejected submissions.

If you could offer only one piece of advice to fellow poets, what would it be?

Hmmmm, I like to take advice a lot more than give it. If I could take one piece of advice, I would like to be told to be more satisfied with things exactly the way they are. That's what I need to do, how I need to be.

*****

To learn more about Frank Giampietro and his collection, Begin Anywhere, go to his publisher's website at http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/

Also, check out his online literary journal at http://lafovea.org/.

Or read "Death by My Son" featured on Poetry Daily (and the one he references in the interview above) at: http://poems.com/poem.php?date=14198

*****

If you're a poet, editor, publisher, etc., interested in an interview on Poetic Asides, then click here to learn how to possibly make that happen.

Published in Ocho!

Thu, 28 May 2009 20:06:20 GMT

A poem of mine appeared in the most recent issue of Ocho, which was guest-edited by Atlanta poet Collin Kelley. You can see his post on the issue here: http://collinkelley.blogspot.com/2009/05/twitter-issue-of-ocho-online-now.html

To check out the issue yourself, go to http://issuu.com/didimenendez/docs/ocho24

Apparently, hard copies will be available on Amazon soonish.

This issue of Ocho gathers poems by poets who actively use Twitter. Yes, I fall into that category. If you want to follow me there, my Twitter name is: @robertleebrewer

Get Your Poetry Published!

Wed, 27 May 2009 13:07:36 GMT

On May 29, I'll be leading an online seminar on how to get your poetry published, including what not to do in your submissions. In the seminar, you'll learn how to submit your poetry (online and off), how to identify and study appropriate markets, how to write cover letters, and more.

As an added bonus, I will be providing feedback on one poem (of 20 lines or less) from each registrant--details included in your confirmation e-mail. So, you can learn how to publish your poetry and receive feedback on a poem for only $99.

But that's not all, my OPM just recently gave me a coupon code that'll take an extra $15 off, which would make it just $84. Just go to https://writersonlineworkshops.webex.com/writersonlineworkshops/j.php?J=683166157.

While there, don't forget to use the following coupon code: g1y3f1gq30

Get Your Poetry Published!

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:44:38 GMT

On May 29, I'll be leading an online seminar on how to go about publishing your poetry. After all, it's one thing to write great poetry, but getting it published? That's an entirely different hurdle.

Topics I plan on covering include:

How to identify appropriate markets for your poetry.
How to avoid many common submission mistakes.
How to handle your cover letters, including the tricky bio (even if you have no previous publication credits to mention).
How to manage your submissions (and avoid upsetting editors).

And I'm sure I'll cover more. The seminar will begin at 1 p.m. (EST) and will last one hour. You can learn more details and register at https://writersonlineworkshops.webex.com/writersonlineworkshops/j.php?J=683166157.

Interview With Poet Sage Cohen

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:09:52 GMT

Sage Cohen is the author of Writer's Digest Books' most recent poetry title, Writing the Life Poetic. She's also the author of Like the Heart, the World (Queen of Wands Press). She's taught poetry at universities, hospitals and writing conferences as well as online. As principal of Sage Communications, Cohen writes the words that connect businesses with the people they want to reach.

Though I admit I'm usually suspicious of self-published titles (Queen of Wands Press is Sage's own press, named after one of the poems in the collection), both Tammy and myself found her collection Like the Heart, the World to be a great read. Here's one of my favorites:

The Irony of the Small Horn

Paul says the Great American Music Hall
should be called The Great European Music Hall.

Its gold flourishes and imperial balcony feel more
like something you'd yearn for from across the ocean.

Nothing is named right in this world.
I don't know what to call Paul's body against mine.

Dancing, maybe, but that's not enough.
It's more like a question before it is born

gathering force among the margins
of what is already known or believed.

Paul has his hand on my stomach where my shirt rides up
and I press into the beat coming through his chest.

My hips rotate with the room. Singular surrenders to plural.
Sweat and smoke and beer and bodies pulse in the darkness.

The music is a fire. Dancing is the flame.
We all depend on each other to burn.

Paul points out the enormous man playing the tiny trumpet.
All the big guys have small horns, we agree.

This poem was supposed to be about that. About the trumpet,
because that was how Paul and I planned it.

But nothing ever turns out the way you think it will.
The music ends, and then it's time to go home.

*****

What are you up to?

National Poetry Month has been great fun over here. I've launched my Writing the Life Poetic book tour by speaking at a few chapters of Willamette Writers and appearing on a variety of writing blogs throughout the month. It's week five of my six-week Poetry for the People online class, and my students have been dazzling me with their dedication and fine poems. My full-time "day job" of marketing communications consultant is clipping right along, and I've been dedicating every scrap of free time to your Poem-A-Day Challenge. Because my son Theo has been waking up every two hours or so throughout the night for the past seven months, I'm in a perpetual sleep-deprivation daze that I've decided to embrace as a poetic state of mind.

Like the Heart, the World is a self-published title. Why did you choose this route of publication?

Before deciding to self publish, I spent about a year sending my manuscript out to publication contests. It placed as finalist or semi-finalist four times, which was exciting. That was enough validation for me...I didn't want to spend any more time waiting for someone to choose my book for publication. I felt a sense of urgency to have that body of work in the world, and to have it look and feel exactly the way I wanted. I've spent years creating marketing communications materials for clients, and I always enjoy the opportunity to design and produce my own pieces. So I hired my favorite illustrator/designer to layout the book and create the cover, and within a few months, had a finished product in my hands.

What do you think is the most rewarding part of self-publishing your collection? What do you consider the most challenging?

It was very empowering deciding that my book was ready to be born, and then making it happen. The poems in Like the Heart, the World span more than 15 years and reflect time periods and thematic cycles in my life that felt complete. With this publication, I feel that they've been well honored, which gives me more breathing room to embrace the poems of this life chapter. There really haven't been any challenges or regrets.

I hope that my experience will remind other poets who feel helpless about the poetry publishing waiting process that they have options. We can decide when our manuscripts are ready to go forth into the world as books, and we can do that however we like...the traditionally prescribed way or our own way.

You've taught poetry at universities, hospitals, and writing conferences. What's the most common question you receive? What's your answer?

While the questions take many different forms, what people studying poetry seem to universally need is permission to write poems--and encouragement about their capacity to do so. I see my role as a mirror...I reflect back to my students what is powerful and true in what they are doing so they can have more fun and be more successful doing it.

Why should a poet buy a copy of Writing the Life Poetic?

The craft of poetry has been well documented in a variety of books that offer a valuable service to serious writers striving to become competent poets. Now it’s time for a poetry book that does more than lecture from the front of the classroom. Writing the Life Poetic was written to be a contagiously fun adventure in writing. Through an entertaining mix of insights, exercises, expert guidance and encouragement, I hope to get readers excited about the possibilities of poetry––and engaged in a creative practice. Leonard Cohen says: "Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash." My goal is that Writing the Life Poetic be the flame fueling the life well lived.

Practicing poets, aspiring poets, and teachers of writing in a variety of settings can use Writing the Life Poetic to write, read, and enjoy poems. Both practical and inspirational, it will leave readers with a greater appreciation for the poetry they read and a greater sense of possibility for the poetry they write.

Like the Heart, the World is broken into three sections (New York, San Francisco, and Portland). How important is location to your writing?

I wouldn't say that location is important to my writing, per se, but that the writing processes that I chose in each of the cities I lived seemed to yield a kind of poetry that resonated with that particular place. In New York, I walked everywhere and carried a small, handheld tape recorder where I whispered my little slivers of street-sightings and trash tracings. Then I'd transcribe these observations into the computer later and write from there. In San Francisco, I had a regular rhythm of freewriting (in longhand, in notebooks) in cafes, often while listening to live acoustic music. These days, I have somewhat of a hybrid of my previous two practices. I carry 3x5" index cards everywhere and write down everything that comes—usually while hiking in a rainforest or taking a bath. As a result, the New York poems often echo urban alienation and are laced with street grit. The San Francisco poems are often thematically and craft-wise a little looser and more musical and the Portland poems feel to me watery and deeply green.

Do you have a favorite poetic form?

I'm fascinated by haiku. This form represents to me the quintessential art of compression that poetry asks of us: to reveal a panoramic truth in a thin, velum layer of words.

Who are you currently reading?

Tess Gallagher, Paulann Petersen, Mari L'Esperance, Jack Gilbert, Jericho Brown, Jay Leeming.

If you could pass on only one piece of advice to your fellow poets, what would it be?

Welcome what comes. The poems choosing you are the ones that need to be written. Don't judge them or worry if they're "important" enough. Your poems will teach you who you are as a poet and a person. Just follow the golden thread and let them write you.

*****

If you wish to learn more about Sage Cohen, check out her website at www.sagesaidso.com.

Or you can stop by her blog at www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com.

*****

Are you a poet or poetry publisher interested in seeing yourself (or your authors) interviewed here on Poetic Asides? Well, figure out how to get the ball rolling on that by clicking here.

*****

Looking for more poetry information?

Check out our poetry titles (on sale in the month of April) HERE.
Read the most recent WritersDigest.com poetry-related articles HERE.
View several poetic forms HERE.
See where poetry is happening HERE.

Good times!

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:15:59 GMT

I just finished having a great time on J.P. Dancing Bear's "Out of Our Minds" poetry show on KKUP Cupertina. It was a lot fun--mostly because Bear has a real laid back approach to handling the show.

We discussed the April PAD Challenge, the Poetic Asides blog, Poet's Market, poetry submission worst practices, the importance of poet perseverance, and so much more. Bear was even kind enough to let me read 10 of my poems during the show.

If anyone was able to catch the show, I'd love to hear what you thought.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this previously unpublished poem, which I read during the show:

Watching Godzilla with my sons and trying to write

The story is written on the cave walls:
Ben asks why humans have so many wars
as Jonah stabs him with a plastic sword.

The make believe is over now: Turn off
the lights and buy insurance for your space
ship. If I had superpowers, I would
not create a Clark Kent identity.
Secrets always lead to super villains.

Jonah stuffs his Batman utility
belt down the back of his pants to become
Godzilla and roars, "I will never die."

Fundamentals of Poetry Writing Workshop

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:15:22 GMT

If you want a way to continue the poetry beyond April, WritersOnlineWorkshops.com is now taking registrations for its Fundamentals of Poetry Writing workshop. The online course begins April 23 (registration closes April 30) and will be taught by published writer Joyce Ferman Wells. The course consists of six sessions and costs $350. Plus, those who register receive a Best of Writer's Digest Interviews CD.

If interested, check it out here: http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/retail/courses.aspx?r=fundamentals-of-poetry-writing.

WritersOnlineWorkshops.com offers online courses throughout the year in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, etc. You can check out the current offerings across all genres by going to www.writersonlineworkshops.com.

Poetry Writing Titles on Sale Through April

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:17:14 GMT

Our eCommerce Marketing Manager just let me know this morning that all our poetry-related Writer's Digest Books will be on sale through the month of April. All our poetry writing books will be marked down at least 20% during the month (no offer code needed) and orders that exceed $25 get free U.S. shipping (sorry non-U.S. poets).

If you're interested in checking them out, just go to: http://www.writersdigestshop.com/category/poetry

April PAD Challenge 2009: Rules & Blah-blah-blah

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:38:48 GMT

I'm so excited (and I just can't hide it)--tomorrow is when April begins, which means tomorrow is when the Poetic Asides April PAD Challenge begins! (Oh yeah!)

Last night, I gathered some rules and answers to some frequently asked questions. Here they are:

The low down on the April PAD Challenge:

The Challenge starts with the Day 1 prompt on April 1, 2009, and ends at midnight (EST) on April 30, 2009.
To be eligible for the eBook, poems must be posted in the Comments for the correct prompt. (So, if you’re writing a poem for a prompt on rainy day poems, you need to paste your rainy day poem in the comments for that prompt.)
Each poem entered with the appropriate prompt will be eligible for the eBook; it doesn’t matter if you participate on one day, 10 days, or all 30 days. The eBook is completely separate of the completion certificate and badge.
You must post a poem for all 30 prompts to receive the completion certificate and badge.
Please do not email poems to me. This includes sending them to me through social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. It's not that I don't like hearing from you (because I love communicating with y'all), but poems that aren't posted directly to the blog won't count for the challenge or the eBook. I just know I won't have the time this April to sort them all out.
During the month of April, you can fall behind and catch up at any point for both the eBook and the completion certificate and badge; that is, until midnight (EST) on April 30, 2009.
To be eligible for the 2009 Poetic Asides Poet Laureate honor, you must participate throughout the month. (No payment for this post, but also no concrete responsibilities.)
I advise that you save a copy of your poem somewhere other than on the blog. While it doesn’t happen frequently, there have been times when the blog has dropped Comments; so please be safer than sorrier.
Participation is free.
No special registration is required; just show up and post a poem for the appropriate prompt. (I’ll go through and figure it out later on.)
Poets keep copyright to their work—even if selected for the eBook.
Poems should be previously unpublished and written during the month of April 2009; that’s kind of the point of the whole thing, you know.
There will be "Two for Tuesday" prompts on Tuesdays again this year. You only have to do one of the prompts, though I know some of you are overachievers and will write poems for both.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to highlight poems during the month of April (as I at least partially did last year), because I'm going to be super busy this month with getting Writer's Market and Poet's Market together.
However, I encourage everyone to give shout outs to fellow poets who write poems you particularly like. It not only helps that particular poet feel good, but I think it benefits everyone.

Judging for the eBook will work this way:

On May 1, I (and possibly my wife Tammy) will begin narrowing down the April poems to 5 finalists for each day.
Then sometime around the middle of May, we’ll give our list of Top 5’s to the guest judges.
Then, the guest judges will pick their favorite poem for their specific day.
Then, I’ll look at the remaining 120 poems and pick my favorite 20 of those.
This will result in 50 poems making it into the eBook, which will hopefully be ready for FREE distribution sometime during the summer.
Remember: Judging is very subjective and making it into the eBook is meant to be an extra bonus. Don't get upset or worry that you're not writing good stuff if your poems don't make it in the eBook.

How to add a poem to the Comments:

Click on the Comments link for the particular day’s post (you can practice with this post).
Scroll to bottom of the page and enter your name and email (so that I can contact you, if needed).
Paste your poem into the Comments box.
Enter the code shown.
Click Save Comment.

(Note: Always check to make sure your poem posted; sometimes, you need to enter the code a few times before your comment posts.)

Hopefully, this covers most of the bases. I'll add any revisions if I've forgotten to address a question or two.

I can't wait to see y'all tomorrow morning!

Children's poetry in April!

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:28:11 GMT

Gregory K. Pincus wanted to share the following announcement from his blog about April: http://gottabook.blogspot.com/2009/03/announcing-30-poets30-days.html

Basically, he's going to post a previously unpublished poem by a different children's poet each day in April, including poets like Jack Prelutsky, Jane Yolen, Nikki Giovanni, and many more.

Should be fun reading for all ages!

Announcing the Guest Judges for the April PAD Challenge eBook!

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:59:43 GMT

So I'm excited that some of our April PAD Challenge participants will have a chance to be featured in a well-designed eBook. The purpose of this project is not to exclude participants but to shine light on some of the very good poetry that happens on this blog in April. If you were here last year, you know what I mean.

Well, here's how the April PAD Challenge eBook is going to work. I'm going to make the deadline for consideration at midnight on April 30 (whether you're posting a poem to Day 1, Day 30, or sometime between). At that point, I'm going to go through each day (possibly with the help of my amazingly awesome wife and poet, Tammy) and select a Top 5 for each day.

(Note: As you know, a Top 5 in poetry is very, very subjective. And if this year is anything like last year, there is bound to be a ton of great poems each and every day. So please don't have any bruised feelings if you're not in this group.)

So, I choose a Top 5 each day. 5 poems per day X 30 days = 150 poems, right? But only the Top 50 poems during the month will appear in the eBook. And this is how we'll narrow it down:

* I'll be passing a group of Top 5 poems for each day to a guest judge (list below). That guest judge will pick a favorite from the Top 5 list to be the top of the day. So that'll take care of 30 of the 50 poems.

* I'll then pick out 20 from the 120 remaining poems. That'll get us to 50 poems.

Last year, more than 400 poets submitted more than 4,000 poems. So I definitely want y'all to know just how exceptional these 50 poems poems will be. And that those who are selected should feel proud, and those who aren't should feel just as good about themselves.

Apart from making it into the eBook, all those who complete the April PAD Challenge this year should receive a certificate of completion and badge for their websites/blogs (as we did last year). Plus, you should be able to make plenty of new friends (as we did last year).

So, here's the very distinguished list of judges (who are all volunteering their time and effort to the cause for free):

* Seth Abramson
* Sandra Beasley
* Shaindel Beers
* Mary Biddinger
* Jericho Brown
* Edward Byrne
* Sage Cohen
* J.P. Dancing Bear
* Jim Daniels
* Mark Doty
* Annie Finch
* Nick Flynn
* Jeannine Hall Gailey
* Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
* Vince Gotera
* S.A. Griffin
* Tom C. Hunley
* Collin Kelley
* Amy King
* Dorianne Laux
* Alex Lemon
* Reb Livingston
* Diane Lockward
* Marilyn Nelson
* Aimee Nezhukumatathil
* Chad Prevost
* Don Share
* Martha Silano
* Patricia Smith
* Anne Tardos

If I were running a literary journal, I would be overwhelmed with joy to have these fine poets published within my pages. To have them volunteering their time to help us out here is a great honor. (And if you want to learn more about them, just click on their names above.)

I won't be revealing which days they're going to judge (even to the judges themselves) until after the April 30 midnight deadline. I have several reasons for this--not least among them that I want poets to focus on writing a poem-a-day in April (as opposed to writing only on particular days). Hey, I'll be writing every day; you should, too, right?

Anyway, I'm super excited, and I hope you are as well.

AWP Update & More!

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:46:36 GMT

Grisel Y. Acosta has shared some more of her experience at AWP in Chicago: http://writetoright.blogspot.com/2009/02/awp-or-zombie-fest.html

Looks like there was plenty of room for surprises at the event.

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Also, I see that the Poetic Asides Chapbook Champion, Shann Palmer, has self-published and is selling copies of her winning chapbook: "Change." If you want to check it out, go to: http://shannpalmer.blogspot.com/2009/02/buy-my-change-chapbook.html

I'm sure Shann would appreciate your support!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:39:20 GMT

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

*****

Jacqueline Cartier, media relations with NPR, shared the following link with me earlier this week: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100619363

It's a poetry slam for Valentine's Day! Check out the link to hear some cool poems.

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The Poetry Foundation lists more than 1,200 love poems here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/tool.poem.cat.2.1.html?id=7

If you need a Valentine's Day idea, you can always e-mail a favorite poem from this link to that extra special person.

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Here's another Valentine's Day idea: Why not write a love poem for the one you love? I did so last Valentine's Day, and now I'm married to her. To check out that poem, go here: http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/Will+You+Be+My+Valentine.aspx

I'm not saying you'll get married if you write a love poem, but it doesn't hurt, eh?

Since I'm a man of routines, here's my Valentine's Day poem for this year:

You
-For Tammy Brewer

found me in airports. You found me
in bookstores. You found me on the
streets of Manhattan. I made you
mix CDs. We listened as we
drove to Yellow Springs, to Helen.
We fell in love as we wandered
along nature trails and city
streets--both walking at the same pace,
letting the others run past us.

AWP Update!

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:17:46 GMT

Grisel Y. Acosta sent over this link to her blog on how AWP is going for her: http://writetoright.blogspot.com/2009/02/chicago-and-awp-or-when-writers-gather.html

*****

Earlier in the week, Jane Friedman shared this post about AWP: http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/Headed+To+AWP+In+Chicago.aspx

Since I'm part of the Writer's Digest community, I oughta direct people to the Writer's Digest booth, huh? It sounds like there will be some great deals there.

*****

Found this cool account from Don Share on The Best American Poetry blog: http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/the_best_american_poetry/2009/02/the-things-they-carried-at-awp-don-share.html

*****

Also, a poem of mine appears in Barn Owl Review #2, which is debuting at AWP: http://wordcage.blogspot.com/2009/02/hello-beautiful-stranger.html

So, check that out if you're up that way.

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Jesse Loren shared this account:

It is Friday morning. Yesterday I went to Memory of Wounds, with Laura Madeline Wiseman, Joy Castro, Karen McElmurray, Kelly Grey Carlisle, Lucy Ferriss, and Carrie Anne Tocci. Carrie Anne Tocci was most amazing with her writings about memory, wholeness and the body.

I also attended Multiformalism Postmodern Poetics of Form with Annie Finch, Hank Lazer, Susan Schultz, and K. Silero Mohammad. It got hot in there. There were well versed audience members and heated discussions about form. It should have continued in a bar or elsewhere. I left for a bit, saw the ice sculptures in the park, went to a wine tasting, then to a reading with Bill Lavender. It was in a house in Chicago, but more like a Bohemian temple; completely dreamlike.

*****

If anyone else has an update, let me know at robert.brewer@fwmedia.com. Maybe next year, I can report directly from the event.

Are you attending AWP in Chicago?

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:53:04 GMT

If you are, then would you be willing to share your experiences with the rest of the Poetic Asides audience who are not able to attend (or who cannot sit in on every event--because, let's face it, there are soooooo many of them)?

If you're interested, just email updates at any time between 2/11 and 2/15 (the day after the event is over) to robert.brewer@fwmedia.com with the subject line of "AWP Update".

Please include your name so that you can get full credit for sharing the information. (If you have a website or blog, please include a URL with your name as well.)

Examples of things you could report on include:

Cool sessions you attend.
Great deals happening at publisher booths.
Parties you might be attending (or hosting).
Anything else that's going on or that strikes you.

Since this is a "first" for Poetic Asides, I'm not sure how well this will work (if at all), but I think it would be neat for those who have not experienced AWP or who won't be able to experience this year or who will be attending different sessions, parties, etc.

Depending upon participation, I'll try making frequent updates.

Winner of the Poetic Asides Chapbook Challenge!

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:36:31 GMT

First, it's Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil (of PA) and Buckeye Chuck (of OH) have seen their shadows and forecast 6 more weeks of winter. General Beauregard Lee (of GA) did not, however, forecasting only 4 more weeks of winter. Of course, I find that funny, because as an Ohio transplant, I'm still waiting for winter to hit Georgia; so, how can there be 4 more weeks of it?

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Anyway, I know you're not reading this blog post to hear the state of Groundhog Day 2009; you want to know who won the first annual Poetic Asides Chapbook Challenge! (Woo-hoo!)

In November, many poets took part in this blog's November PAD Chapbook Challenge, in which I challenged poets to write a poem-a-day through the month of November around a specific theme. Then, I gave the poets all of December to revise and edit their material and put together a chapbook to be submitted by the beginning of January.

More than 50 submissions were received. My wife, Tammy, and I went through them and selected a winner and 3 honorable mentions. There were some great submissions, but we both knew and agreed upon the winner without any squabbling.

Here are the Honorable Mentions:

* "Pacing the Moon," by Sandy Green
* "One Boy, How Many Square Miles," by Taylor Graham
* "Hooks and Slaughterhouses," by Alana I. Capria

And the winner of the first ever Poetic Asides Chapbook Challenge is:

"Change," by Shann Palmer

Congratulations, Shann!

Her manuscript was one that Tammy and I both loved and agreed was the best separately. That is rare in a competition with so many good submissions, but I think it points to the great writing Shann was able to gather.

Also, it should be mentioned that she cut the manuscript down to its bare essentials. It was one of the shorter manuscripts at only 11 poems and pages long.

Hopefully, we can arrange to have Shann explain her manuscript in a future post. In the meantime, let me share one of the poems Tammy and I both enjoyed very much:

Adaptation

After all the laundry is done-
round edges folded to the right,
the soaps stacked, the tissue
turned and tucked, she can go

to the next room to begin again;
blinds open just below the latch,
vase to the left, books by the lamp-
so little time, so much disarray.

Don't suggest she see a doctor,
she doesn't wash her hands raw
or alphabetize the soup cans, she has
discovered order is its own reward,

his suits hug the closet, with those
magazines, those dirty magazines.

*****

Again, Shann, congratulations!

Free Writing Contest!

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:59:57 GMT

Here's a free writing contest: http://www.writersdigest.com/redheartblackheart

The basic concept behind this free writing contest is that you can write a poem, essay, or letter that either celebrates love or tears love down. Here are the categories:

* Love Poem
* Black-Hearted Love Poem
* Love Letter
* Rejection Letter (as in rejected love letter)
* Essay on Love at First Sight
* Essay on Lost Love

The deadline is February 6--so this sounds like a good weekend project.

The prize is a $250 shopping spree to the Writer's Digest online store, in addition to several other very cool benefits.

To check out all the details, go to http://www.writersdigest.com/redheartblackheart

And have a great weekend! On Monday (Groundhog Day), I'll be sharing the results of the November PAD Chapbook Challenge. (Even the winner has no idea who he or she is.)

Horticulture Accepting Gardening Poems

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:58:19 GMT

I don't usually highlight single magazines that are accepting poems, but I'm going to make an exception in this case, because it's the only F+W Media magazine (of which I'm aware) that is accepting poetry at the moment, Horticulture.

Here's the press release from Guy Gonzalez:

Open Call for Submissions

Horticulture, the oldest and most respected magazine for avid gardeners in North America, is pleased to announce the addition of poetry to its editorial features. Cave Canem fellow (and fellow gardener) Michelle Courtney Berry's "What I Learned in the Garden" has been chosen as the debut poem, to appear in the April 2009 issue and online at Hortmag.com.

"For over 100 years, Horticulture has been dedicated to celebrating the passion of avid, influential gardeners, and there is an even longer history of poetry inspired by flowers and gardens -- from William Blake to Louise Glück, and so many great poets between them," explained publisher and editorial director, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez. "Adding garden verse to our editorial mix is simply another way to celebrate and encourage a real passion for gardening."

Horticulture is accepting submissions on a rolling basis, and is seeking poetry about, related to, or in honor of gardeners and gardening: traditional forms and free verse, the meditative lyric and the "light" or comic poem, the work of the famous and the work of the unknown. Our one limitation is length; we are unable to publish very long poems, and our limit is 42 lines.

Submissions should be sent as an email attachment (.DOC or .RTF only) per the guidelines posted at http://www.hortmag.com/submissions/

For more information on Horticulture, visit Hortmag.com.

It figures...

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:00:37 GMT

...on a day when I speak of trying to rid abstraction from your poetry that Elizabeth Alexander's poem for the inauguration of Barack Obama would rely on abstraction. I'm not trying to say the poem was bad, because it moved me. It just figures is all--and it helps show that even the best and most basic rules of poetry can be broken depending upon your audience and occasion.

You can find text of the inaugural poem, "Praise Song for the Day," here: http://www.nowpublic.com/world/barack-obamas-inaugural-poem-praise-song-day-full-text

It took me a while to find a copy this afternoon, but there it is.

I loved the ending (which was about as abstract as you can get): "praise song for walking forward in that light."

"That light" is mentioned earlier in the poem as "Love that casts a widening pool of light."

This poem may not work for everyone, but, for me, it achieved the goal of every inauguration day, which is to bring everyone together in a peaceful transition of power from one president to the next.

Also, the timing of the poem being read was very nice. Alexander read her poem directly after Obama gave his inauguration speech.

The reanimation of dead poets

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:36:43 GMT

For something kinda cool and really freaky, check out this piece from the NY Times blogs: http://ideas.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/dead-poets-animated-society/

Apparently, an animator by the name of Jim Clark has taken old photos of poets, such as Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and brought them to life so that it appears the poets are reciting some of their best known poems.

Poet to speak at presidential inauguration

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:40:42 GMT

(Tammy has once again shown why she's so cool. Today, she forwarded me the link to this little piece of news.)

Apparently, Barack Obama will be only the third president to invite a poet to speak at his inauguration--the other two presidents being Bill Clinton (1993 and 1997) and John F. Kennedy (1961). Obama has chosen Elizabeth Alexander.

Alexander will be the fourth poet to speak at a presidential inauguration, following up Miller Williams (1997), Maya Angelou (1993) and Robert Frost (1961). While people can agree or disagree with Obama's politics, I think everyone can appreciate Obama giving a nod to the importance and influence of poetry on the day of his inauguration.

Here's the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/dec/18/obama-inauguration-alexander-poetry

*****

Also, for those interested in learning more about Alexander, including reading some of her poems, here is a link to her website: http://www.elizabethalexander.net/home.html.

The site includes poems, interviews, audio, events, and more.

NaNoWriMo for Poets? PAD Challenge for November?

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:22:10 GMT

Okay, we're getting closer to November, which for some writers of fiction means it's getting closer to NaNoWriMo time. (Btw, NaNoWriMo translates into National Novel Writing Month.) There are would be novelists lining up to attempt writing 50,000 words or more during the month of November. There's even a NaNoWriMo website you can visit to check out this phenomenon at www.nanowrimo.org.

Anyway, that's all fine and good for those who write fiction. But what are the poets who don't write fiction supposed to do during November? After all, their fiction writing pals are all busy cramming 50,000 words into their laptops and hard drives.

I'm thinking it might be a neat idea to try writing a poem a day in November with the view of trying to have the makings of a chapbook heading into December. If there's enough interest, I would challenge myself and others to write a poem-a-day (as we did in April). I'll provide a prompt-a-day as well to try and help get the poetic juices flowing each day, but you can decide to follow or ignore the prompt as you see fit. After all, our main goal would be to have 30ish poems at the end of the month that you can then try turning into a chapbook submission (or heck, I guess you could self-publish, if that's the route you want to take).

I can tell you now that I won't have the time to highlight poems (as I did in April). But if there's enough interest, I will definitely work to do the prompt and poem each day. So, if you're interested in taking part in such a challenge with me, please let me know in the comments below this post.

Where is poetry happening? Part II

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:33:38 GMT

On September 22, I posted about a few sites that have poetry calendars in some prominent areas--mainly as a result of looking for events in my new home of Atlanta, Georgia. And many poets chimed in with other sites, in addition to my very, very short list.

Collected together, here are those for the U.S.:

Atlanta, Georgia http://www.poetryatlanta.blogspot.com
New York City http://www.poetz.com/calendar
Chicago http://chicagopoetry.com
Southern California http://www.poetix.net/calendar.htm
Las Vegas www.localendar.com/public/VegasPoetry
Texas http://texaspoetryevents.info/
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania http://www.poetz.com/pittsburgh/index.htm
Boston, Massachusetts http://www.poetz.com/boston/
Western Massachusetts and Connecticut www.poetrynewscalendar.com
North Carolina http://ncpoetlaureate.blogspot.com/
New Jersey http://old.pccc.edu/poetry/
New Jersey, Part 2 http://njpoetspoetry.blogspot.com/
Minnesota www.minnesotapoetry.com
Kansas City (Kansas and Missouri) http://www.newletters.org/eventsReading.asp
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania http://freecal.brownbearsw.com/PhillyPoetry

Here are ones from outside the States:

Dublin, Ireland: http://www.poetryireland.ie/whats-on/
Western Ireland http://theroadlesstraveledireland.com
Ottawa, Canada http://www.bywords.ca
Toronto, Canada http://www.patchysquirrel.ca/
Alberta, Canada http://www.strollofpoets.com/index.php

Also, Poets & Writers also has a great literary events calendar at http://pw.org/calendar/ns

*****

I'd like to thank Pearl, Danna Jae, Paige, Margaret B, Margaret Fieland, Lori, Nancy Posey, Bruce Niedt, Anthony, Fiona, Michelle H, Chris, Ashraf Osman, and anyone else I might've forgotten.

*****

If you'd like to add any other areas, add them in the comments, and maybe there'll be a part III eventually. >

ForGodot.com ruffles poetic feathers

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:03:29 GMT

Wow! This is a busy day for the blog. How many posts am I going to make today anyway?

This post was inspired by a developing story brought to me by my wife Tammy. First, she found this post on Atlanta poet Collin Kelley's Modern Confessional blog: http://collinkelley.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-poem-at-forgodotcom.html.

It talks about an online "anthology" that is "publishing" poems by poets who are online from Jorie Graham to, well, Collin Kelley. Even some of my friends, such as Luc Simonic and Pris Campbell, are in this mega-nthology. There's only one catch: None of the poems were actually written by the poets.

Anyway, Tammy also found some other blogs discussing this odd anthology:

From Amy King's Alias blog: http://amyking.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/the-author-resurrected/

From Reb Livingston's Home-Schooled By a Cackling Jackal blog: http://cacklingjackal.blogspot.com/ (check out the October 5 post)

Also, to check out the source, go to: http://forgodot.com/.

(Really, you should check out the list of poets for the first issue. After a while, your eyes will start to cross--poetically, of course.)

*****

So, this is probably some kind of joke on poets and the universe, but does it make it right? I don't consider myself an elitist or a prude or anything like that, but poets who are in the anthology AND upset do have a legitimate gripe. For one, the poems aren't funny (if that was even the intent). And second, people who may be searching out a poet's work and find these horrible poems online may write off that particular poet as someone the potential reader no longer wants to read.

This site is NOT an obvious satire, and so poets could very easily be victimized by the misrepresentation of their work. This is especially damaging to lesser known poets--and, yes, there are a lot of them in the first issue.

Poems in others' words

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:59:37 GMT

Lately, there have been a lot of pieces on putting together poetry from other people's words (or imagining what others would say). Here are some I've noticed:

* There Once Was a Soccer Mom From Alaska... (Actually Alice Pope led me to this one. Thanks, Alice!)

* The Poetry of Sarah Palin

* We hereby nominate Al Davis as poet laureate of Oakland

*****

Also, as an extra, here are some poems actually by Barack Obama.

Where is poetry happening?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:29:13 GMT

So as part of my upcoming move from Southwest Ohio to Northwest Georgia, I've been interested in what the poetry scene is like in the Atlanta area. And lucky for me, there is a website dedicated to poetry events in the area.

The site is called Poetry Atlanta, Inc., and it was created by Dan Veach, editor of the Atlanta Review. If you're interested, check it out at http://www.poetryatlanta.blogspot.com.

So that got me wondering about other areas, and here's a short list of calendars from particular cities:

For NYC, there's the ultimate NYC poetry calendar by Marc Rubin at http://www.poetz.com/calendar.

For Chicago, there's C.J. Laity's http://chicagopoetry.com.

And then, there is the Poetix poetry calendar for Southern California at http://www.poetix.net/calendar.htm.

*****

If you have up-to-date poetry calendars from other areas, please share them with everyone in the comments below. Thanks!

First Ever Fake Bio Contest Winner and Other Finalists

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:30:22 GMT

Okay, I've been in hiding recently because so many poets have been hounding me over who is the winner of the first ever fake bio contest on Poetic Asides. The great thing about this contest is that writers didn't need to have any "real" credits to enter--just a great imagination of what they'd like to have in their bio notes. That said, the competition was fierce--with many entrants owning impressive "real" bios.

Anyway, the judging was difficult, especially as I got closer and closer to narrowing down the field to 8 finalists from which to pick the winner. To build the suspense and share some of the fake bios I found most interesting, here are the 7 finalists who did not win:

Pris Campbell's poetry book, Sucky Relationships, was just turned into an award-winning movie, directed by Clint Eastwood. She will be featured on Dr. Phil and Oprah where she'll moderate participant's arguments about which partner sucked the most. She is currently being sued by all six of her ex-husbands who demand parts in the movie as their award. She lives with her pet monkey on an island off of Maine where she's hard at work on a sequel. Jib-Jab plans to spearhead a drive to make her poet laureate for 'making poetry relevant to the people' again.

Pris Campbell |camprisAT NOSPAMbellsouth dot net

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Kellian Angelou is famous and well-known for winning the Pullet's Surprise, the No Bell Piece Prize, and the Mack Arthur Genie Grant for her poetry collection exploring the uncertainty of scales, The Waistland. The Waistland is a corset of sonnets dealing with the tragic difficulty of being a size 14 in a world of zeros. Kellian received her MFA from the I-Owe-ya Writers Workshop. She currently lives with her wild emu, Walt, in the Northwest.

Kelli Agodon |kelliAT NOSPAMagodon dot com

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Caili Wilk has been awarded the Emily Dickinson accolade for her upcoming work titled, “I am so old”. At age 32, this will be her first award for poetry; however as a teenager she received a bronze certificate for her entry into the middle school song contest. Miss Wilk is most well known for her attempt to break the world record for typing out the letter P on a keyboard; however, after 5,328,685 times, she collapsed muttering “I need to pee”. Inconsequently, she retired to her bathroom, and has not been seen in public since developing severe typophobia.

Caili Wilk |cailiwilkAT NOSPAMgmail dot com

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Robert McDermott was intended to be the reincarnation of Robert Lowell but owing to a clerical error is actually the reincarnation of John Berryman. His poetry is quite remarkable and is easily the best on his ward. He is currently writing an opera about oranges and in his next life he wants to be a Shakespearean villain. His latest collection 'In conversation with Kilgore Trout' has attracted wide praise and is available in spirit everywhere.

Robert McDermott |robertmcdermottAT NOSPAMgmail dot com

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Odoacer Pinkyring Moses de la Salle Cuthbert-Jones is that weird guy who lives in the van parked across the street from your house. He is allergic to everything, especially air and water. His most recent book, the title of which is unpronounceable in any human language, spent 30 seconds at the top of the best seller list in the Autonomous Republic of Erewhon. One day he will destroy you all.

Matthew Falk |mdfalkAT NOSPAMsvsu dot edu

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Jonathan Pinnock is the author of "Apathy: A 21st Century Manifesto". He'd tell you more about himself if he could be bothered.

Jonathan Pinnock |jonAT NOSPAMjpassoc dot co dot uk

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Shaindel Beers, the once promising young poet, has decided after reading many literary journals, including this one, that mediocrity is the way to go. Obviously no one was brilliant enough to understand her allusions to the classical mythologies of ancient civilizations, her personal theories of metaphysics, or her unique insight into the human condition. Instead, journals have elected to publish her drunken scrawlings written on napkins at dive bars, which she then drunk types when she comes home alone from happy hours at various establishments. The other nights, little writing gets done.

Shaindel Beers |shaindelrAT NOSPAMyahoo dot com

*****

All of these were great, but the first ever winner cracked me up--and got bonus points, because writers could actually submit a similar bio note without stretching the truth. As a result, Jessy Randall will receive a free copy of the 2009 Poet's Market. Congratulations, Jessy!

Here's her winning entry:

Jessy Randall has read poems in the Iowa Review, Ploughshares, the Paris Review, the New Yorker, and The Best American Poetry 1999, 2003, and 2007.

Jessy Randall |jessyrandallAT NOSPAMyahoo dot com

Fake Bio Note Contest!

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:36:17 GMT

Recently, I was reading about how the Wine Spectator magazine was duped by a fake restaurant in its restaurant awards. This got me thinking how fun it might be to have a "fake bio note" contest. And since we just recently released the 2009 Poet's Market, I can offer that up as a prize to whoever writes the best fake bio.

You can make your bio funny, outrageous, horrible, seriously intense, etc. Just keep it under 100 words (hey, most publications cap it off at 50 words). Enter as many times as you want to this free contest by pasting your fake bio into the comments section below. With so many great writers reading this blog, I know the competition will be fierce. But only one can win and be known as the Poetic Asides FAKE BIO CHAMPION OF THE UNIVERSE.

Let's give this competition a deadline of September 1, 2008, midnight (EST).

For people who need an example, here's my fake bio note (written on the spot--see how easy it is?):

Robert Lee Brewer has twice been nominated the best writer on Jupiter and hopes to turn his love of writing poetry into a Day-Time Emmy award. When he's not negotiating lower prices on gasoline, Brewer bench presses and curls copies of Writer's Market. You can read about it in his forthcoming book titled Breaking a Sweat With the Market Books: 50 Exercises From Weight Resistance to Step Aerobics.

Be San Fran's Next Poet Laureate!

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:04:30 GMT

Apparently, poet Jack Hirschman's term has expired, and a new poet laureate for the city of San Francisco is sought.

Read the full story at: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10189562?nclick_check=1.

Nomination forms and even more poet laureate information are available at: http://sfpl.org/poetlaureate.htm.

Deadline for nominations is August 28, 2008.

If you're eligible, best of luck to you.

I'm going to be teaching!

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:04:06 GMT

Some of you have asked over the past few months if I do or will teach any online courses. Well, after speaking with Joe Stollenwerk at www.writersonlineworkshops.com, I will start teaching some poetry courses online.

My Fundamentals of Poetry Writing course will begin on 9/18 and it should kick butt.

To learn more, including a description of the course, just go to http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/retail/courses.aspx?r=fundamentals-of-poetry-writing.

As you'll see on the page, you can sign up for my class directly. And I think they cap the classes at 15 students--so thought I'd give y'all first crack at signing up.

Olympics, Colorado, Role of Poetry, To Submit Or Not

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:38:22 GMT

Here are some recent poetry-related pieces I've recently stumbled upon:

Watch for a new poetry prompt tomorrow morning.

Rabbit Season/Duck Season/Submission Season

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:52:21 GMT

I used to love that Looney Tunes cartoon where Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck would argue over rabbit and duck season until Bugs fooled Daffy into saying, "It's duck season. Duck season!" And then, he'd get shot, and say something like, "I hate you," to Bugs--who's so smart, yet always (always) takes a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Anyway, I'm not concerned with rabbit or duck season in this post. Instead, I'm focused on submission season, especially for college-run literary journals.

19 literary journals are listed below by the date that they re-open their submission periods (after taking the summer off). Remember: This is only a short list of possible places to get your poetry published. WritersMarket.com lists more than 200 literary journals, and Poet's Market offers more than 1,600 poetic listings. So if you want comprehensive, go to those resources; in the meantime, check out this list.

August 1

August 15

Alaska Quarterly Review

August 16

Georgia Review

August 31

Subtropics

September 1

September 2

September 15

Bellingham Review

Poets Helping Poets: Poetry Websites of Interest

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:07:52 GMT

Way back in June I asked poets to share their favorite poetry-related websites, and I found myself buried under recommendations. So many of the sites were great, but I tried to be hard-nosed about which ones I included on this list, because I know you're all very busy people who can't go checking out every single cool site on the Internet.

So here are some of the top poetry-related sites:

Ones that do everything:

www.poetryfoundation.org The site for the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is packed with information and tools.

So is the one run by the Academy of American Poets at www.poets.org.

And finally, David Graham is doing a phenomenal job with his online Poetry Library.

For poets outside the U.S.:

The U.K. has its own poetry library at www.poetrylibrary.org.uk.

Canadian poets may find www.arcpoetry.ca/portage helpful.

For poetry-related news and happenings:

Check out Ron Silliman's blog at http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com.

Or go to www.poetryhut.com/wordpress.

For poetry performed:

You can visit the official site of Poetry Slam, Inc., at www.poetryslam.com, where among other things there is a poetry slam finder. Very cool.

At the Penn Sound site (http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound), there are links to poetry recordings.

And finally for your daily poetry fix:

There's Verse Daily at www.versedaily.org,

and Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac (http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org).

Plus, a few commenters have already pointed out that I missed Poetry Daily at www.poetrydaily.org. (Thanks for paying attention!)

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I'd like to thank Nancy Posey, Carol (?), Russell Ragsdale, David Graham, Sue Guiney, J.P. Dancing Bear, Bill Abbott, and several others for sharing these sites and more. If you really like another site that I've not included, feel free to throw in the comments below. The more the merrier!

New Poetic Form, Busiest Poet, and More

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:41:32 GMT

I've just got a few random links today, including a poetic form shared from a Poetic Asides reader and other stuff.

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The poetic form is from Salvatore Buttaci for a poem he calls The Aragman. He provided me a link to the article he wrote on the form at http://www.alongstoryshort.net/PoetCraft.html.

It's a little involved, but it looks like fun--and it provides the link for a cool anagram finder site.

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Then, there's this cool article about America's busiest poet--who is, of course, the Poet Laureate. What I like most about this piece is that several Poets Laureate are interviewed about their experiences in the position.

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Also, I found this article on spoken word poet Jon Goode from Atlanta. The piece interested me for two reasons: 1. I'm still not as well-versed in the spoken word scene as I'd like to be; and 2. I'm planning a move to Atlanta later this year. So, this may be a piece that only interests me, but just in case.

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Finally, here's a neat little piece on animated poetry, including an appeal to animators to create more poetic cartoons. I totally agree!

Kay Ryan tapped as next U.S. Poet Laureate!

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:18:05 GMT

Kay Ryan will succeed Charles Simic as the 16th Poet Laureate of the United States. She was selected by James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, with advice offered by poets, critics and academics around the country.

Here's the piece from the NY Times: "Kay Ryan, Outsider With Sly Style, Named Poet Laureate," by Patricia Cohen.

In the piece, Ryan says of writing poetry: "I wanted to do it, but I didn't want to expose myself."

Also, here's the official release from the Library of Congress: Librarian of Congress Appoints Kay Ryan Poet Laureate.

Ryan becomes the first woman Poet Laureate since Louise Gluck held the post 2003-2004.

Super Cool News: 2009 Poet's Market!

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:11:00 GMT

After copying some of my writing into my super sophisticated composition notebook at lunch, I discovered that the 2009 Poet's Market is back from the printer, which means that soon (very, very soon) this directory will be getting to both print and online bookstores. Yes, another edition of Poet's Market is on its way out to the public.

As usual, there are a lot of great poetry listings for magazines & journals, book & chapbook publishers, contests & awards, grants and more. There's also a lot of great interviews and profiles and how-to's and, yes, more.

More. More. More.

Anyway, cool stuff.

Shady poetry contest update!

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:39:57 GMT

Here's a link to a piece on a supposedly shady poetry contest: "Shady poetry contest gets religion," by Bill Chapin from mlive.com

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Here's an experience of my own from way back in high school:

http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/Im+Coming+Out+Of+The+Closet.aspx

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If you're not sure what a shady poetry contest might be, please read both pieces and educate yourself. :)

A few interesting titles...

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:40:40 GMT

I was playing outside with my sons most of this weekend--and I've got sunburn to prove it. For me, it gets hard to do any reading at the beginning of summer, because I feel like I've got to be out doing stuff. However, there always comes that point when I feel like I need to read--or else! So, I was pleased to see two possible titles for me to check out when that point hits this summer.

* Poetry: Read It When You're Drunk, by Dwight Garner from The New York Times Paper Cuts blog, reviews Quote Poet Unquote: Contemporary Quotations on Poets and Poetry, edited by Dennis O' Driscoll.

* A long flowering, by Jonathan Pitts from The Baltimore Sun, takes a look at the friendship between poets Elizabeth Spires and the late Josephine Jacobsen, as well as the "chapbook" Spires published of Jacobsen's work. Jacobsen once served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress--the position now known as U.S. Poet Laureate.

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And as long as I'm leading you to those titles, I guess I should share a great collection I recently read (because even when I'm not reading I am still reading): Queen for a Day, by Denise Duhamel (University of Pittsburgh Press). In this collection of selected poems, Duhamel includes some of her finest work from her early collections (through 2001, I believe). If you can find it, check it out.

Open Books: A Poem Emporium

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:28:13 GMT

Recently, we sent the 2009 Poet's Market to the printer for a July release (actually, it's due back on my birthday of July 18, funny enough). In the book, there's an in-depth interview with the owners of Open Books--one of only two poetry-only bookstores in the country. While the following article isn't as thorough as the one in Poet's Market, it is a nice profile and should help hold you over until the 2009 Poet's Market hits the shelves.

http://thedaily.washington.edu/2008/6/5/local-bookstore-brings-poetry-shelves/

It's really amazing, when you think of it, that so many very good independent bookstores are having to close up shop after years of great service, yet here's a poetry-only store staying afloat. To learn all their secrets to success in owning a bookstore, marriage, and managing their own poetry careers, be sure to read the article in the 2009 Poet's Market later this summer.

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Also, here's a link to their Web site: http://www.openpoetrybooks.com/