A New Poem in Scoundrel Time, Talking About Poetry Projects, Giving Tuesday and Women-Run-or-Owned Lit Mags and Presses

Scoundrel Time

A New Poem up at Scoundrel Time

Thank you to Daisy Fried and Scoundrel Time for featuring one of my more environmental/apocalypse poems yesterday, “Self-Portrait as Mass Extinction Event.”

Writing on a Poetry Project

Someone noted in a post I talked about writing “on a project” and “outside of a project,” and asked me to talk a little bit about writing on poetry projects. I don’t usually start a book project knowing in advance what the book is going to be about. Usually I start by getting interested in a certain topic, then more interested, then research that topic, writing a bunch of poems around it, and then later noticing that the poems seem to cluster around a certain subject, and exploring that topic in different ways. Usually I decide I have a book project when I get about fifty poems that hang together, and then I work on arranging, filling gaps, and maybe examining the subject in a different way or in different forms.

In fact, I can feel a little un-moored when I don’t have a subject or topic I’m working on, but it’s a necessary part of the process, because I don’t think anyone’s book should start out over-determined, and we need some creative open spaces – just like it’s good to get out of the house, even in this kind of cold and rainy season, to remind ourselves of the beauties and possibilities of the larger world. It’s especially important, when you’ve maybe reached the end of a large project, you’ve sort of exhausted a subject, and you want to start to explore again. It’s a good time to try a different type of poetry and to read more widely and even to use poetry prompts to get your brain working in a new way.  I like to read novels and books of literary biography and writers’ letters in between projects, to give my mind something new to work on. Different voices that can help me develop my own writing in a different way – this seems especially true for me when I read books in translation. I hope this was helpful!

Giving Tuesday and Women-Run-and-Owned Literary Magazines and Presses

You’re probably tired of the onslaught of shopping e-mails and announcements after the weekend, but today is kind of a nice break – it’s a day of giving back.

If you have literary organizations or presses that you feel have supported you, today’s a great day to give. If you love animals, or want to support a certain medical charity (for me, it’s the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis) or want to make a difference in people’s lives by donating to a women’s shelter, today most donations will be matched and doubled. Giving to people afflicted by the hurricanes or fires this year is also something to think about. You can make a difference and I think it makes me feel a little more helpless in the face of bad news.

I asked a few days ago for people to give me the names of their favorite women-run-and-owned literary magazines and presses, because I think it’s important, just like voting for more women in Congress if we want to see our interests represented, for women writers to support literary projects run by women and for women. So here are a few that were suggested yesterday on Facebook. Sorry I didn’t put links up to them all, only those that were posted as links (I’m running off to fix a cracked tooth at the dentist today) but at least it will give you a place to start. This is not an exhaustive list, just what came up as suggestions from my wonderful Facebook friends! Think about choosing one (or more) of them for submissions, buying gifts, and donations today. More suggestions welcome in the comments, too – I know this is not all of them!

Aqueduct Press, Dancing Girl Press Earth’s Daughters, Feminist Press, No Chair Press, Mayapple Press,  Passager, So to Speak Journal, Two Sylvias Press, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Headmistress Press, SWWIM, Gazing Grain, White Stag, Rogue Agent,  Agape Editions, FemKu Magazine,  Porkbelly Press, The Offing,  Shade Mountain Press, Psaltery & Lyre, Calyx, Scoundrel Time, Riddled with Arrows, Shenandoah and Lavender.