Poetry News For March 17, 2008
Poetry News:
- — Mail sorter’s poems win $65,000 prize —
- — Hopkins’s syntax is so mangled, the lines so packed with heavy plodding accents and stilted comma stops, that he speaks as if through a chokehold —
- — A pair of fine collections from Philadelphia poets who fervently put their wanderings to words —
- — after the last customer has left, the bank employees rearrange the tables and chairs for a poetry reading session —
- — English poetry masters: Christina Rossetti —
- — Dan Chiasson on ‘The Best American Erotic Poems’ —
- — A Giant’s Roaring, Faintly Echoed —
Would you pay $2 for the privilege of submitting poetry to a lit mag electronically? Why or why not? Disclosure: I am a former subscriber of 32 Poems. (I rotate lit mag subscriptions to help support a variety of lit mags, with a dozen or so subscriptions per year. I’m explaining so that it doesn’t seem like I quit subscribing because I thought it was a bad lit mag.)
Tags: 32 Poems, Christina Rossetti, David Beach, Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Milton, Manuscript Hub, Peter Krok, poet, Poetry, Poetry News, Thomas Devaney
Greg responds:
Posted: March 17th, 2008 at 8:53 am →
I would NOT pay $2 or $.2 — a magazine is privileged to receive work, however poor or amateurish. If the editors prefer traditional postal submissions, that is their right, but no one should have to pay to have their work considered. That would completely corrupt poetry publishing, which is already seriously compromised by the profusion of contests that one must pay for the “privilege” of entering.
January responds:
Posted: March 17th, 2008 at 9:04 am →
No. Not ever. There are too many other publications (print and online) out there that take take my work for free. I do believe in supporting lit mags but not like this.
Michael A. Wells responds:
Posted: March 17th, 2008 at 1:17 pm →
I can’t say that I am totally adverse to the concept - but I would expect something more in return. Example, Duotrope’s Digest with manuscript tracking management is awesome. I’d rather support it with contribution (and do) then what I see of Manuscript Hub. I completely understand that we are talking apples and oranges because one simply is a way to forward the manuscript to the publisher wher the other is not providing that service. So I guess what I’m saying is that market information and manuscript tracking is a more valuable service in my opinion than a service that replicates what I can do with my own e-mail.
Jeannine Hall Gailey responds:
Posted: March 17th, 2008 at 3:30 pm →
Well, I look at it this way; I usually stick a 60 cent stamp on my subs, because they tend to be slighly heavier than one ounce; a sase costs me another 60 - and hearing back is often very slow. Then there’s paper, ink, envelopes, licking of things, plus the killing of trees. If the $2.00 sub meant I get a faster response time and no hassle with the post office (now my sworn enemy after a six month post office box battle with losing-of-my-mail and getting no apologies, just a shrug) then I’m for it.
Of course, free e-mail subs with a fast response are best!
Loudon responds:
Posted: March 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm →
Nope.
Collin Kelley responds:
Posted: March 18th, 2008 at 10:41 pm →
As I understand it, 32 Poems is using an online program that charges $2, so not really the magazine. I’m not even sure the mag gets a cut of that $2.
Lyle Daggett responds:
Posted: March 18th, 2008 at 10:43 pm →
No, I would not pay to submit poems to a magazine. For pretty much all the reasons the other commenters have said here.
I mean, we’re not even talking about paying to be published — it’s paying merely to be considered for publication.
If it ever becomes a widespread practice (as “contest” fees are these days), I would publish myself before paying to submit to a magazine. Self-publishing costs a bit more, but it at least offer the guarantee of publication.
My comments here are more restrained and polite than I actually feel about this, but I prefer not to become vexed at the moment…
Jilly Dybka responds:
Posted: March 26th, 2008 at 10:54 am →
If Duotrope was smart, they’d roll out that service to lit mags. They already have a user-base.
Greg responds:
Posted: March 28th, 2008 at 12:48 pm →
I trust you’ll be removing the above ravings in short order. Sir/Madam: This is poetry blog, not a platform for religio-political venting.
Jilly Dybka responds:
Posted: March 28th, 2008 at 9:09 pm →
Wow. Nazi’s, the Anti-Christ, the Simpsons and government slaughter via a marijuana eradication program.
It hurt to delete that one.