The Economics of Poetry
On jobs for poetry MFAs, typical poetry payment, etc:
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/topic/poetry-2011-12/
You know what my delusional take from this article was when I first read it? “Oh, I’m not that far away from Jane Hirshfield in sales…” Yes, that’s right. I told you it was delusional.
Hat tip to the PF and Jessica Goodfellow for that cheery link…
Journals that pay for poetry:
http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/show-me-literary-magazines-pay
Hat tip to January O’Neil for that link. Once, one of my poetry mentors, Pattiann Rogers, told me she almost exclusively submitted to journals that paid. It was such a simple and direct statement, so full of Midwestern common sense. If only I could follow it. But I do admit, my heart does swell a little bit when I get a little check for anything having to do with poetry. It shouldn’t matter, maybe, but it does.
Yes, the holidays are a crazy time – I try to stay on budget, and usually fail fairly spectacularly (and in my defense, I have a huge family!) Is it financially crazy to be a poet? It is crazy to give poetry as a gift at Christmastime? Is it crazy to try to live a creative life? I think it’s not. Among the most valuable things in my life: my friends, my family, and poetry. If I ever come into money, the first thing I will do with it is start a small poetry press. I’ve been wanting to do it for years, but the last couple of years have been tough financially (hopefully that will turn around in 2012!) That is what would give me joy: to put more poetry in the universe. So, maybe that is crazy.
I live far away from my family (and my husband’s,) so this time of year, I’m all about celebrating with my adopted family – my friends! I’m so excited about the next couple of weeks and getting together and celebrating…oh, and I’m reading with Joannie Stangeland at Park Place Books on Wednesday night, so if you’re going to be around Kirkland, WA on Wednesday night, stop by! She’s phenomenal and I’ll be in a holiday celebrating mood!
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
