Toledo to Get Poet Laureate

The Toledo Free Press reports that Lucas County in Ohio is planning to create an (unpaid) poet laureate position. I know what you're thinking...they didn't have one already? :)

If you live in Toledo, maybe you can throw your hat into the ring. Read about it here.

--AB

Call for Submissions: Poetry Calendar

The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets is accepting submissions for its 2009 Poets' Calendar. Although you need to live in Wisconsin to be considered, there's no reason why you couldn't start a poet's calender in your own state. Here's what you need to do it:

1. Poems
2. A friendly designer
3. Money

You can find lots of calendar printers online who will do the job for you at competitive prices. Here are a few I know about. I'm not endorsing them, but check them out: Some have instant quote calculators so you can get an idea of how much it costs.

1. PrintPlace
2. Printing for Less
3. VistaPrint

If you have questions about why some cost more than others even though they offer the same features, let me know. One piece of advice: Always ask a printer for samples before you commit a job to them. They should happily send you some so you can see examples of their work. If they refuse, don't use them.

--AB

MiPOesias Raises the Bar

I encourage everyone to check out the latest issue of MiPOesias and not just because RMP author Ivy Alvarez' beautiful shining face adorns its pages. You should check it out because it has production values, by which I mean it was designed by someone with talent.

Most literary journals do not look like they are professionally 'designed.' They tend to value page after page of text. Discussions about design revolve around what fonts to use. MiPOesias asks: Why not have photos? Color? Cover lines? Captions? It's designed like a consumer magazine, which I think is great.

Bonus points because the issue is offered as a PDF download OR you can buy a hardcopy at Lulu.com.

--AB

Bredle Published on Sharkforum

RMP author Jason Bredle's poem "Assist Your Boyfriend with His Suffering" is featured on Sharkforum as Poem of the Week.

--AB

Bredle and Tynes to Read Together in Nebraska

RMP authors Jason Bredle and Jen Tynes read on Dec. 1st in Lincoln, Neb. They're joined by author Cynthia Arrieu-King as part of The Clean Part Reading Series held at the Sheldon Art Gallery. For more information, click here.

--AB

Alvarez Reviews MML Bliss

RMP author Ivy Alvarez reviews Moonshine, a chapbook by MML Bliss (published by PressPress). The review is posted at Galatea Resurrects. Click here to read it.

--AB

Brown Published in Salt Lake Tribune

You thought it was a joke, but I really did submit a Jell-O haiku to the Salt Lake Tribune. The results are published in today's edition of the paper. Check it out here. You'll need to scroll down for awhile.

For backstory on how and why I did this, click here.

--AB

Homage to Bredle by J.P. Dancing Bear

One day after Jason Bredle's third appearance on Verse Daily, the web site posted "A Poem Starting With a Line By Jason Bredle," a poem by J.P. Dancing Bear. Check it out here.

--AB

Bredle Published in Verse Daily...Again!

Another poem from Pain Fantasy by Jason Bredle is on Verse Daily--the second one to appear in the past 30 days. That makes three appearances for Bredle on Verse Daily this year.


--AB

I am BEOWULF

Has anyone seen the movie (yet)? It's okay--you can admit it. You wouldn't be alone. It grossed $28 million this weekend, so a fair amount of people ponied up for a ticket.

What I want to know is, why is Beowulf's body hairless? I don't remember reading the part where he takes a moment to wax his pecs.

Anyway, if you thought this was the first time Beowulf has been on screen, think again. Here's a story about some other adaptations.

--AB

Pub Named After Poet Laureate/Hitler Look-Alike

In poetry news this morning, residents of Wirral, U.K., are upset about a pub named after poet laureate John Masefield because he looks like Hitler. Specifically, they're upset about the pub sign, which includes a photograph of Masefield. Click here to read the story.

--AB

My Jell-O Haiku

I've sent my entry to the Jell-O haiku contest. Have you? See the posting below for more details. According to the call for submissions, the haiku can be "silly, funny or sarcastic." Guess which one I went with?

Peach Jell-O salad:
Fresh, fruity, juicy, mouthful
of good memories.

--AB

There's Always Room for Jell-O (Haikus)

The Salt Lake Tribune is holding its first-ever Jell-O haiku contest. The topic is your family's favorite holiday Jell-O salad. You can submit more than one! The winners will be published in the newspaper.

I would love it if we all tried to get Jell-O haikus published in the Salt Lake Tribune. Here's the call for submissions.

--AB

Poetry Mentioned in Esquire Magazine

Author Tyler Smith recommends going to poetry readings (No. 6) on his Summer Program for Writing & Healthy Living, which appears here on Esquire magazine's web site.

--AB

Bredle Published in No Tell Motel

Click here to read "Everything I Know About Philosophy I Learned from KRS-ONE," a poem by Jason Bredle that appears at No Tell Motel.

--AB

Mortal Reviewed in Currajah

A review of Ivy Alvarez' Mortal appears online at Currajah. Here's what reviewer Patricia Prime has to say:

"The achievement of the poems in this collection lies in part in their counterpoising of the profoundly personal with a kind of objectivist impersonality, with the discovery of idioms in which the two can co-exist.

Mortal is a fascinating text containing a fluid sense of time, place, individual and family which generates complexes of meaning and feeling with which most readers will be able to empathise. Alvarez’s use of sentence and paragraph in her prose poems and, elsewhere, her use of stanzas, minimal punctuation, rhythm and assonance, and her ability to use both structures in a very accomplished and meaningful way, make for constantly thought-provoking reading."

To read the entire review, click here.

--AB

Call for Submissions: Ivy Alvarez Guest Edits qarrtsiluni

The November/December of qarrtsiluni, an online literary journal, will be co-edited by RMP author Ivy Alvarez. The theme is Insecta. From the call for submissions:

"For this issue of qarrtsiluni, we are interested in art — poem, painting, story, nonfiction, photograph — inspired by insects. We are equally interested in writing about insects, being just as enamored by Thoreau’s ant battle in Walden as Frost’s butterflies, “Tossed, tangled, whirled and whirled above, / Like a limp rose-wreath in a fairy dance.”

The deadline to submit is December 15. For more info about the journal and how to submit, visit www.qarrtsiluni.com.

--AB

Concelebratory Shoehorn Review Publishes Ivy Alvarez

A poem by RMP author Ivy Alvarez appears in the No. 11 issue of Concelebratory Shoehorn Review. Click here for the site.

--AB

What if? An Idea for Presses

What if a press held a contest, and everyone who entered the contest got to vote on the manuscripts the press received? The manuscript with the most votes is the one that gets published. Only entrants get to vote, so the entrants themselves are the judges, but no one can vote for their own manuscript.

Would that work?

--AB

UPDATE: I'm not as creative as I thought. It looks like this idea is kind of already being done, as reported here in Poets & Writers magazine.

New Press, Same Model

Austin Peay State University has started publishing poetry books by hosting a first-book contest. I'm glad there's another press in the mix, but I wish they'd tried experimenting with a different model. Read about the winners here.

I'm not trying to make fun of Leigh Ann Couch, who was one of the winners (and managing editor of the Sewanee Review) but I thought her quote was a bit funny: “I publish about four poems a year in magazines that maybe a half-percent of Americans even know about,” she says.

Based on the the Census Dept. Population clock, that means roughly 1.5 million Americans know about her poetry. If your audience is that large, Leigh, Red Morning Press would like to talk with you.

--AB