If you are wondering why blog posts have been few and far between, look no further than my optimistic decision to stagger the launch dates of the Barefoot Muse and The Raintown Review in order to (ha!) even out my work load. Quincy and I are determined to get the Spring/Summer issue of TRR out in time for the West Chester Poetry Conference this year, and so we prepared a timetable based on how long it took to get the December issue out (January, part of the problem being that Q and I are not in control of much of the process.)
Alas, the timetable has us delivering final issue copy to John for the issue on March 19th. Therefore, I am in full swing moderating the panel discussion on the Swallow Anthology of New American Poets, reading the Tom Mathews book I intend to review, and planning my editorial WHILE desperately coding a redesigned Barefoot Muse, for which the new issue goes live on March 1st.
I think I’d better think it out again!
On the positive front, I’ve had a recent acceptance from Light Quarterly, and you can see several new poems up at Chanterelle’s Notebook. This Sunday coming is also the delayed start of my formal workshop poetry series at the Manayunk Art Center in Philadelphia. It will run from 12-3 and we will be covering all the material from the snow-cancelled first workshop (Blank Verse) and making a start on Rhyme. There are still spots available so you can turn up on spec and pay your $15, or email me and let me know you are planning to attend. (FYI the other 2 workshops are scheduled for March 14th and April 18th.)
Hopefully there will be a Quick & Dirty Poetry reading tomorrow night at The Daily Grind in Mt. Holly. The snow doesn’t look too bad out there right now, but one of our featured readers (Laurie Granieri) is driving from New Brunswick. Oh well, spring must be here soon!
Firstly a huge shout out to James Scannell McCormick whose poem “Trouble”, published in the most recent Barefoot Muse, was selected by Dzanc Books to appear in their print anthology Best of the Web 2010. This serves as a timely reminder of exactly WHY I choose to be involved with the production of FOUR journals.
While we are on the subject, my good friend Rachel Bunting also scored with Dzanc, gaining selection for her poem “Martha Stewart Claims She Has Been Struck By Lightning Three Times” (which deserves inclusion simply for the title!)
The formal poetry event at the MAC was a blast last Sunday! It was so gratifying to be with a bunch of poets who care as deeply about formal/metrical poetry as I do. There was plenty of surprising synergy too–Kit Marlowe, Walter Raleigh and even “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley (I had watched the excellent movie the night before).
I am proud to report that I am now ready to teach the first formal/metrical poetry workshop of the MAC series, which starts this Sunday at 12 p.m. (Weather permitting). Is a 6 page-handout too much? I just want to make certain my participants get value for money! There’s still time to register by the way. And you can find the online version of the registration form here. Either print it out and mail it to the MAC, or email it to myself or Peter Krok.
Finally, I need to make a serious point that I have made before in these pages. Quincy and I are getting close to filling the poetry requirement for Vol 9 Issue 1 of The Raintown Review (due out at the beginning of June). As usual he has supplied me with a breakdown of the poets’ demographics, and as usual we are disappointingly male heavy–about 2:1. Being the premier female editor of a predominantly formal poetry print journal (Um…that sounds like I’m boasting, which is not my intent) clearly this frustrates me immensely. But, there is NOTHING I can do as long as we receive approximately twice as many submissions from men as from women. In the past, I have made open calls here on my blog for more submissions from women, and been accused of reverse sexism as a result. I am not going to do that now–I’m just sayin’…
(The submissions guidelines are here.)
