#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 25)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 30dpc, AGNI, Apparatus Magazine, Elean Ni Chulleanain, Flashbang Writing Studio, Galway Kinnell, Kristen Tracy, Li-Young Lee, Louise Erdrich, lunch poems, Marilyn Robertson, Miss Rumphius Effect, mslexia, Negative Capability Press, pink ink press, Ploughshares, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, poetry prompts, Stories& Slams, the language inside, Wild Violet, William Butler Yeats, women poets, Write About Now

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY TWENTY-FIVE of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

The Language Inside’s “Fantasies of Running Away after Maxine Kumin”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Journalistic Observer prompt”
Negative Capability Press’ “Dreaming in the Still of Night prompt”
Write About Now’s “Make-up poems”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Sea Poems”
Stories& Slams’ “Spring Haikus”
Wild Violet’s “V is for Viewpoint prompt”
NaPoWriMo’s “Clerihew prompt”
Pink Ink Press’ “Dream within a Dream prompt”
Mslexia’s “Spam mail into Poem prompt”
30dpc “Imagery of Spring prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Eiléan Ní Chulleanáin| “Incipt Hodie”
Li-Young Lee| “This Hour and What is Dead”
Louise Erdrich| “Windigo”
Marilyn Robertson| “On Reading a Poem by Phillis Levin”
William Butler Yeats| “When You Are Old”
Galway Kinnell| “Oatmeal” (w/ audio)
Kristen Tracey| “Hanging Up”

Miscellaneous

7 British Poets Read from Ploughshares’ Transatlantic Issue (video)
Lunch Poems: Luis Rodriguez

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 13)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 30dpc, Apparatus Magazine, Art Critical, artspeak, battle rap poems, Codex Journal, craft talks, Gloria Anzaldua, Hoa Nguyen, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Jane Kenyon, Joan Didion, journals that pay for poems, Kantan Chamorrita, Kathleen Jamie, Katie Manning, Kim Addonizio, Latino Poets Video Project, Louise Gluck, Miss Rumphius Effect, mslexia, Osma Alomar, Ploughshares, Poem a Day, poetic wandering, Poetically Speaking, Poetry Daily, Poetry Foundation, Poetry Has Value, poetry prompts, Robert Hass, science and poetry, Scottish Book Trust, stripped poems, Terrance Hayes, Tessa Gratton, The Daily Post, the language inside, Theodore Roethke, Upper Rubber Boot, Wild Violet, women poets

DAY THIRTEEN has arrived with a blanket of rain in NOLA. Wishing you sunny skies!! Here is the  best of today’s prompts, poems and news from #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth>

Best of the Prompts

Imaginary Garden w/ Real Toads’ “Joan Didion springboard prompt”
Mslexia “Stripped Poems (minus descriptors)”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Confession Poems”
30dpc “Meta Poems”
NaPoWriMo’s “Riddle Poems w/ Plath”
The Language Inside’s “Turning Points (in present tense) prompt”
REWIND The Daily Post’s “Ode to Things in Drawers w/ Apostrophes prompt”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Exploring Deepest Fears prompt”
Miss Rumphius Effect’s Jumping Into Form: The Ekphrastic Poem
ARTSPEAK #13 picture prompt: A Monday Washing, NYC (artist unknown)
Wild Violet’s “K is for Kantan Chamorrita (form from Mariana Islands similar to battle rap)”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Kim Addonizio| “What Do Women Want?”
Jane Kenyon| “Let Evening Come”
Theodore Roethke| “Orchids”
Terannce Hayes| “The Deer”
Kathleen McGookey| “Monkey Island”
Louise Gluck| “The Evening Star”
Osma Alomar| 2Poems/Fables

Miscellaneous

On Building a Word-Hoard at Ploughshares
Tessa Gratton on Gloria Anzaldua at Poetically Speaking
Featured Poet: Katie Manning at Negative Capability Press
Poetry and Pho: Hoa Nguyen Shares Lyricism and a Recipe at ArtCritical
10 Books of Scottish Nature Poetry (including Kathleen Jamie’s newest)
Journals that Pay for Poems at PoetryHasValue
Latino Poets Video Project at Codex Journal
Poetic Wandering: Walking Tour Highlights Literary Harvard
The Poetic Species: Sociobiologist E.O. Wilson in Conversation w/ Robert Hass on Science& Poetry

HOT TOPIC: Do We Need Those Boogie Shoes??

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32 Poems, Billie Holiday, Boogie Shoes, Colleen Hoover, Color Master, Gods of Guilt, HOT TOPIC, Kings of Leon, literary trends, Literature, Michael Connelly, Pebble Lake Review, playlists, Ploughshares, poetry, Robert Lee Brewer, Slammed, YA fiction

What’s trending in the literary world these days? Playlists! That’s right, playlists for everything from door-stopper novels to slim, short fiction collections.

You could..um..do your thing to Kings of Leon while reading Fifty Shades of Grey (full playlist here) or you could channel Billie Holiday while digesting The Bone Season (playlist).

 

Better yet, you could create your own playlists for favorite books and blog about it. Here’s one that Brenna Dixon did for The Color Master. More from her Ploughshares blog series found here.

Even self-published authors can get in on the action. Some are building their playlists right into the book. Like this one from Colleen Hoover’s popular ebook Slammed.  

Best-selling authors can do it too. Here’s a list of music built-into Michael Connelly’s novels.  [By the way, his newest book, The Gods of Guilt, releases in December.]

Personally, I’d like to see someone apply the trend to poetry. Take a magazine with an online presence, say Pebble Lake Review or 32 Poems, and have readers post songs that suit the mood of the poem or take off on a line or an image.

I  think this would attract more takers (and be loads more fun) than Robert Lee Brewer’s challenge, where he asks readers of his collection to mash together bits from his own poems to form new ones.

Although, I do applaud his innovation.  We are all looking for ways to expand poetry to a wider audience. [For more on this subject, see previous post.] So kudos.  I just like the idea of this playlist thing better. It rides on the back of other cultural trends and incorporates more senses.

It is working wonders in the YA fiction space.  [I’ll let you google the blogs.]  The question is does it belong in adult fiction?

Tell me what you think:

Do playlists add or subtract from “literature”? Poetry?

As an author, are you embracing the playlist trend or bucking it?

HOT TOPIC: The State of Poetry Publishing

Tags

business, chapbooks, marketing, Ploughshares, poetry, publishing, Sandy Longhorn, writing

HOLY HOTCAKES!!!!!!  Writing Friends

Today, I’m weighing in on a very hot topic: the current state of poetry book publishing.

A few days ago, discussions started over on Sandy Longhorn’s blog and were starting to get juicy.

Here I want to approach the subject from a slightly different perspective. Look at the marketing angle.

So we know, and have experienced firsthand, that publishers are increasingly relying on the contest or reading fee model in order to offset the cost of poor-selling full-length collections.

Marketers are taught that poor sales are usually the result of: 1) a faulty or lackluster product, or 2)  a failure to reach the correct market.

The question then becomes are these full-length collections faulty or lacking in some way? Do readers in today’s marketplace even have the appetite for them? Or do they prefer shorter, less expensive, more focused work?

If the answer to that last question is yes, and I think that it is, then do chapbooks/pamphlets make more sense than the full-length pieces?

I think the fact that we are seeing a such a resurgence of them in both Britain and the US answers that question.

Chapbooks are, in my opinion, the best way to expose readers to a wider range of work, especially in terms of cost and collectability. [More on that in a future post].

Additionally, they help build a poet’s following, thereby making it easier to convince a publisher to take on a full-length collection down the road.

Even for those who already have full-length collections, chapbooks can be a good place to try out new things.

**For more on chapbooks, see Laura Madeline Wiseman’s blog. She has some really interesting interviews with both writers and publishers of the form.

As to failure to reach the right market, Ploughshares recently ran an article on just that subject back in May. You can find it here: Why Poetry Can’t Find It’s Public.

While I might not agree completely with the author of the article, it is clear to me that we as writers need to work along with our publishers in order to engage new audiences.

There are avenues open to us beyond youtube, radio, and e-chapbooks, if we will just allow ourselves to think outside the poetry box.

Which poets do you know that market themselves well? Which publishers are doing fun and creative things to engage more readers? Please post! I always love hearing from you.