Pure Poetry
MBToolBox cannot lie: It knows nothing about the art of poetry. Fortunately, however, it knows people who do. Eve Wood is the author of two books of poems, Love’s Funeral and Six (both published by Cherry Grove Collections), a chapbook entitled Paper Frankenstein (Beyond Baroque Press), and Correspondence (Gegensatze Press, Austria). Her work has appeared in numerous books and journals including The Best American Poetry 1997, The New Republic, The Denver Quarterly, Triquarterly, Poetry, Witness, The Wisconsin Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Greensboro Review, Exquisite Corpse, The Florida Review, The Antioch Review, and many others. She was most recently a guest on KPFK’s Poet’s Cafe. Eve is the recipient of the Jacob Javits Fellowship and a Brody Grant. She has written art criticism for Tema Celeste, ArtUS, Artext, Artweek, and Artnet.com., Bridge Magazine, Latinarts.com, Flash Art, and Art Papers. And she has some advice for you.
“Once you’ve decided to pursue your poetry as a career, it is important to investigate the publishing possibilities best suited for your type of work. If you write haikus, you need to subscribe to the magazines that publish this form.
1.) Invest in the literature (books like The Writer’s Market (Writer’s Digest Books, Edited by Nancy Breen) and The Poet’s Market can be very useful)
2.) Target Your Market: Go through the books and decide which magazines you feel are best suited to your work. The Poet’s Market is very detailed and will give examples of the kinds of works they publish. It is a good idea to then subscribe to these magazines, or at least go out and get a copy. You can call the magazines directly to have them send you a few sample copies.
3.) Understand that you will not make a living at poetry, but that you will derive a great sense of satisfaction when you see your first poem in print.
4.) Keep a journal of submissions, where and when you submitted poems, and to whom to avoid multiple submission errors. (Editors hate it when a writer sends the same work to more than one magazine at a time)
5.) Circulate your best work, BUT keep writing all the time to avoid running out of submission material.
6.) Read poets whose works you admire and drop them a line
7.) Try to develop relationships with editors so when you submit, they know who you are. The best way to do this is to subscribe to the magazine and write personal notes to the editor about how much you enjoy reading their magazine and what exactly about it compels you. Editors are people too and they love it when a writer takes the time to really respond.
8.) Don’t send out your newest, greenest work, though you may feel it is your best. Send only poems that have been work-shopped.
9.) Join a writer’s group where you can get feedback on your writing.
10.) Read, Read and Read some more.”
You want to know more, don’t you? Take Eve’s Mediabistro course!
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