Roy Miller's Blog, page 308
January 3, 2017
Yes, Bob Dylan Absolutely Deserves the Nobel
On Sept. 29, 1961, a New York Times headline proclaimed: “Bob Dylan: A Distinctive Stylist.” Beneath it was a picture of the chubby-cheeked young man who had arrived in New York from Minnesota nine months earlier.
The review of Dylan at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village was by critic Robert Shelton, whose prescience was remarkable. Dylan’s talent was raw indeed, and three record companies had failed to spot his potential. The fourth, Columbia, offered him a contract the day following the review. The late Suze Rotolo, the girlfriend pictured on the iconic cover of Freewheelin’, wrote years later that “Robert Shelton’s review, without a doubt, made Dylan’s career.”
Shelton, who died in Brighton, England, in December 1995, would be thrilled at the news of Dylan’s Nobel Prize. Vindicated, but not surprised. For he spent his life making the case for Dylan (often in the face of fierce opposition) as not just a poet but as a larger-than-life artist who deserved to be bracketed with the 20th century’s greats. He fought innumerable editors for his right to make that case in print.
Eventually Shelton found a sympathetic editor in London, where he moved in 1969 and where I met him a decade later. But he always felt the original 1986 edition of his No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan (Morrow), which was subject to harsh cuts, had been “abridged over troubled waters.”
There were disagreements with Doubleday when Shelton refused to compromise on the book’s more serious content; Doubleday pulled out and the book was bought by a British publisher and cut to one volume. In 2011, a revised edition—a sort of director’s cut, carved by me from Shelton’s original manuscript—was published, which finally made Shelton’s case for Dylan.
“Dylan arguably did for the popular song-form what Picasso did for the visual arts, Stravinsky for ‘serious’ music, Chaplin for film, Joyce for the novel,” Shelton writes. “Dylan lived up to the artist’s greatest tasks—growth, exploration, and change.” In 1963, the year of Dylan’s second album, Freewheelin’, which featured a clutch of classics, including “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right,” Shelton had been scoffed at for dubbing Dylan “the singing poet laureate of young America.”
Yet by 1965, poets polled by the Washington Post hailed him as “America’s Yevtushenko,” and John Clellon Holmes cast him as “the American Brecht.” Christopher Ricks, a critic and professor at Boston University, saw him as “a great amuser, a great entertainer, who belongs with the artists who’ve looked for the widest popular constituency, like Dickens and Shakespeare.” A half century on, there’s no shortage of academicians making the case for Dylan, whose work has been compared to Whitman, Yeats, Eliot, the Kabbalah, and the Bible.
“Desolation Row” (1965) is the song that first caught Ricks’s ear. A true epic, it references Cinderella, Bette Davis, Romeo, Cain and Abel, the Good Samaritan, Noah, “Einstein disguised as Robin Hood,” the Phantom of the Opera, Casanova, and of course “Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain’s tower”—as Dylan puts it, a “superhuman crew,” assembled from a breathtaking range of cultural references. Ricks sees it as “an extraordinary new enduring version” of Eliot’s The Waste Land and Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad, “a whole new vision of a civilization falling apart.” He adds, “It’s surrealist art... combining exact draftsmanship with the amazing or the impossible to visualize.” The lyric is included in the 2006 Oxford Book of American Poetry.
Skeptics aghast at Dylan’s Nobel laurels should listen, really listen, to the mighty handful of albums he recorded between 1962 and 1966, and to Blood on the Tracks (1975), to hear songs that have become part of our cultural DNA, the phrases that are as much a part of our lingua franca as Shakespeare. Dylan articulated our grievances and our grieving, taking poetry off the bookshelves and loading it on to the jukebox. He wrote songs that have orchestrated our times, songs that are timely yet also timeless.
Joan Baez, Dylan’s sometime girlfriend and his foremost interpreter, puts it well: “His gift with words is unsurpassable.... No songs have been more moving and worthy in their depth, darkness, fury, mystery, beauty, and humor than Bob’s.”
Liz Thomson prepared the restored edition of Robert Shelton’s No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan (BackBeat, 2011).
A version of this article appeared in the 10/24/2016 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Bringing The Nobel Back Home
The post Yes, Bob Dylan Absolutely Deserves the Nobel appeared first on Art of Conversation.
Bookstore News: January 3, 2017
A new bookstore opens in North Carolina; a Connecticut bookstore expands with podcasts; one of the country’s smallest bookstores goes on the market; and more.
Second Creative Mindz Book Lounge Opens in Farmville: After opening a bookstore café to promote self-published authors in Wilson, N.C., writer DuWanda Epps has opened a second store. “I want our children to see that there is more to life than our phones,” Epps told Reflector.com. “Open a book and open your mind.”
RJ Julia Booksellers Launches Podcast: The Madison, Ct., bookstore, which recently announced that it will expand to Wesleyan and manage a new bookstore for Wesleyan University, launched the “Just the Right Book!” podcast, a weekly 30-45 minute podcast with CRN’s Collisions podcast division. It is available on iTunes and on www.bookpodcast.com and will feature interviews with James Patterson, Jacques Pepin, Carly Simon, and other authors.
Tatnuck Honored as #1 Local Bookstore: The Westborough, Mass., bookstore, gift shop, and café received two readers’ choice awards late last year. Both Wicked Local and Baystate Parent magazine commended the store for its extensive selection of discount books and its friendly staff.
Mesa Bookstore for Sale: David Karys-Schiff and his wife, Lisa, put their tiny 205 sq. ft. bookstore, which specializes in used paperbacks, on the market for $39,500. If they don’t get an offer for the bookstore, the couple will sell the three years remaining on their lease to a hookah shop owner, who has already expressed interest.
Obituary: Blue Marble Founder Tina Moore (1941-2016): Pilar (“Tina”) Moore, who founded and co-owned the Ft. Thomas, Ky., bookstore with her husband, Peter Moore, passed away on December 28. A leading children’s literature expert, she was a founding member and served on the board of directors of the Association of Children’s Booksellers. She received a Silver Gertie Award (1989) for her contributions to literacy and was named one of the Women of the Year in Northern Kentucky (1995). The Moore family requests that donations be made to literacy organizations such as OKI Children’s Literature Conference (www.dearbornhighlandsarts.org) or to your local library.
Last Chapter for NYC’s Crawford Doyle Booksellers: In a Facebook post the bookstore announced that after 21 years, it is closing. A note in the window states, “We are grateful for your loyalty and support—and for the opportunity to have served you in these interesting times.”
Novels and Novelties (Formerly Fountainhead Books) Closes: After seven years and a name change, Novels and Novelties closed its doors at the end of 2016. Owner Valerie Welbourn wanted to return to her original career and wasn’t able to find a buyer for the Hendersonville, N.C., bookstore over the course of the past year.
The post Bookstore News: January 3, 2017 appeared first on Art of Conversation.
Poetry Submission Tips From Other Poets
One of my goals for 2017 is to improve my poetry submission routine. I’ve noticed over the years that I get published more when I submit more. Of course, rejections happen more frequently too, but that’s how it works.
Below are poetry submission tips from a few poets over the years on the Poetic Asides blog.
*****
The 2017 Poet’s Market, edited by Robert Lee Brewer, includes hundreds of poetry markets, including listings for poetry publications, publishers, contests, and more! With names, contact information, and submission tips, poets can find the right markets for their poetry and achieve more publication success than ever before.
In addition to the listings, there are articles on the craft, business, and promotion of poetry–so that poets can learn the ins and outs of writing poetry and seeking publication. Plus, it includes a one-year subscription to the poetry-related information on WritersMarket.com. All in all, it’s the best resource for poets looking to secure publication.
*****
Kristina Marie Darling
Kristina Marie Darling
“I’ve always been an advocate of starting small. While it’s great to shoot for the top, and send your poems to The New Yorker or The Atlantic Monthly, I think it’s important for writers to realize that there are other ways to build an audience. Publishing in online journals and smaller print magazines can help a writer gain credentials, name recognition, and practice with the submission process. And these are all things that more prestigious journals look for.
“This was certainly the case for me with my poetry criticism. It wasn’t until I had significant experience working with small journals that The Gettysburg Review would consider looking at my clips. And when I wrote my first essay-review for them, I would have been lost without the expertise I gained writing for other magazines.”
(Read full interview with Kristina Marie Darling.)
Jillian Weise
“Slick Daniels sent his poems to one journal at a time while I was shadier about it. I had poems out–who knows which ones and who knows where.
“When the rejections came, we shellacked them to stools & sat on them. This plan did work. I sent the same batch of poems to ten journals a month, for about six months, before The Atlantic acceptance. I didn’t know The Atlantic so I looked it up in Poet’s Market. Now I submit where poets I like publish. If Priscilla Becker or Josh Bell or Matthew Dickman or Tim Earley or Kristi Maxwell or Ben Mirov or Abe Smith or Craig Teicher is there, then I want to be there. It’s like calling ahead of time to see who’s at the party.”
(Read full interview with Jillian Weise.)
Sandra Beasley
“I try to be as systematic as possible in terms of sending out, by conceptualizing “submission packets” of 4-5 poems each: poems that offset each other well, that advance a certain theme or stylistic gesture. I’ll match a packet with whatever I think the editors at that particular magazine will like best. It makes me nervous if I don’t have things out at at least three journals at any given time. As you can probably guess from that statement, I prefer places that consider simultaneous submissions. As someone who has worked at a number of magazines, I just don’t see any reason not to be open to simultaneous.”
(Read full interview with Sandra Beasley.)
Scott Owens“Mine is a bit of a hybrid system. I still use the old school technique of creating a folder for each poem and writing on the outside of the folder the date and place the poem was submitted. Those are filed alphabetically, one drawer for those that are currently out and one drawer for those that are currently not out. If they get published, they go to the special filing cabinet. I also keep a pen and paper list of current submissions by journal. All that is to try and not double submit or bug editors with too many submissions too close together. Finally, I keep a spreadsheet of my favorite journals and track submission dates and publication dates so that I don’t let any of them get lost in the shuffle. To anyone technologically-savvy I’m sure this sounds hopelessly archaic, but it’s comfortable for me, and I love the feel of manilla folders.”
(Read full interview with Scott Owens.)
Amorak Huey
“I submit a lot. I get rejected a lot. So many rejections. I started seriously submitting my work in February of 2009, and since then I’ve gotten more than 750 rejections. But also, yeah, I’ve been really lucky to have a good number of poems accepted. I’ve learned not to take the rejections personally—but also to listen to them, to be willing to accept that a poem might not be ready yet, may never be ready.
“I tend to submit in spurts, but my goal is to average eight to ten submissions a month. That means I have to always be writing, and I have to always be submitting. It feels crass to be talking about this, like I’m talking about publishing in this very mercenary way, but for me, there are two steps: 1, creating art; 2, getting that art in front of an audience. The commercial/submitting side can never be more important than the creative side, but it’s important not to ignore that part of it, either.
“I keep pretty careful records, tracking my submissions on Duotrope and an idiosyncratic spreadsheet. I do simultaneous submissions, but never in violation of a journal’s policy. I try to send only to journals where I like their aesthetic or the editors’ work or the poems they’ve published in the past. I no longer send to journals that publish in the Issuu format, because I hate it, but I am equally happy to have my poems appear online or in print. I try to be honest with myself about whether a poem is truly ready to send, so that my ambitious, ego-driven, validation-seeking side doesn’t overrule my poet side.
“Did I answer your question? I’m not sure I have a submission routine so much as a submission philosophy.”
(Read full interview with Amorak Huey.)
*****
Robert Lee Brewer is the editor of Poet’s Market and author of Solving the World’s Problems. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
*****
Check out these other poetic posts:
You might also like:
The post Poetry Submission Tips From Other Poets appeared first on Art of Conversation.
LitHub Daily: January 3, 2017
The Best of the Literary Internet, Every Day
TODAY: In 1911, novelist, short-story writer, and poet Alexandros Papadiamandis dies.
The correspondence of James Tiptree, Jr. (who was really Alice Sheldon, “hyper-masculine” sci-fi genius). | Literary Hub
Don’t miss John Berger’s wonderful conversation with Paul Holdengraber, from this past November. Berger died on Monday at the age of 90. | Literary Hub, The Guardian
Ten small-press recommendations from Dallas’s Deep Vellum. | Literary Hub
Lisa Levy sits down with professor turned crime-writing puzzle master, James Carse. | Literary Hub
“Did Plimpton realize that he was making the defiantly leftist Hemingway into a US propaganda tool, even vaguely?” On Ernest Hemingway’s Paris Review interview. | Guernica
On the novels and belated English reception of Carmen Boullosa, “simply, one of the great writers of our time.” | Full Stop
That he would parlay his notoriety into some sort of book deal is an unsavory, if inevitable, prospect: On Milo Yiannopoulos’ book deal. | The New Yorker
On Beryl Bainbridge, Angela Carter, and other “female writers whose work has most recently come in for enthusiastic appraisal.” | The Guardian
Why we continue to read and publish poetry, “language that’s focused in such a way that true meaning and emotion is redolent in the air.” | The New York Times
There’s a tangle between weakness and vulnerability: An interview with André Alexis. | The Rumpus
A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Handmaid’s Tale, and beyond: On TV’s most anticipated literary adaptations for 2017. | Electric Literature
The post LitHub Daily: January 3, 2017 appeared first on Art of Conversation.
Rakuten Kobo Acquires the Tolino Tech Platform from Deutsche Telekom
Rakuten Kobo announced on Tuesday they have signed contracts to acquire the Tolino ebook technology platform serving the German-language ebook market from founding partner Deutsche Telekom at the end of January 2017, pending approval from the German Federal Cartel Office. (That paperwork was filed December 22.) Kobo will join the three…
The post Rakuten Kobo Acquires the Tolino Tech Platform from Deutsche Telekom appeared first on Art of Conversation.
Why Most Amazon Reader Reviews are Worthless
I’ve been an agent for 40 years. Publishers may not like what I’m about to say, but my observation is that most Amazon and Barnes & Noble reader reviews are either fraudulent or, at best, useless in assessing the true merit of any given title. Debut authors are largely being shut out of a fair shake, and without them, publishing will follow the network-media misstep of avoiding/shunning the fresh voices that attract new audiences (which is why HBO, Netflix, Showtime, and, yes, Amazon Prime have surpassed the major networks in original content).
Two decades ago, I knew editors and publishers who, determined to see their authors climb the New York Times bestseller list, got the tacit okay from the major publishing houses to enlist their friends and colleagues to go to all of the 10 retail outlets that the Times secretly used to gauge reader interest—no Nielsen numbers, just 10 stores (most of us back then knew which stores those were)—and buy a copy of their books. Ten friends carrying out this directive could result in a second printing because the book would appear at #20 or better on the Times list. Some editors I knew had a whole campaign mapped out: five friends the first week, 10 the next, and 10 again the third. The result? You were bound to get a Times mention and the book was likely to be a winner. This was cheaper than co-op advertising.
The Amazon reader reviews are today’s equivalent of manipulating the numbers. How is the book a success? You would think blurbs or actual media and viral reviews would be the most important criteria for Amazon’s algorithm assessing positioning and promotion. Nope, those have no mathematical number to plug into a formula. So is it the public reviewers’ average rating? Not alone. What Amazon does is akin to the cheap tailor’s quip over the cost of a suit fabric: “Never mind the quality, feel the width!” One hundred reviews at three stars becomes more valuable commercially than 10 at five stars. Crudely speaking, 300 of anything is more valuable than 50.
Should we all be paying for reviewers? There are services that do so for serious fees. Google “buy Amazon reviews” and they will turn up. If Amazon finds out that reviews were purchased, it will sue, but are those who purchase reviews frauds or are they fighting an already-corrupt system?
Now, publishers know this reality. We all know this. Every major publishing house we deal with, every editor, asks our authors to have all their friends and colleagues preorder their books and write reviews immediately on pub date, and preferably buy copies the week of release to drive the profile. Does anyone really believe that a branded author’s reviews, queued up for the morning after release, are all suddenly written by quick readers? Oh, come on. It’s the Times 10-store whip around in an Internet-age version. It’s fighting fire with fire.
Publishers get blurbs from bestselling authors. Does that do it? Nope. Then they, along with us agents, solicit viral media reviews. Does that work? Nope. The only thing driving sales at Amazon is the number of reader reviews coupled with the number of stars for any given title. No blurb or traditional literary review counts in Amazon’s positioning of any title.
However, in a somewhat misguided way, Amazon is now making efforts to alter the reader-review process. It has a new algorithm that produces messages such as this one: “Our data shows elements of your Amazon account match elements of other Amazon accounts reviewing the same products. In these cases, we remove the review to maintain trust in our customer reviews and avoid any perception of bias.” For instance, if you have ever, at any time, become a friend of an author on Facebook or Goodreads, your honest review will be expunged. You have no recourse. “Maintain trust”? That’s a joke. Weed out the little guy (likely to be a genuine reviewer) and perpetuate the status quo, more likely.
So, here’s my challenge to Amazon: Prove that every single review is not by an employee, friend, associate, or colleague of any publisher or media company. Then it can invoke its discriminatory censorship. Until then, it is trampling on First Amendment rights and playing into the hands of what is, after all, a nonliterary, mathematical rating system.
Peter Riva has been a literary and licensing agent for over 40 years, as well as a television and film producer.
A version of this article appeared in the 10/31/2016 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Those Amazon Numbers
The post Why Most Amazon Reader Reviews are Worthless appeared first on Art of Conversation.
January 2, 2017
GIVEAWAY: Win Shorts and Briefs by Gregory Fletcher
Any playwrights here in the audience? This week’s giveaway is for you.
Gregory Fletcher’s cheekily named Shorts and Briefs: A Collection of Short Plays and Brief Principles of Playwriting aims to provide both examples and instructions for playwrights. The “shorts” are a collection of nine short plays by Fletcher, while the “briefs” component are concise explorations of playwriting principles.
“Greg’s book makes an interesting case about how the short play can be a valuable tool to learn how to write plays in general—10 minute plays, 90 minute plays, plays that last for days. And he includes several effective short plays, which certainly enhance his premise,” writes famed playwright Christopher Durang.
Readers have until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, December 15th to enter.
This giveaway is now closed. We thank you for your interest.
The post GIVEAWAY: Win Shorts and Briefs by Gregory Fletcher appeared first on Art of Conversation.
Week of January 2, 2017
Kensington Re-ups Wiseman
John Scognamiglio, editor-in-chief of Kensington, acquired world and audio rights to two books by Ellen Marie Wiseman in a new-contract deal negotiated by Michael Carr of Veritas Literary. According to the publisher, Wiseman’s 2014 book with Kensington, What She Left Behind, about a woman who becomes immersed in the diaries of a psychiatric patient living during the Great Depression, was “one of Kensington’s bestselling digital and trade titles of the past two years,” with half a million copies in print. Wiseman’s next novel, The Life She Was Given, will be published in summer 2017. The first of the two books acquired in this deal will be published sometime in 2019.
Ace Buys Books in Two Series by Hunter
Jessica Wade, a senior editor at Ace Books, acquired world English rights to four novels by Faith Hunter in a six-figure deal negotiated by Lucienne Driver of the Knight Agency. According to the publisher, two of the novels will continue the author’s Jane Yellowrock series, about “Cherokee skinwalker and rogue-vampire hunter” Jane Yellowrock. The other two will continue the author’s Soulwood series, a spin-off of the Jane Yellowrock series. Ace plans to publish the first Soulwood book that is part of the new deal in April 2019 and the first Jane Yellowrock book in December 2019.
Rosenbloom Brings M.L.K. Book to Beacon
Gayatri Patnaik, editorial director of Beacon Press, acquired North American and audio rights to Redemption: The Last Journey of Martin Luther King, Jr. by investigative journalist Joseph Rosenbloom, in a deal brokered by William Clark of William Clark Associates. According to Clark, the book centers on the “last 31 hours of Dr. King’s life—from when his flight landed in Memphis on April 3 of ’68 to his murder the following afternoon” and includes “photos and never-before-used interviews.” Rosenbloom has been a reporter and editorial writer for the Boston Globe and Frontline and has received Emmy and Peabody awards for his work. Redemption is set to be published in April 2018 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of King’s death.
Europa Nabs Four Books by French Crime Novelist Bussi
Sandro Ferri, publisher of Europa Editions, acquired North American rights to four novels by Michel Bussi, a French crime novelist, in a deal brokered by Alexandra Buchman of Place des Éditeurs. Bussi, who according to Europa is known for his “signature twist endings,” was ranked the third bestselling author of 2015 by Le Figaro. Europa’s first Bussi book will be Time Is a Killer, about a grief-haunted woman who “returns to Corsica to exorcise her past.” It’s set to be published in spring 2018.
Atria Picks Up Civil Rights–Focused Debut Novel
Todd Hunter of Atria Books acquired world English rights to Columbia-M.F.A.-graduate Malcolm Hansen’s debut novel, They Come in All Colors. Jaida Temperly of New Leaf Literary & Media did the deal. According to Temperly, the book was pitched as “The Secret Life of Bees meets Paul Beatty” and tells of a “biracial teenage boy whose life in N.Y.C. is disrupted by childhood memories of growing up in the Deep South during the early Civil Rights Movement.” It’s set to be published in spring 2018.
Journalist Takes Domestic Violence Book to Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury executive editor Anton Mueller and assistant editor Callie Garnett bought North American rights, in a preempt, to Rachel Louise Snyder’s No Visible Bruises, in a deal arranged by Susan Ramer of Don Congdon Associates. According to the publisher, the book offers “a look at the national and global scope of domestic violence, how we have misunderstood it, what it portends about other types of violence, and what we can do—and what is being done—to work against it.” Synder is a journalist who has written for publications including the New Republic, the New Yorker, and the New York Times Magazine. Bloomsbury plans to publish the book in spring 2019.
Pegasus Acquires Sex-Toy History
Iris Blasi of Pegasus Books acquired world rights to Hallie Lieberman’s Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy, in a deal brokered by Lydia Shamah of the Carol Mann Agency. According to the publisher, the book touches on everything from “lube in ancient Greece” to the role of sex toys in the fight against HIV/AIDS, offering a “microhistory that ultimately charts our changing sexual mores” and contributing to a trend of “feminist nonfiction that is becoming a new market of its own.” The author is a historian who received her doctorate in sex-toy history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (according to the publisher, it’s the first degree of its kind). The book is set to be published in fall 2017.
A version of this article appeared in the 01/02/2017 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Deals
The post Week of January 2, 2017 appeared first on Art of Conversation.
WD Poetic Form Challenge: Diminishing Verse
A new year means a new WD Poetic Form Challenge! And this time around, we’ll tackle diminishing verse.
Find the rules for writing diminishing verse here. Also known as vanishing verse, this form involves removing letters.
So start writing them and sharing here on the blog (this specific post) for a chance to be published in Writer’s Digest magazine–as part of the Poetic Asides column. (Note: You have to log in to the site to post comments/poems; creating an account is free.)
Here’s how the challenge works:
Challenge is free. No entry fee.
The winner (and sometimes a runner-up or two) will be featured in a future edition of Writer’s Digest magazine as part of the Poetic Asides column.
Deadline 11:59 p.m. (Atlanta, GA time) on January 31, 2017.
Poets can enter as much diminishing verse as they wish. The more “work” you make for me the better, but remember: I’m judging on quality, not quantity.
All poems should be previously unpublished. If you have a specific question about your specific situation, just send me an e-mail at robert.brewer@fwmedia.com. Or just write new diminishing verse. It’s fun to write; I promise.
I will only consider diminishing verse shared in the comments below. It gets too confusing for me to check other posts, go to other blogs, etc.
Speaking of posting, if this is your first time, your comment may not appear immediately. However, it should appear within a day (or 3–if shared on the weekend). So just hang tight, and it should appear eventually. If not, send me an e-mail at the address above.
Please include your name as you would like it to appear in print. If you don’t, I’ll be forced to use your user/screen name, which might be something like HaikuPrincess007 or MrLineBreaker. WD has a healthy circulation, so make it easy for me to get your byline correct.
Finally–and most importantly–be sure to have fun!
*****
The 2017 Poet’s Market, edited by Robert Lee Brewer, includes hundreds of poetry markets, including listings for poetry publications, publishers, contests, and more! With names, contact information, and submission tips, poets can find the right markets for their poetry and achieve more publication success than ever before.
In addition to the listings, there are articles on the craft, business, and promotion of poetry–so that poets can learn the ins and outs of writing poetry and seeking publication. Plus, it includes a one-year subscription to the poetry-related information on WritersMarket.com. All in all, it’s the best resource for poets looking to secure publication.
*****
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community, which means he maintains this blog, edits a couple Market Books (Poet’s Market and Writer’s Market), writes a poetry column for Writer’s Digest magazine, leads online education, speaks around the country on publishing and poetry, and a lot of other fun writing-related stuff. He’s also the author of the poetry collection Solving the World’s Problems.
Follow him on Twitter @RobertLeeBrewer.
*****
Find more poetic posts here:
You might also like:
The post WD Poetic Form Challenge: Diminishing Verse appeared first on Art of Conversation.
“a gripping, smart book … it could have used a touch more soul”
“The politics of pope-picking clearly captivates Harris, a former political reporter, as it indubitably captivates many of us. The book is filled with procedural and historical detail…Harris has done his research, and it shows, though he is also careful to situate his story in the contemporary world. That tension adds to the ambience … the twist at the end is about as dramatic an incorporation of the modern cultural conversation about gender and sexuality as can be imagined … Harris has written a gripping, smart book. The only quibble, ironically enough, is that it could have used a touch more soul.”
–Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times Book Review, December 1, 2016
Article continues after advertisement
Read more of Vanessa’s reviews here
The post “a gripping, smart book … it could have used a touch more soul” appeared first on Art of Conversation.
