B. Gleed
I wish Poet’s Guide: How to Publish and Perform Your Work ($12.95 paperback from Story Line Press, ISBN 1-885266-00-6) had been written when I was in graduate school. I can concur in what Michael J. Bujega, poetry editor for Writer’s Digest, and Judson Jerome’s replacement at Poet’s Market the first two years after Jerome’s death, had to say in his preface about the way writing programs teach you to publish your work. They simply don’t. That was my experience at the University of New Hampshire, and Bujega tells us in his preface that was his experience at Oklahoma State University. Bujega was told to look through a stack of musty old journals in the student lounge, and I got a list of good markets he used told to me by Charles Simic; that was it. But marketing your work is a fundamental part of the poet’s life, and this book was written in response to boxes of letters from poets and collected over several years, received through the authors work at Poet’s Market and Writer’s Digest, asking questions about how to bring their work to an audience. He saw that the same questions were asked repeatedly, and the book grew from that.
The book is broken into seven chapters, each dealing with a specific area of developing an audience for your work. Bujega and a host of other successful writers offer their insights on all aspects of the publishing life, from joining a workshop, holding, advertising and participating in poetry readings and slams, to entering contests, marketing and revising poems for publication, and assembling chapbooks and books. Each section includes excellent suggestions from Bujega, as well as contributions from over twenty other publishing poets. The book is not a rhetoric, but a real “how to” guide to creating and reaching an audience. At the end of each section is a list of assignments for both beginning poets and more experienced writers. The book is constructed to be useful in a classroom situation, but is readable in a way that text books often are not.
The expert writers included in each section offer their own personal techniques and experiences for becoming accomplished writers. I was delighted to see that at least one of the poets, Ruth Daigon, editor of Poet’s On, has appeared in these pages before. Other experts include Judith Kitchen and Lola Haskins on workshop guidelines and workshops, Neal Bowers on working with editors, Laurel Speer on revising poems, Fred Chappell on slams, Colette Inez and Jim Barnes readings, and David Citino and Ms Daigon on the pros and cons of contests.
In addition to these insights the book also includes a selection of correspondence and writing contracts from the author’s own experience. I don’t know about you, but I find that writing cover letters can be one of the most challenging things about submitting poems for publication, and the examples Bujega includes make the book worth the price on those grounds alone.
If you are an experienced writer who is struggling with publication, or not, or a beginning poet just embarking on a publishing career, or an instructor looking to teach a complete workshop, this book will be a valuable addition to your bookshelf. Bujega suggest that his book be used in conjunction with Poet’s Market. If you have questions about how to publish your poetry, or how to reach an audience, or what you are expected to do with publisher’s galleys and what a standard contract looks like, this book is for you.
B. Gleed teaches writing at New Hampshire, Franklin Pierce, and Hesser colleges. His poetry has appeared in Kettle of Fish and Maelstrom magazines, as well as several college and university publications.
This review was published in Maelstrom, Vol. I, Issue 5.