Dreaming in Iambic Pentameter

I wanted to bring readers’ attention to one of the comments that was made on my earlier post “An Understandable Dearth: Unpublishable & White.” A reader noted that the next issue of Alehouse is focusing on African-American poets.

Now, I’m not one to sell you a pig in a poke, so I did some investigating on your behalf. It is true that Duotrope no longer lists Alehouse as one of its markets, giving as its reason that unsolicited submissions are only welcome via a fee-based contest. However, I contacted Editor Jay Rubin and he responded promptly and politely, explaining that this choice was mainly because the journal was not equipped to handle the volume of unsolicited submissions they would otherwise receive. (As Barefoot Muse editor I can wholeheartedly understand this, and I’m sure print journals receive even more!)

Clearly Mr. Rubin does respond to queries regarding submissions outside of the fee-based contest, and in his response to me he encouraged me to send him 3-5 poems dealing with the theme of African-American poets and their poetry. I have two that might be suitable–a sonnet about Richard Wright, and a poem responding to a Gwendolyn Brooks poem. Both are currently being considered by other journals, but if and when they come home to me I plan to send them to Alehouse, and I would encourage others to follow the same route.

Meanwhile Rattle also has an issue on the horizon which will contain a tribute to African-American poets. Note: this one will presumably NOT be accepting poems by white poets on the subject of African-American poetry. Comfort yourself with the thought that another upcoming issue will be a tribute to formalists!

I also wanted to get in a plug for a wonderful new(ish) second hand book store that I visited on Friday, Second Time Books. For my local readers, you can find it in Rancocas Woods on the corner of the little square plaza by the small parking lot. Unlike many secondhand book stores it is bright, clean, and well organized. They’ve also agreed to save the hide of the QND Poets by hosting our reading on June 13th, when regular venue The Daily Grind turned out to be unavailable.

So, if you live in the area, I’ll see you there. 7 p.m. Come early to browse the shelves!

Today I enjoyed my favorite part of running an online literary journal–the part where I sit down surrounded by copies of all the poems I have either accepted or am holding for second review, and I piece together the actual content of the next issue. I’m often asked what I look for when I’m doing this. In other words, why do poems get rejected at second review stage?

First and foremost, poets should understand that if I am holding their poem for second review it is good enough to be in the journal. I received over 900 poems for this issue, of which I accepted 8 outright and held a further 29 for second review. (I accept poems outright if I simply love them, and feel they would fit in any issue of the journal.) Two of those held were withdrawn, which is, of course, a risk of this strategy.

The main reason poems get rejected at second review is (and I know I’m repeating myself) that I get too many sonnets. Of those remaining 27 poems for review, 12 were sonnets. Of the 9 poems I rejected, 6 were sonnets. I love sonnets! But I don’t want TBM turning into a sonnet journal. There’s 14 By 14 for that. The next issue of TBM has several nonce and blank verse pieces, a rondeau, a sestina, a triolet, a pantoum, a villanelle, a ghazal, and several of the popular light verse forms.

Also, if I’ve held two poems from one poet, I rarely publish both of them, unless they are short light verse pieces. (There are exceptions to this, naturally.) 2 of the 9 rejected poems would have been the second poem by an accepted author.

The final rejected poem was simply a case where I had two very similar pieces on very similar subjects. Then it does come down to my own subjective opinion on which is better (which is not to say that the other one wasn’t good.) Nepotists take note: I ended up rejecting the poem by the contributor I know personally. Them’s the breaks.

I do not, as I have been accused of in the past, take any account of gender in making these decisions. I actually count up my probable gender ratio AFTER I have made my decisions and sent off my emails, once I have placed the poems onto the main contents page of the journal. In the upcoming issue, however, I’m pleased to say I’ve got a better balance than before. Out of the 26 poets, 14 are male and 11 female.

But the most vitally important thing is to feel that I have created the best issue I could from the poems I received, so that readers can either dip in and read poems individually on the basis of title or author, or sit down and read the whole thing from virtual cover to cover.

That’s what an Editor does.

You can find several very different poems of mine newly online this week. Over at Lucid Rhythms there’s a lewd sonnet called “Clandestinia” alongside a piece of light verse, “Bachelorette Desdemona Discusses Her Final Choice.” Then, my friends at Literary Mama have published the free verse piece “To My Daughter After a Fight.”
I’m being interviewed for the June issue of Wordgathering, which should be interesting. Oh, and I am now officially the Associate Editor of the Raintown Review. So, in addition to making the final decisions on the second review poems for The Barefoot Muse, I also have a bunch of submissions to filter for that journal.
Busy, busy, busy.