I need something to wake me up. Preferably something that doesn’t involve pain, so no whacking my toes with a hammer, you smart alecks.
I’ve been trying to motivate myself a little more toward getting some poetry sent out for publication. I find that I feel a little more in tune with the poetry world when I’m engaging with it in a purely self-oriented way.
But there are so many journals, and I don’t understand how anyone picks what to send where, or whether to send where. I’m confused. And sleepy. And I see that hammer, sneakypants.
Pardon the irrelevancy, but you do realize the new season of Doctor Who begins — complete with regenerated Doctor — on Friday night on the Sci Fi Channel, don’t you?
I doooo! But I appreciate the heads up.
Tonight is one of my favorite silly shows from last year: Supernatural. It’s goofy fun.
Julie–Where have you published in the past, and how did you decide on the ones you did then?
This is something that I sometimes snarl over, as well (poetry submissions, not toe-whacking with hammers). I usually read either a copy of the journal I’m considering, or I read archives on their website. Usually I pick places that have one of two things going for them: 1). the work they use is in a range both slightly better than and slightly not-as-good-as mine (this is the chicken option); 2). the work they use is probably better than mine, but I love it, and it has some elements in common with my work (this is the streeeettch myself option). If I’ve had a really, really bad run of rejections or I’m just sick of a poem I’m impatient to unload, I’ll sometimes send it where I’m relatively sure it will get used, even though I cringe at most of what the place publishes (this is the sell-out option). 🙂
Places I would love to publish someday: Ploughshares, Prarie Schooner, Missouri Review, Poetry (who wouldn’t!?), Southern Review, Mid-American Review, Image, Green Mountains Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review… Someday.
Cindy,
The majority of my past publication (which isn’t extensive at all) has been at the request of the editors! So I’m really a novice. I submitted to Snakeskin because they were looking for short shorts, and I write a lot of short shorts. And I submitted to The Adroitly Placed Word because it included audio and I’m really interested in audio. I really don’t have any sort of overriding idea, goal, plan, or anything. I’m clueless!
But you have a BOOK! That doesn’t just happen!
Funny, isn’t it, how we sometimes think more of the accomplishments we don’t have than the ones we do? We are wierd and wacky creatures. 🙂
What poetry publications or poets do you very much like, then? That’s a place to start.
Books do just happen when you self-publish!
Ah! The lightbulb of comprehension flickers briefly!
Wish I could help, Julie, but my knowledge of U.S. outlets is poor.
I like the look of Rattle.
Magma is UK based, but you can submit by email – Rik edited some of the early issues. They have guest editors for each issue, so it’s always worth a shot. You can reach both these journals, and others, at the list of magazines on my blog.
I tend to send poems to publications that I like, and never to publications I don’t. That’s my entire method.