Dreaming in Iambic Pentameter

I have a proof of the latest issue of The Raintown Review on my desk, and it is an object of beauty and pride. This is the first masthead on which I am officially named Editor, and also the first which reflects the myriad changes Quincy and I have put into the journal’s aesthetic, both physical and literary, since we took over just before Christmas of last year. So, why am I glum?

Well, there is the small matter of my eldest daughter breaking her hand last Saturday, but apart from that, I suppose I deplore the fact that it seems to have become necessary for me to defend Raintown’s aesthetic in public, even before its would-be detractors have acquainted themselves with that aesthetic by READING THE ISSUE.

Listen, The Raintown Review seeks to be the cutting edge print journal for poetry showing allegiance to meter or form. These words are carefully chosen and do not seek to fully exclude any poetry apart from, perhaps, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E oriented pieces, while at the same time guaranteeing that formal and metrical work will receive a welcome not certain at many print journals. Although we love sonnets, we want TRR to demonstrate the rich variety of received and nonce forms the skilled metricist can produce. We therefore need to limit the number of sonnets we print per issue. Simple, isn’t it?

Quincy and I have tirelessly combed the slush pile (okay, Quincy has done that), emailed poets we admire, both in the US and outside of its borders, and distributed submission guidelines at readings and conferences in pursuit of our aesthetic. The new issue includes poems by Irish poets Fintan O’Higgins and Mags Treanor, by ex-patriot Justin Quinn, and by up and coming poets such as Tiel Aisha Ansari and Ona Gritz. Any of those names familiar? Thought not, but you’ll love their work.

It also includes poems by US “New Formalist” heavyweights and Eratosphere regulars such as Rose Kelleher, Stephen Scaer, Gail White, Timothy Murphy, Jennifer Reeser and Michael Cantor. Is this a surprise? No, of course not. I would be horrified if the denizens of Eratosphere decided to boycott Raintown. You may not know that I once worked for five years in Marketing. Eratosphere offers the Editors of journals like Raintown a perfect marketing opportunity to reach a hefty chunk of our target audience with one strategically positioned announcement. We’d be fools not to take advantage of that.

But Raintown is NOT AT ALL predisposed to accept poems from Eratosphereans over other souls, and we do not consider ourselves in any way part of any clique that may (or may not) at any time have been associated with Eratosphere. (To be honest, this last one amuses me: what benefit, exactly, am I supposed to have gained from association with such a clique? Everything I have achieved in my poetry I have done through hard work and determination, and I STILL don’t have a book.)

So, well, there you are. And it’s beautiful, and contains precisely 14 sonnets in 87 pages of poetry. Go buy it here.

…in more ways than one, and I am able to draw breath. I realize it’s a long time since I was in a condition to blog here, so you will have to settle for another edited high (and low) lights post, but I hope to be more conscientious over the summer.

When last I left you, I was preparing to go to West Chester. 2008 was my first year attending this premier Formal Poetry conference, and I foolishly decided to commute. This year, I stayed in the university dorms, which was more fun and way less tiring. The Women Poets’ Timeline seminar, led by the formidable Kim Bridgford, was quite inspiring, and I met (or renewed acquaintance with) many poets I have had the privilege of publishing in what Quincy has labeled the Anna Evans Publishing Empire. I also had gratifying conversations with such luminaries as William Baer (Managing Editor of Measure and the force behind the Howard Nemerov Contest), Dana Gioia, Michael Peich, Molly Peacock (who is a total darling and wrote me an dedication as long as an essay for my copy of Cornucopia!), Gerry Cambridge (Editor of The Dark Horse), Daniel Hoffman and Annie Finch. Of course the proceedings were slightly marred by the fender bender I got into on the way to the conference, in what shall heretofore be known as the Dairy Queen Incident, but no-one was hurt.

Becky has not been well, and is now scheduled to have her tonsils out on July 31st, so I was initially unsure I would be free to attend the NJ Artists in Education training on June 17th. Keba volunteered to work from home, however, so I was able to drive to Princeton for this enlightening and pleasurable event (and I actually got paid!)

Thanks to the Swine Flu, the kids didn’t finish school until this Tuesday 23rd, and of course I had managed to be roped into BOTH end of year parties–one on Friday and one on Tuesday. For various reasons I have, at least, been able to back out of being President of the Gymnastics Parents’ Association or the upcoming season, which will free up some time.

My Assistant Editor on the Barefoot Muse is working out really well, too. This is all fortunate, because I have revamped the first book manuscript (again) and want to get it out to a bunch more places, along with various other submissions, solicited and unsolicited. Plus I have the cream of the slush pile to examine for both journals. It’s also only a few weeks until Sewanee!

So, that’s what I’ve been up to. Now, I’d better get on with some more of it!

I heard yesterday that I have been granted one of the Howard Nemerov Scholarships to this year’s Sewanee Writers’ Conference. I am psyched! Sewanee is right up there alongside Bread Loaf, especially for poets with more formal/narrative leanings, so it should be an excellent 12 days (July 14th to 26th.) I should get the packet in the mail in the next few days, and then I will have more details.

…that I have been accepted onto the New Jersey State Art Council Artists In Education Roster. Ta da! The funny thing is, I still haven’t received the official notification, but I guess they knew they were running a little late, because today I got the invitation to the orientation and training! I am very much looking forward to learning more about how everything will work in actuality.

While I am covering poetry news, I should mention that the Delaware Valley Poets reading (May 11th) and the West Caldwell Literary Festival (May 17th) also both went really well. I sold eight chapbooks at W. Caldwell, which is not a bad result from reading just two poems.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend y’all!

…but no Swine Flu, thank goodness! It was all just a tempest in an espresso cup, much as I predicted.

Paul Stevens’ latest editorial achievement, The Flea, is now online–worth perusing as much for the idiosyncratic house style as for the excellent poetry contained within by such luminaries as Rhina Espaillat, Rose Kelleher, Tim Murphy, and, of course, yours truly.

As a not particularly reformed Trekkie I can’t find enough good things to say about the new Star Trek Movie. Chris Pine is perfect as a James T. Kirk who is different from the original in ways that the plot justifies completely, and Simon Pegg brings a new feistiness to a faithful interpretation of Scottie. Go see it!

I am 75% of the way through my draft Emily Bronte essay for West Chester, which means I have covered her life and discussed one of her trademark poems, with one more to go.

The submission deadline of May 15th is coming up for the June 1st issue of The Barefoot Muse. I have read 720 poems so far for this issue, and have accepted 6 with 20 on hold. Meanwhile the June issue of The Raintown Review is in production, and we are reading for the Winter issue.

Busy, busy. Don’t close the school on me again, please!

Last night the kids’ school contacted all parents to inform us that the school will be closed Monday and Tuesday due to two possible cases of Swine flu. Oh joy!

Seriously, I do understand that one must err on the side of caution when it comes to the health of a community’s children, but I also doubt that these are really cases of Swine Flu, or that closing the school would have any more benefit than simply quarantining these children, if the diagnosis proves true.

What I do know is that I was planning to start the first draft of my Emily Bronte essay today (It’s due May 20) and that is now looking unlikely to happen. Sigh!

In more positive news, I have two events coming up in May that are worth publicizing. On Monday 11th May, Rachel Bunting and I are reading for the Delaware Valley Poets at Barnes & Noble in Princeton. That starts at 7.30 p.m. And on Sunday May 17th I am reading for the Journal of New Jersey Poets at the West Caldwell Literary Festival, which runs from 1 to 5 p.m.

I hope to see some of you there!

I spent this morning at Lumberton Middle School in the company of three other local poets, judging the school’s first ever Poetry Read Aloud Contest for National Poetry Month. The kids were spirited and polite, the teachers charming and hospitable. The panel agreed that it was very difficult to pick a winner, and thankfully prizes were given to the top five placed kids, but all 19 of the participants deserve congratulations and encouragement for their efforts. I hope to be invited back again next year.

In other news, the new issue of Waccamaw is up with my poem “Cornered” and fine poems by other poets including Ross White and Nicky Beer.

…and it’s as if I never went away. Weather hasn’t improved much either.

So what IS new? Well, I’m two poems behind on my NaPoMo effort–the traveling just caught up with me in the end. I don’t know, at this point, if I’m going to continue. I have 18 poems, 5 or so of which are promising, and so much else to do!

While I was away I had a poem accepted by Paul Christian Stevens’ new online journal, The Flea, and someone nominated one of my poems that was published last year for Best New Poets 2009. Don’t know who, or which poem yet.

I also got some other good news but I don’t officially know it so I can’t tell you. Sorry!

It’s all a bit of an anti-climax really.

I promised my friend Rachel that I would update this blog tonight, and I find time running away from me as usual, so it’s going to be a quick one, bullet pointed for maximum streamlining.

• Rachel is running a really cool photo theme on her blog for every day of National Poetry Month. Yesterday it was me (I’m the neck…)
• Yesterday was also the Schuykill Valley Journal New Issue Launch party, and I delivered a condensed version of my essay on formal poetry from it, which went down well (although how some poets at these things develop the monster egos which permit them to take up over double their allotted time, I really don’t know.)
• I’m 6 for 6 on the poem a day (though a couple of them REALLY suck.)
• We leave for a visit back to the UK tomorrow! Or at least I hope we do–my US passport has not arrived so I am going to have to wing it on my British one…
• And finally a big thank you to Waccamaw for taking my poem “Cornered!”

For the first time in a couple of years I am going to attempt the poem a day challenge. I won’t be posting drafts of my poems on here, for various reasons, but I will try to keep you posted, on a relatively regular basis, as to how I am doing.

I have a couple of ideas for the first few poems already. After April 8th things may get trickier because we are traveling back to the UK for the Easter break, but maybe I’ll be inspired by my Haworth trip and my return to the old country!

Meanwhile, both Barefoot Muse and The Raintown Review are still accepting submissions. The upcoming issue of Raintown is almost full (and has reached sonnet saturation point, as I explained to one contributor whose sonnet will be deferred until winter.) However submissions never close at Raintown, so keep emailing your poems to theraintownreview_at_gmail_dot_com.

Meanwhile I have a small gripe about the otherwise wonderful site known as Duotrope’s Digest. I have been keeping an eye on it lately because I had made it a stated goal to improve Raintown’s appalling response statistics. Imagine my horror when I suddenly saw that Barefoot Muse was on the Top 25 Most Approachable Markets list! (That’s almost as bad as Raintown being on the 25 Most Slothful, which it was for a while.) I have perused 560 individual poems since this reading period began on Dec 1st, and have accepted just 6 with a further 11 on hold. Even if I go on to accept all held poems that is, by my reckoning, a 3% acceptance rate. Duotrope has me at an 18% acceptance rate. Of course, as my trusty assistant Editor Q pointed out to me, these statistics aren’t very scientific. TBM’s data comes from just 22 reports in the last 12 months. I think Duotrope also compiles by submission, not by poem, which would put my own stats up to 10%. (I’ve had 150 separate submissions, and have accepted/am holding poems by 15 poets.)

The problem is that being on the 25 theoretically most approachable markets increases the amount of total and utter crap trigger happy “poets” email me. This would all balance out if those poets then took the time to record their rejections on Duotrope, but they don’t. There’s only been one new report filed for TBM since I started following the stats closely in mid-Feb.

Ah well…