How Do You Know Where to Send Your Work? Questions About Submissions...

A former MFA student wrote in to ask me advice about how I know which journals to send my poems to. It seems so overwhelming, she said. Well, that's true for me too! Here's part of what I wrote back - I hope you guys find it helpful:

What you are experiencing is something every writer experiences! I'm literally going through the same thing doing fall submissions - which journals would be receptive to my work? Which poems should I send to which place? It's nearly impossible to guess correctly. ...