Fantasy

The new issue of Waccamaw is up.

Not a huge fan of the design, but I love the content, and though I had to pull poems before they really had time to consider them, I'll be sending work during the next reading period.

Take a look.

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Was wondering about the now-defunct and now dead-linked Red Morning Press the other day.

The site's been down for a while now. You can't even order books from the website anymore, which sucks. I don't know what happened to them. I'm not sure if anyone does. But it seems that they suddenly, and unfortunately, vanished.

I mention this because I was also thinking about Jason Bredle's second book, Pain Fantasy, the other day. I'm pretty sure it's still in a box in the closet, which I need to get out of the closet, but I also wanted to see if you could still get new copies on Amazon.

Turns out the cheapest copies available are those that Jason is selling currently, signed, for $12 each.

I say this, first off, because you should get the book if you haven't already, because most likely this will be your last chance. It seemed like RMP was headed for good things, and though I don't know what happened, secondly, I wonder about taking a chance with a press that's only been around for a few years, these days.

I'm sure there are stories like this with other presses that you know and I don't. But this is one that no one seems to be talking about, mainly because I'm not sure if many even knew the press before it was gone...

Though I'm thrilled to technically soon be sharing a press with Jason (his chapbook The Book of Evil will be coming out from Dream Horse Press in 2010), and though he's well on his way to his third book being published (I've seen that it's already been a finalist a few times for contests), it's sad to know that both the author of the book and the press have suffered, and that the book, at this point, is pretty much out of print.

I didn't intend to write a long post about this, and I won't, but it's certainly something to think about, especially if you're anxious to get any of your manuscripts out into the world as books. There are always factors in the publishing business beyond one's control, but with more presses in the world these days, especially those publishing poetry (or so it seems), though being cautious to the point of paralysis is not good, being cautious is certainly good.

Anyway, seriously, above all, get Pain Fantasy while you still can. It's awesome. It's a handsomely designed book, too.

Anew

The new Diode issue is up. I have three poems in it, tentatively from my new manuscript.

But, as always, I'm with very talented folks. Jason Bredle. Karyna McGlynn. Michelle Bitting. Neil Aitken. Just to name a few. Thank you again to Patty and Jeff.

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Also, the new issue of Blackbird is up. Check it out too.

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Finally, a trailer for The Road is up. What bothers me initially is it looks like there's going to be tons of CGI, which could prove disastrous. I hope it's only establishing shots. Can't wait to see the no-longer-used turnpike shots from the Breezewood area, and also what they filmed at Conneaut Lake Park, if it's even recognizable.

But overall it looks like it could go either way. A lot of the creepy people in the book look like they're still that way in the movie, so we'll see.

I'll try to see it in the theater first if it doesn't leak before October, but I can't make any promises.

First Book Interviews #5 and #6 - Jason Bredle and Theodore Worozbyt

Here you go, folks:

#5 - Jason Bredle

#6 - Theodore Worozbyt

As always, more in the next couple of weeks.

Plaxico Burress

Though I think Steve might have some anger issues, I didn't mean for anything to come to fruition in that post except for the fact that the list poem is mostly an easy excuse out of putting yourself, the human writer, behind the poem. Few writers have done that successfully in the past with the list poem. Few continue to do it now. And I'm sure anyone can throw stock things into a list, call it a poem, and get it published. You've seen many in journals if you read them. But thankfully it'll never be me.

Two recent writers I can mention are Jason Bredle and Blake Butler, who actually seem human behind their work when they're dealing with the "list poem," or a poem involving lists, or Blake's lists of 50 that he needs to get on the ball with and finish. Slice it any way you'd like.

That example by H.L. Hix really bugged me particularly because it's a bunch of stock headline tragedies, and because there are a few lines like "So many names fit" and "Every breath / matters." Seriously? Destination: Cymbal Crash City. Plus I have some pride in the fact that my first manuscript is attempting, in many poems, to actually explore tragedy, many specific and revealed, and not be comprised of stock phrases. Maybe I don't succeed and maybe people don't like them, and that's fine.

But any poem that my name would be on that could've been generated by a computer (ForGodot anyone? And I mean real poems written like that -- not the fake ForGodot poems, though many of them probably could've been real, which is an entirely different story) I never want to be a part of. If you're going to write, write with some balls, some honesty, some blood flow, and show me that a human is behind the words. Even if it's a hilarious poem, because not all honesty has to be built out of tragedy of course.

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On an entirely different note, Entourage is finally kicking ass again. Since the beginning of the season, there's been a lot of disparate story lines, a lot of them kind of uncharacteristic for where the show seemed like it was going. I won't reveal any spoilers, but I can't wait for the rest of the season.

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And in a few days another First Book Interview will be up. Received some from other poets in the last few days, and now I'm working on getting a bunch out to other poets in the next week.

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GO GIANTS

Interesting Note from Jason Bredle

If you're an editor of a publication and you're considering soliciting me for work, thank you. I love that you're taking the time to do this. My only request is that you familiarize yourself with my work before writing me. There are a lot of things you can check out on the work page of this site. For a good idea of the type of submission you'll receive, I'd suggest reading the poems at Octopus and the poem Twilight Box at Verse Daily. I completely understand if those types of poems are not for you. People have different ideas of what poetry is and what poetry can and should be. I'm just trying to save us all some time and hurt feelings. I've gone through many years of blindly submitting to and being rejected by hundreds upon hundreds of publications. A lot of people experience this, I know I'm not unique, but I'm sensitive and I've learned through experience that rejection upon rejection creates a negativity in my life that I don't want. It affects both my writing and my relationships with people close to me. My solution was to eliminate this negativity by reducing the number of blind submissions I make. What I didn't expect was the fairly significant amount of solicitations and subsequent rejections I'd receive. As an editor, you want people considering your publication to familiarize themselves with the types of poems you publish before submitting. As a writer, I want the same - for you to familiarize yourself with my work before soliciting me. Thank you!

If you're anyone else and you're considering writing me, you can pretend you didn't read the previous paragraph. I'm really a pretty normal person and I like hearing from people.

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That note is on the contact part of Jason's website, and it was really interested to read for many reasons. I don't have a book out. Jason, after winning DIAGRAM's chapbook contest, within a few years now has two full length collections. That said, as interested parties will see when they read his first book interview I conducted with him recently, he had worked on both books for a very very long time, and had been sending them out for a while too.

But in that seemingly quick amount of time, I wonder how much he has been solicited, and the whole idea with solicitation should be, ideally, that the editor is a fan of that writer's work. Right? Again, ideally.

But Jason's comments are honest and seem ballsy and warranted, if in fact he's been solicited and rejected to the point where it's been frustrating, which seemingly, it has. I understand that when you solicit, you may get different poems than you expect from that particular writer. I would think, however, you would be sure to take a poem when you solicit as an editor -- doesn't that in fact give the writer a false sense of hope, when they could've just gotten a blind-submission rejection and been fine with that? And wouldn't you hopefully know what kind of work you're going to get? Or do editors really solicit just because of a name, not knowing the writer's work? If so, that's really unprofessional and asshole-ish to do in the first place.

I've been solicited once, and that journal took a poem. I was honored and flattered. I of course have not been solicited since and never expected to be solicited in the first place.

But if I got solicited and rejected, I'd feel the same way.

Has this happened to anyone else? Folks with books out or those without books?

Like I said, I haven't had much experience with it, but it brings up an interested conversation, especially for folks like myself who have never been editors...