Poetry Has Value

My wonderful readers: this blog and our experiment are now complete. What you’ll find here are posts from the past; an archive of the Poetry Has Value project, from updates by those who participated in the experiment, to guest bloggers, to editor interviews and other resources.

If you have any further inquiries, you can contact me through my website:

Where did the end of the year zoom off to?  Between work and the holidays it seemed that time evaporated at an accelerated rate and now here we are already well into 2017!  While I did do some writing in November and December, mostly it was articles on year-end deadlines and not a lot of poems were generated.  Although I did revisit some previous material, did some revising, and managed a few submissions along the way.  I’ve been very fortunate to have the input from my critique group, although, admittedly, there are times when I see the slew of suggested edits that I wonder if I know what I’m doing at all.  At the same time, it has forced me to think more objectively about my work and look at it all as part of the process of growth as a writer.  I guess you know you’re a writer when you keep doing it anyway because it’s definitely not for the thin skinned.

Reflecting over the past year, the experience of participating in this project for PHV has been immensely formative and informative for me, and it is one of the things I have been very grateful for as I take stock of 2016.  I am looking forward to continuing to write, improve, and take instruction from those wiser and more experienced that I. I was delighted to have a few poems published last year and although my numbers are minuscule compared to others, I have learned that comparison, particularly in the creative arts, is a corrosive substance that should be handled with extreme care, so I will do my best to avoid it whenever possible in the future! I guess you could call that something of a new year’s resolution.

I hope everyone had wonderful, joy-filled holidays and wish you all the best in the year ahead. May it be a creative one!

Stats:

Submissions:  (3) to Acta Victoriana and (1) to Eyedrum Periodically No change in financial stats.

I’m so glad 2016 is over!

When I joined this project, I decided to track journal submissions only (not readings, book sales, or other forms of poetry-related income) with the goal of seeing “how my priorities shift as I give more consideration to the financial side of submitting.”

My priorities did shift, but in ways I didn’t anticipate in January. I became less willing to pay submissions fees to journals that don’t pay writers, though I remain understanding of and sympathetic about the overall economic structures that compel magazines to charge fees in the first place. Editors are not living large when they charge $3 a submission (about half of which goes straight to Submittable); instead, they’re trying to offset very real costs and don’t have many viable options for doing so, especially if they run small and relatively new journals.

Speaking of which, the big surprise of the year was my deciding to launch a small and relatively new journal. Foundry is a labor of love, and having spent many years working as a fundraiser for literary and arts organizations, I decided not to go the non-profit route for the journal — it’s much harder and more expensive than you might expect. Instead, I took on a freelance job to fund Foundry.

Also, we pay writers. That was a must. We can only offer $10 a poem, but it was important to me to do something. Going through the process of launching a magazine again renewed my appreciation for editors, so many of whom are also arts patrons, funding their journals and helping to amplify voices we all need to hear. 

Let’s tally up the numbers for 2016:

Rejections: 94 

Acceptances: 20

I earned $205, which far exceeded my expectations, and spent $55.50 on fees. On the whole, it was a good (submitting!) year.

Date: December 2016

Journals to which I submitted in December: (8) NightBlock; Waxwing; Storm Cellar; Hyperallergic; Blackbird; jubilat; Boxcar Poetry Review; Washington Square Review

Rejections: (6) Indiana Review; Two Peach; Ninth Letter; Kenyon Review; Heavy Feather Review; Pleaides

Acceptances: (1) Bennington Review 

Withdrawals: (0)

Money spent: $0

Money earned: $40

December tally: +$40.00

Total money earned in 2016: $205

Total money spent in 2016: -$55.50

TOTAL 2016: +$149.50

I fear this post might be a bit rambling. Sorry.

I’ve always been slow to process grief. When my aunt died, the fall of my senior year in college, I’d already been writing about her for a couple of months, but I discovered when I returned from her funeral and in the subsequent months that I was really writing around her instead of about her. I continued to play that game for several years and she followed me through my senior project, into my poetry for my master’s thesis and finally found a settling place in the collection I wrote for my MFA.

She’s been gone fifteen years this year and I’m still processing. Just this past month, while visiting my parents in Pennsylvania, my father called me “Bria,” and I heard her voice in my head so strongly that I turned around and looked behind me. No one has called me “Bria” since she died. It still breaks my heart.

This is all to say I’m still processing the last couple of months of 2016. I wrote a blog post in the wake of the election, like so many others, and while it included me crying at my desk (twice) it also ended on this mantra: Be kind. Try hard.  

This is how I’m starting 2017. I came home from holiday travel and cleaned out my little writing area. I hesitate to call it an office because it’s really a large closet off my son’s room. Right before he was born, my mother-in-law asked me if I was going to revert the space back into an actual closet for the baby, but I didn’t want to give the space up. I needed to keep that for myself. It felt important, even if I didn’t enter that little nook for the first year of my son’s life.

Yesterday, after I’d cleaned for two hours, I sat at my newly cleared desk and I wrote my thank you notes from Christmas. Not a poem, but I put pen to paper and then I started thinking about this blog post. Today I’ve got a few ideas for poems knocking around in my head.

I didn’t send out any new work at the end of 2016, but I did have a handful of rejections come in, so I’ve recorded those below. I’m ending 2016 in the negative, but I don’t feel negatively about it. This process did make me more aware of paying markets and more intentional about where and how I spend money submitting my work. It’s also introduced me to a community of poets and that’s what I’ve found to be the most valuable.

Love to each and every one of you and here’s to 2017. Be kind. Try Hard.

STATS:

Date: October/November/December 2016

Acceptances: (0)

Rejections (7) South Dakota Review, Moon City Review, Wildness, Meridian/BNP 2016, The Well Review, Elsewhere & Mid American Review.

Money Spent in October/November/December: $0

Money Earned in October/November/December: $0 

October/November/December Tally: $0

Total Money Spent in 2016: $20.00

Total Money Earned in 2016: $0

2016 Ending Tally: $-20.00 

Hello again!! Where have I been since October, you might ask? I know, I know. I didn't get things together in time to write an October round-up, and now here I am staring down the barrel at a combined October-November-December round-up. How did 2016 end so quickly and so horribly slowly all at the same time? How did I forget that the late fall/early winter is a BRUTAL time for a high school teacher to try to submit, let alone write? How did I fail to factor in the HORRIBLE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION when I was thinking about how much writing I'd get done in November and December?

I don't know how to answer any of these questions. The point is, the last few months have not been great for my writing life. I had goals and I didn't meet them. But I'm not going to get bogged down in that. I'm looking at a Buddha ornament sitting at the top of our Christmas tree right now, and remembering how I quoted Walt Whitman to my son earlier today, in the car, when he asked If you're not alive, are you dead? Is that it? and I said Well, when you die, you don't really stop being. All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, and to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier. That's what Whitman says. We talked about how your spirit becomes part of the universe, and how plants die but leave seeds behind to grow new plants, and about how everyone is the Buddha, even you, even Gram, even the dog, even a scorpion who bites you. Even the writer who didn't write.

I did get a lot of rejections! Looking through my completed Poetry Has Value spreadsheet, it looks like I only have two submissions still outstanding from 2016. One of those I'm pretty sure is going to never receive a response (I submitted in January, I just have a feeling it's gonna be one of those never-hear-back situations), and one is still in the running. The rest are either accepted (I did have a few this year, a very few!) or personally rejected (always nice) or form rejected. And even looking through the form rejections and trying to count them up, I've been encouraged. In most cases, I still really stand behind the poems. I tried this year to not submit poems until I really felt good about them, which is different than in the past, when I'd submit as SOON as I finished something just because I was excited about it. But this year, I don't feel bad about the poems that haven't found homes yet. I still think they will. They just need a little more time.

At the end of this year, I can confidently say that participating in the Poetry Has Value project has changed my outlook in a lot of really wonderful ways. And I know that I'll continue to be much more conscious of how the journals I submit to treat their writers, how submission fees or contest fees are used, and how to continue to resist underselling myself when I talk about my writing. I'm so thankful for getting to know a little bit more about all the poets I've read on this blog, and for the chance to discover new journals and magazines and poetic outlets. And even though 2016 has been resoundingly shitty in a whole lot of ways, I feel like it's been very, very good to poetry. Last night, gathered around the remains of Christmas dinner, I read my family (husband, son, parents, in-laws) a James Tate poem that I picked at random from the traditional Best American Poetry volume that my mother gives me every year. It's called "Dome of the Hidden Temple" and, in true James Tate fashion, it's funny and weird and surreal and then suddenly truthful. ("A man walked up to me and said, 'Do / you know where the Dome of the Hidden Temple is?' I said, 'Yes, / but I can't tell you. It's a secret.' 'But I'm supposed to meet / somebody there,' he said. 'Then that person should have told / you how to get get there,' I said.") It felt like the right way to end the day and maybe to end the year.

I guess what I'm saying is: all goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, and poetry is perhaps the least collapsible thing of them all.

OCT/NOV/DEC STATS:

Submissions (to either paying or non-paying markets): 0

Rejections: 10 (The Kenyon Review, Fugue, Crazyhorse, Copper Nickel, Isthmus, BOAAT, Qu, Bat City Review, Ep;phany, FENCE)

Acceptances: 0

Money Spent in Oct/Nov/Dec: $0

Money Earned in Oct/Nov/Dec: $0

Total Money Spent in 2016: $33.50

Total Money Earned in 2016: $214.00

2016 FINAL TALLY: $180.50

Poetry as art. As fun. As a business. As a hobby. As a chore. Poetry this year took on categories and dismissed them and pondered them again. I’ve never seen my writing/submitting process in such a way as this—how much value does my poetry hold? What kind of value does it have? In turn, I was asking for my self-worth. I’m a poet. Whatever value I put on poetry corresponds with the choices I make. I can spend time submitting to non-paying journals that usually accept my work, or I can dedicate my time to paying venues that usually reject my work. I can get ornery about journals that don’t accept simultaneous submissions and require reading fees, or I can spend my time basking in the glory of that one poem that saw the light of day in an obscure international journal. Emotions bubbled, ravished, raged and settled. Work ethic powered up and dwindled over and over. Creativity gleamed, shimmered, fizzled, shone. Motivation revved on.

Thank you, Jess, for this experience. I can’t remember the last time I submitted so much in one year. I can’t remember the last time I got rejected so much in one year. Mostly, though, this is the first year I’ve been paid so much for my work, and that small payment—certainly not enough for survival—transferred into a feeling so much more valuable. Yes, what I’m doing has value. We read, we feel, we live, we share, and we grow so much through all of it. Having completed this year-long process of tracking and revealing, I feel like I’ve graduated from the School of Literary Citizenship, and I’m a much better person for it. 

STATS:

Date: December 2016

Submitted to: 9  journals in total

1 that does not offer payment: Whale Road Review

8 that do: Eye To The Telescope; Asimov’s Science Fiction; Blackbird; Black Orchid Designs broadside series; WordRunner; Cicada; Contrary; Inwood Indiana

Rejections: 7 The Pedestal Magazine; Moonsick Magazine; Rattle; Italian Americana; Existere; The Cincinnati Review; Black Orchid Designs broadside series

Acceptances: 0

Miscellaneous: I made a spreadsheet of all of 2016, and I found a math error somewhere! Note the grand total!

Money Spent in December: $0

Money Earned in December: $0

December total: $0

November total: $0

October total: $0

September total: $0

August total: $0

July total: $40

June total: $20

May total: $12

April total: $0

March total: $100.00

February total: $1.55

January total: - $5.88

2016 TOTAL: $169.14 based on Excel math! (Clearly, I made an error somewhere above).

Christina M. Rau is the author of the poetry collection Liberating The Astronauts (forthcoming, 2017), and the poetry chapbooks WakeBreatheMove (Finishing Line Press, 2015) and For The Girls, I (Dancing Girl Press, 2014). Founder of the Long Island reading circuit Poets In Nassau, her poetry has appeared on gallery walls in The Ekphrastic Poster Show, on car magnets for The Living Poetry Project, most recently in the journals Flapperhouse and Blunderbuss Magazine. She edits The Nassau Review at Nassau Community College where she teaches English full time. In her non-writing life, she practices yoga occasionally and line dances on other occasions. On Twitter: @christinamrau. For everything else including her blog that has moved from Blogger: http://www.christinamrau.com

2016 has ended, and this post brings my final report.

As per usual, December was busy. Amid all of the goings-on in my writing life (and the rest of my life), I was delighted to find the team at Lilith to be receptive, on two separate occasions, to time-sensitive poems (one of which was generated during the month in my Jewish-text study/writing group—how often do we write, revise, submit, send, and see published a single poem, all within the same month?). And it was wonderful to receive my contributor's copy of the Theories of HER anthology, which includes three poems of mine.

I'm proud to note that the Lilith publications pushed me over the $500 mark in poetry earnings for the year. Yes, of course there's value to poetry beyond money—and I've experienced some of that this year for my poems, too. But I can't lie: It is nice to see that total. It's really nice to see it. 

And frankly, it reaffirms my antipathy toward submission fees. Moving forward, and anticipating a time when I'll be ready to send out a full book manuscript, I know that it will be much more difficult to limit myself to "fee-free" opportunities. But while I'm working with individual and small batches of poems, I'm really going to try to continue doing exactly that.

One last note: Part of me wishes that in addition to keeping a running total of money spent/money earned, I'd also maintained in-progress totals for submissions and rejections. Sometime soon, I may return to my past posts and calculate those totals.

Thanks so much for sharing this journey with me, and thanks to my fellow bloggers—you've taught me much! As we move into 2017 and beyond, please remember that if you're looking for paying calls and contests that don’t charge submission fees, you're always welcome to check my monthly newsletter (and with my weekly “Monday Markets” posts on the Practicing Writing blog).  And if you’d like to know more about how, generally speaking, I choose where to send my work, this Literary Hub essay remains a good standby.)

STATS

Venues to Which I Submitted Poetry: (10) The Binnacle Ultra-Short competition, Copper Nickel, Forward (Sisterhood blog), Lilith blog, Reform Judaism blog, Tablet, Whale Road Review (nonpaying), Zetetic Press (3 times over, since I had to submit each poem individually and, as noted below, had as of 12/31 received two rejections with one response still outstanding ) 

Rejections: (9) The Examined Life, Forward (Sisterhood), Image, Lockjaw, Reform Judaism, Sublevel, Tablet, Zetetic (2/3)

Acceptances: (2): both for the Lilith blog

Publications: (4) Theories of HER (anthology published 3 poems: “Vocabulary Lesson, 1977”; “Love Note to Myself”; “We Are All Bag Ladies”); Lilith blog (“Dinah Speaks”); Lilith blog ("Rightful Places").

Money Spent: $ 0

Money Earned:  $50

December TOTAL: $50

Total Money Spent in 2016: $8.94

Total Money Earned in 2016:  $517.65

2016 TOTAL: $508.71

The rejections continued to flow in this month. Maybe that's why I'm still euphoric about the single acceptance that I received. And returning to stare adoringly at my latest published poem.

I didn't manage to write much new poetry in November. Between travels the first week or so, and the election, and other things, time just slipped away.

But the end of the month, a study-and-writing group that I'm part of managed to reconvene after a long fall hiatus. Much of my most meaningful (and therefore “valuable”) recent poetry has emerged from those gatherings. In fact, the poem that was accepted this month began in one of those sessions. So having these meetings to count on will, I think, make a difference in the genesis of new work as 2016 ends and 2017 begins.

I’ll conclude with what is by now a routine reminder: If you’re looking for paying calls and contests that don’t charge submission fees, please check in with my monthly newsletter (and with my weekly “Monday Markets” posts on the Practicing Writing blog).  And if you’d like to know more about how, generally speaking,

I choose where to send my work, this Literary Hub essay remains a good standby.)

Thanks for reading! See you all again next month!

STATS

Venues to Which I Submitted Poetry: (9) Banango Street (“Respond” issue; non-paying), Lilith, Lockjaw, make/shift, Reform Judaism blog (non-paying), Qwerty,  Sublevel (“Contagion” issue; non-paying), Tablet, The Writing Disorder (non-paying)

Rejections: (12) Banango Street, Contrary, Harvard Divinity Bulletin,  Hermeneutic Chaos (Jane Lumley Prize), Jewish Action, The Mockingbird, Reform Judaism blog, Tablet, Territory, Third Point Press, Tishman Review, Virginia Quarterly Review

Acceptances: (1): The Hollins Critic (!!!)

Publications: (1) the Forward's Sisterhood blog 

Money Spent: $0

Money Earned:  $100 (the Forward’s Sisterhood blog)

November TOTAL: $100 

Total Money Spent in 2016: $8.94

Total Money Earned in 2016: $467.65

2016 RUNNING TOTAL: $458.71

Until next month….

November was awful on so many levels. I barely read or wrote, but as the month wore on, I managed to send out some submissions. At least it’s a way to be productive when you don’t have the energy or focus to be creative.

STATS:

Date: November 2016 

Journals to which I submitted in November: (5) The Offing; Sidereal Magazine; Heavy Feather Review; Drunken Boat; Brooklyn Quarterly

Rejections: (9) Jet Fuel Review; TYPO; Washington Square Review; Gulf Stream; The Baffler; Memorious; Waxwing; Booth; Colorado Review

Acceptances: (1) Yalobusha Review

Withdrawals: (0)

Money spent: $6.00

Money earned: $0

November tally: -$6.00

Total money earned in 2016: $165

Total money spent in 2016: -$55.50

It is difficult

to get the news from poems

           yet men die miserably every day

                       for lack

of what is found there.

-       W.C. Williams, “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”

This month, I value poetry’s ability to express deep grief, but I also value poetry that takes me away from this present reality and lets me feel hope and joy.

On Nov. 30, I had a book launch party at my university for Tasty Other, my first full-length poetry book. The book boxes arrived just in time. My colleagues, students, and some San Diego friends overflowed the room and made me feel much cooler than I am. I’m so grateful for the chance to share these poems and to talk about poetry and life with interesting people.

As for submissions, I got back in the game, and it felt good. I accidentally violated my rule about not paying to submit to poetry contests. I saw the call for Tupelo’s “Call and Response” contest and thought it sounded like a fantastic fit for my work. I enthusiastically prepared my submission, completed the submission form… and then realized there was a fee. I waivered for a moment, but I went for it.

Here are my November stats…

Submissions (Paying): LitMag, Pedestal Magazine, Day One, Southern Indiana Review, The Sun, upstreet, ZYZZYVA, New Letters, Tupelo Quarterly, TriQuarterly

Submissions (Non-paying): Heron Tree, Yellow Chair, The Account, Hermeneutic Chaos, Southern Humanities Review

Acceptances: Yellow Chair Review (1 poem, non-paying), Candlesticks & Daggers (3 poems; possible contest $)

Rejections: upstreet

Withdrawals: Only partial.

Publications: No journals, just a BOOK! J

Fees: $22 (Tupelo’s “Call & Response” contest & TriQuarterly submission)

Payment: --

Bonus info: As of this month, my first full-length poetry collection, Tasty Other, is officially published, and my book tour is taking shape! You can see a list of upcoming readings and events here. Please feel free to invite me to come to your city/school/festival/house too!

Promoting my forthcoming collection has become part of my “job” as a poet, so in addition to handing out stickers, I’ve been raffling off astronaut ice cream at readings and events, and people love that as much as they love stickers. Because I earn free points on websites, anything I give away or raffle off is free, so this part of my poet job does not necessitate my spending money while I’m also not earning money, yet. One of my pieces that had been accepted back in July was published this month, and the timing worked spectacularly since the piece is about teaching writing, and the academicians around me took to it quite nicely. Since I haven’t had any acceptances since then (yes, July), it was a needed boost.

STATS:

Date: November 2016

Submitted to: 5 journals in total

2 that do not offer payment: Moonsick Magazine; Poetry City, USA

3 that do: The Wanderer; Pedestal (speculative edition); Scissors & Sparkle

Rejections: 8

Strange Horizons; Ambit; Scissors & Spackle; Day One; Queen’s Quarterly; Neon; Arc Poetry Magazine; LitMag

Acceptances: None, nothing, nada

Miscellaneous: I’m trying my hand at Blue Mountain Art poetry. I don’t know if this submission fits into what I’ve been tracking since it’s not a journal. It’s a greeting card company that pays for poems. I’ll let you know if anything gets published.

Money Spent in November: $0

Money Earned in November: $0

November total: $0

October total: $0

September total: $0

August total: $0

July total: $40* stipend received

June total: $20

May total: $12

April total: $0

March total: $100.00

February total: $1.55

January total: - $5.88

2016 TOTAL: $167.67

October didn’t bring me as much writing and submitting time as I’d hoped, but it did bring me to some wonderful poetry events:

New Alchemy Poetry Series – This reading series at The Upstart Crow, a bookstore in San Diego’s Seaport Village, is hosted by Seretta Martin on the third Wednesday of each month. There’s a featured writer and an open mic, and after just two vists I’m already in love with the regular crowd of kind, fun, interesting writers. I loved hearing October’s featured reader, Ann Tweedy, and enjoyed participating in the open mic in honor of Sylvia Plath’s birthday.

Unspoken Word – This event was held at my university, co-sponsored by the Black Student Union and BREAK, the gender equality club. A variety of students and poets from the larger San Diego community performed their work, focusing on issues of race, sex, gender, and body image. This event was powerful and important for our campus community.

Nevermore – This Poe-themed event in Van Nuys featured a 6-hour poetry festival hosted by the magical Nicelle Davis. I drove up from San Diego for the day with some great company (thanks, Julie & Ellen!). I read poems from Tasty Other, and I loved hearing readings and connecting with so many incredible (and wonderfully costumed) So Cal poets.

This month’s shenanigans remind me that poetry’s main value for me is not in money at all, but in human connection. I talked about this in my interview with Cassie Paton, who featured me in her WTH Weekly newsletter this month (thanks, Cassie!). I won’t create a “Human Connections” category in my stats below, but I’m grateful that the process of writing, reading, and publishing poetry has led me to some kindred spirits and dear friends.

As far as publications and payments go, here are my October stats…

STATS:

Submissions (Paying): New York Encounter

Submissions (Non-paying): San Diego Poetry Annual, Candlesticks and Daggers, Adroit

Acceptances: San Diego Poetry Annual

Rejections: Adroit

Withdrawals: --

Publications: --

Fees: --

Payment: --

Bonus info: This month I proofed the cover and insides of Tasty Other. It will be published in November! I’ve been setting up readings and release parties, and I’d love to set up more readings, school visits, and other events for 2017. I’m so excited to share this book!

Most of my time outside of work has been devoted to marketing my forthcoming collection. I’ve been making videos (https://youtu.be/AOATCxNxhA0) and had the good fortune of the website Tea & Fiction (www.teaandfiction.com) supporting my writing by sharing a series of Astro-bites, poem excerpts published bi-weekly until my collection comes out. I’ve also been attempting to plan a really cool book launch at one of two museums that have rocket ships, but that’s not panning out as hoped. Additionally, I’m putting together a round of readings. This whole business-y side of poetry seems boring when written like this, but really, I’m excited. Also, I’ve been handing out space stickers. Everyone loves stickers. Truth. 

STATS:

Date: October 2016

Submitted to: 16 journals in total

1 that does not offer payment: Glittermob

15 that do: On Spec; Shenandoah; Foundry; Bone Bouquet; Wherewithal; Grasslimb; Bennington Review; LitMag; Rhubarb; Tiny Tim Literary Review; Arc; Whether; Parabola; Queen’s Quarterly; Medical Journal of Australia 

Rejections: 12

Amethyst Arsenic; The Rialto; Vine Leaves; Golden Walkman Magazine: Dialogues Special Issue; Spark: A Creative Anthology; Qu; Tiny Tim Literary Review; Foundry; Kenyon Review; Opossum; Devilfish Review; Baltimore Review 

Acceptances:  0   Hellooo? Is there anybody out there?

Withdrawals:  Shenandoah for submitting the incorrect file (duh).

Money Spent in October: $0

Money Earned in October: $0

October total: $0

September total: $0

August total: $0

July total: $0 for now

June total: $20

May total: $12

April total: $0

March total: $100.00 

February total: $1.55

January total: - $5.88

2016 TOTAL: $127.67

October has been my busiest month for submissions so far this year. Journals opening, journals closing, a new batch of poems ready for consideration. I spent money on submissions for the first time since July. Several of my favorite magazines charge fees. There’s no getting around it.

I’ll be honest — I look forward to these monthly check-ins being over. I’m tired of keeping an eye on my tally sheet. There are many ways to calculate value when it comes to poetry. Is it nice to get paid for publishing work? Of course. But I’d much rather find the right homes for my poems.

STATS:

Date: October 2016 

Journals to which I submitted in October: (21) Diode; Forklift, Ohio; Quarterly West; Banango Street; Yalobusha Review; Terrain; Booth; Jet Fuel Review; Harpur Palate; TYPO; Indiana Review; Bennington Review; Colorado Review; Salamander; Kenyon Review; New Orleans Review Online; Quarter After Eight; Gulf Stream; Carolina Review; Ninth Letter; FreezeRay

Rejections: (6) Muzzle; Raleigh Review; Diode; Forklift, Ohio; Quarterly West; Four Way Review

Acceptances: (0)

Withdrawals: (0)

Money spent: $11.50

Money earned: $0

October tally: -$11.50

Total money earned in 2016: $165

Total money spent in 2016: -$49.50

I can hardly believe we’re already in the last quarter of 2016!  While I wanted to have far more submissions going out the door by now than I’ve actually sent, I nevertheless feel as if I have made great strides in clearing the path and setting a course of action for my writing.  I was hugely surprised to have any acceptances this year and hope that there will be more in my future (of course, who knows what the poetry gods have in store).  I will certainly keep writing and trying – so wish me luck!

October was a good writing month, just not a good submitting month.  However, my critique group seems to be solidifying and their feedback has been wonderful.  I have finished an article for a journal for which I will get paid (yay!), but it’s not poetry so I won’t count that income here.  Still, let’s call that good news.  

I have several poems I am hoping to find homes for,  I just have to wait for some reading cycles to open up in the journals I believe are most compatible with my style of poetry.  That was another eye opener about the whole submitting/publishing process - it definitely requires a multilayered system to actually write, keep track of submissions, withdrawals, reading schedules and the like.  Kudos to all you who are doing that well and getting work out every month!  I’m still sorting out what works for me and trying not to miss deadlines, but so far, that seems to be one of my biggest challenges.  Clearly, I need a better system!

So, for now, nothing changing on my stats but work is queued up and ready…now I just need a willing publisher. Piece of cake, right?  Well, a girl can dream.

Whoa, Nellie! About a month ago, I think I may have been starting to become a bit impatient. I had so many submissions circulating—WHEN would I hear back from some of those venues that were considering my poems? 

Well, you know the saying—sometimes ignorance is bliss.

In short: The rejections came fast and numerous in October.

And yes, the cumulative effect stung. And made me even more grateful than usual for the single acceptance that the month brought.  

As you review the stats that I’ve provided below, you may notice that some of the places I sent work to this month aren’t necessarily known for publishing unsolicited poems. That’s because sometimes, I take a chance. Knowing that Hadassah magazine had undergone a re-design, for instance, I contacted its new editor asking if she might be interested in poetry—and sent along an example of one of my available poems.

I’m not counting that poem as rejected just yet because the editor very kindly (and quickly!) responded that although poetry was not something the team had been considering, I’d given them a reason to have a discussion about it. So here I wait, again— eagerly (and patiently!)—to learn more.

I’ll conclude with what is by now a routine reminder: If you’re looking for paying calls and contests that don’t charge submission fees, please check in with my monthly newsletter (and with my weekly “Monday Markets” posts on the Practicing Writing blog).  And if you’d like to know more about how, generally speaking,

I choose where to send my work, this Literary Hub essay remains a good standby.)

Thanks for reading! See you all again next month!

 STATS:

Venues to Which I Submitted Poetry: (16) The Arkansas International, Bennington Review, Blue Mesa Review, Forage (nonpaying), Forward (Sisterhood blog), Foundry, Granta, Hadassah, Hermeneutic Chaos (Jane Lumley Prize), Hollins Critic, Ruminate, Silk Road, Tablet, Territory (nonpaying), Third Point Press, The Writer’s Almanac

Rejections: (16) The Arkansas International, Forage, Foundry, Good Men Project, Holland Park Press Poetry & Politics contest, Isthmus, Kenyon Review, Meniscus, LitMag, Nashville Review, Anna Davidson Rosenberg Awards, Silk Road, Tablet, The Sun, Two Words For, The Writer's Almanac (they don’t take discrete, unpublished poems, no matter how perfect you might think your poem may be—the staffer who responded to my submission was, however, super-nice and helpful.) 

“Commissions”: 0

Acceptances: (1): Forward (Sisterhood blog)

Publications: 0

Money Spent: $0

Money Earned:  $0

October TOTAL: $0

Total Money Spent in 2016: $8.94

Total Money Earned in 2016: $367.65

2016 RUNNING TOTAL: $358.71

Until next month….

The first day of this month brought publications! Three pregnancy-related poems from Tasty Other were published in MockingHeart Review. We also published Issue 4 of Whale Road Review, which is full of fantastic writing and completes the journal’s first year! I’m a happy and grateful Editor-in-Chief.

Queen Mob’s published Donna Vorreyer’s wonderful review of my Bible word-banking chapbook A Door with a Voice, which you can download for free from Agape Editions of Sundress Publications. I also received a very kind thank you note and honorarium from my publisher!  

I returned to writing poetry this month after a long break. I hadn’t really attempted to revise or write poems since my parents-in-law died in July. I’m still not in a regular writing routine again (thanks to issues related to grief and an overloaded semester), but the writing time I did have was energizing. I’m hoping for more in October. I did send out a few submissions this month, and I’m hoping for more of those in October too.

Here are my September stats…

Submissions (Paying): The Wanderer, Upstreet, Poetry Magazine

Submissions (Non-paying): bramble&thorn (Porkbelly Press)

Acceptances: --

Rejections: Day One, upstreet, The Account, bramble&thorn

Withdrawals: --

Publications: MockingHeart Review

Fees: --

Payment: $25 (chapbook honorarium)

2016 Total: $44

Bonus info: Last call to pre-order my first full-length poetry book, Tasty Other (for a steal—just $8). It’s the 2016 winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award, and it will be published in November. The poems explore the wonder and terror of transitioning to motherhood, using everything from fairy tales and biblical narratives to my own dream journal and experiences of pregnancy and birth.