April is not just the cruelest month but National Poetry Month and yesterday I added a getting-your-poetry-in-print workshop to the last hour of the ongoing Saturday Poetry Workshop that I launched last summer in association with the Literature Department @ Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles.
The workshop is going strong and every Saturday I'm humbled by the power of language and the words of others. Our participants come from all walks of life and backgrounds, reflecting the diversity and richness LA has to offer. Here's an excerpt of the session handout that includes some helpful stuff for poets submitting work to the literary magazine scene: GETTING YOUR POETRY IN PRINT Martin Jago The literary magazine scene is the first and ongoing port of call for poets the world over. It’s exciting getting work published and even better when it’s in a literary magazine that you have long aspired to be published by. Seeing your poem alongside the poems of others’ whose work you recognize as excellent, will give you pride in the work and in yourself. Building a publication list of different journals and magazines where your work has been featured, also builds a readership base for you as a poet. Down the line, you may wish to put together a chapbook and after publication, consider a full collection. This is the three-step traditional route to publishing poetry:
Publishing is constantly evolving and there are many ways to get your work out there. This workshop article focuses on the first step in the traditional approach. With some online research, you’ll find what magazines pique your interest and which ones send you to sleep. Keep a record. Every time you come across an excellent poem, make a note of which journal published it. If it’s a poem that moved you, then you have something in common with the poetry editor who published it because it moved them too. The first rule of submitting poetry to lit. magazines and journals is to make sure the poems you send are final drafts. The eagerness to send out sometimes gets in the way and before we know it, we’ve clicked the Send button, only to discover at a later date, further edits that are needed. So, share your work. Workshop your work. And still wait. Give yourself time away from your babies, let them grow, come back when you hardly recognize them. It will give you the best shot at looking with fresh eyes. Unfortunately, even when the poems are in the best shape possible, the odds are against you. Receiving rejection emails is not nice, but inevitable. However, it is a cliché but also a truism to say that every rejection is a step closer to getting your work accepted. Try to learn from the experience. Just to be absolutely clear about the kind of odds that poets face, here are some stats from one of the biggest literary magazines out there, Rattle, whose website features a breakdown of poetry submissions received, read, accepted etc. The magazine has published 4,500 poets, including 15 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 11 National Book Award Winners and 12 U.S. Poets Laureate. The magazine has a print run of 11,000, which is just huge, especially for a literary magazine. They read 200, 000 poems a year, publishing just 300 a year with a publishing rate of 0.2%. I believe the average is somewhere between 1 - 3%. Rattle is highly regarded, widely known and sought out by poets, making the odds about as slim as they could be. The other thing to say about rejection letters/emails is that not all rejections are the same. Having received my fair share and discussed the art of rejection with fellow poets and writers, it’s clear that there is a hierarchy to rejection. Rejection usually arrives in one of the following forms:
None of this would matter if it wasn’t for the fact that keeping a record of the more personal responses is a good way to build a connection with editors, know who ‘gets’ your work and who clearly doesn’t. Most editors at lit. journals are poets themselves. They champion new writing, want your work to succeed, and from the moment they read the first line, are literally willing your poem to cut through. It may be that your work is excellent but simply doesn’t fit the aesthetic of the magazine. It’s a tell-tale sign to the editor that you haven’t even bothered to read the magazine you’re sending your poems to. Get to know the magazines you are sending to and support the community you are part of. If half the writers who send their work out, subscribed to just one or two of the magazines they submit work to, the literary landscape would be so much stronger. No one runs a literary magazine for financial gain. They are a labor of love and editors usually work on a voluntary basis. Almost all subs are made in one of three ways.
Some magazines still accept snail-mail subs. It used to be the norm but Submittable is by far the most popular way to submit work. Duotrope is another submission platform but the above three methods cover almost all subs you will ever make. Submittable charges magazines to use their platform and that’s why most subs carry a $3 submission fee. There are still plenty of free ones out there and you’ll often find that magazines are willing to waive fees for those struggling financially (but that’s weird because that accounts for almost every poet I know, haha). If you think about it $2 or $3 a go can quickly add up but it’s probably comparable to the cost of sending your work out the snail-mail method. Do This:
Tips, Hacks, Shortcuts
Rust and Moth Palette Poetry Tacoma Literary Review The Sewanee Literary Review Tupelo Quarterly Iron Horse Literary Review Sundog Lit. Sierra Nevada Review The Friday Poem Timber Journal RHINO Poetry The Indianapolis Review Boulevard Michigan Quarterly Review/MQR Conduit Southeast Review
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Delighted to be one of the featured poets at Casa Macondo this weekend, with gratitude to Colombian poet Antonieta Villamil for inviting me. Con un poco de temor compartiré algo de poesía bilingüe español/inglés frente a un grupo de poetas de habla hispana, pero estoy emocionado de tener la oportunidad.
I'm excited to announce that I'm the featured poet at this month's Second Sunday Poetry Series in Los Angeles. I'll be reading from my debut collection, Photofit (Pindrop Press, 2023). as well as selling and signing copies. If you're in town, come along. And if you're feeling brave, bring a poem to read and share during the open mic part of the event. The Second Sunday Poetry Series has been running for more than a decade and is hosted by the incomparable Alex M. Frankel. Hope to see you there. Details as follow: Jan 14th 2024 at 5pm, The Studio Theatre, St. Denis Building, 3433 Cahuenga Blvd West Los Angeles 90068 I'm excited that two of my poems have been accepted for publication in THE HIGH WINDOW, a lit. journal I've long admired. The poems won't appear until the Summer 2024 issue but it's always worth the wait when you land a poem or two in a literary magazine that you love and this news comes shortly after I learned two more poems are to feature in Kathleen McPhilemy's excellent podcast POETRY WORTH HEARING. Meanwhile, I continue to facilitate the Los Angeles Public Library's poetry workshop, which is fun and lively and brings me into contact with a diverse range of LA poets from all walks of life. We share poems and I provide the prompts and lead the feedback on writer's work. I'm currently reading Ada Limón's LUCKY WRECK and among the many other excellent poems in this collection Limón tackles the technical demands of a Sonnet crown -- a sequence of seven sonnets in which each successive sonnet begins with the last line of the previous sonnet and the final sonnet in the sequence ends with the first line of sonnet 1. LUCKY WRECK was Limón's debut collection. It's extraordinary to read it in the context of her later work and think about this accomplished stellar start and how she continues to flourish. Her work is an inspiration. Delighted to announce the publication of my fifth book and debut poetry collection 'Photofit.' You can pick up a copy at the Pindrop Press website by clicking on the link right here: http://www.pindroppress.com/books/Photofit.html Details of the UK & US Book Launch and readings coming soon! This month, I'm proud to launch a new poetry initiative in association with the Literature Department of the Los Angeles Public Library's Central Branch, 630 W 5th St, Los Angeles, CA 90071 The workshop runs on Saturday mornings from 11 am - 1 pm in the Literature Department. Participants are invited to bring a poem, no longer than one page, to read and receive valuable feedback from fellow poets. Engage in thoughtful discussions and provide your own insights on the work of others. Whether you're a seasoned poet or just starting out, this workshop offers a supportive environment to refine your craft, connect with like-minded individuals, and celebrate the power of words. Poets should bring several additional copies of their poem so fellow participants can make notes before handing back to the poet. Here is a link to the LAPL website with WORKSHOP DATES and further details. https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-0 Parking downtown can be a challenge. The GOOD NEWS is that if you have a valid LAPL library card, parking at the library is one dollar with validation during library hours (please check as this information may be subject to change). Enter via Flower Street on the west side of library. See you there! GIRLPLAY at theSpace on North Bridge, Venue 36, is a perfect mix of spoken word, performance, and powerful storytelling. Lucy is average and awkward, but what she lacks in sexual experience she makes up for it in curiosity; wearing her heart on her sleeve and telling it like it is, unpacking the journey of her sexual and emotional development with fierce, unflinching honesty. The production is effective in its simplicity, the staging full of energy, and the three actors, Sarah Richardson (also the playwright), Laura Brady, and Martha Dunlea move around the stage sharing the story of Lucy’s life and delivering a superbly-crafted performance at the same time. There are moments of great tenderness as well as a lot of laughter. The piece is tightly choreographed and the actors never miss a beat. With so many shows to see during the fringe’s 75th year, this one is an excellent choice. What a great way to celebrate theatre and come back from the pandemic at the same time by bringing a show to the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I’m so proud of the play, cast, and crew of Unseen Shepard, written by Nic D’Avirro and Matt Braaten. The piece imagines Sam Shepard’s last night alive, a fever dream in which Shepard is visited by various characters from his plays, all of them demanding a rewrite and they are not going to leave without a fight! Unseen Shepard asks important questions about dramaturgy and the way male playwrights write female characters. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has invited us to premiere Unseen Shepard on the opening night of the 2022 Festival! The show runs Aug. 5-20 in The Space on the Mile (Space 3), Venue #39. Click HERE for tickets! Los Angeles is currently under Corona virus lockdown like much of the world. Check out Raze The Space's International Quarantine Series -- video responses to life in these strange times: https://www.razethespace.com/now-playing.html
Besides the two theatre books I published in 2018, the literary and art journal HCE Review in Dublin published my poem The View From Here. You can read it on the HCE Review website and while you stop by please check out the rest of the journal, edited by students of the MA and MFA Creative Writing programs at University College Dublin. Click here to visit the site. The cover art is titled “Dances of Nature” by Keith Moul. |
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