Here's something you might be interested in.
Besides Slate.com, which publishes one poem a week on Tuesdays, is edited by Robert Pinsky, and has a very good discussion forum, one of my favorite sites for reading poems is Rattle, which publishes a new poem every day. I read one a while back called Road Sign On Interstate 5 San Diego California, written by Robert Peake.:
Road Sign on Interstate 5 San Diego California, by Robert Peake
http://www.rattle.com/blog/2009/07/road-sign-on-interstate-5-by-robert-peake/
One of our local writers, Steve Kowit, the author of a popular handbook on writing poetry, In The Palm Of Your Hand, is the poetry editor on a site called Perigee, which publishes poems and fiction. I’m not too impressed with what I’ve read so far, you can check it out here:
http://www.perigee-art.com/
The San Diego Union-Tribune doesn’t accept stories or poems, neither does the Reader, or Voice of San Diego, La Prensa, Voice and Viewpoint. None of the local papers do, with one exception; City Beat has a yearly Fiction 101 contest, they call for submissions of very short stories and publish the winners in one issue in September. If you’d like to read the winning stories from the first contest you can find them through this link.:
Fiction 101 Contest Winners 2003
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?id=1263
Some months ago, I had the opportunity to chat on a thread with B.T. Shaw, the poetry editor for The Oregonian, one of the few newspapers that still publishes poetry. Ms. Shaw posted a poem written by Judith Arcana, called Adelita, Talking Inside Her Head, which I felt related to the immigrant experience in San Diego:
Adelita, Talking Inside Her Head, by Judith Arcana
http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2009/07/poetry_adelita_talking_inside.html
I asked Ms. Shaw how she picked the poems that would be published in the paper. This is what she responded:
“[H]ere's the Reader's Digest Condensed Version:
“1) I don't hold submissions to Emily Dickinson's top-of-the-head-taken-off standard, but I do look for moments of surprise and/or delight.
“2) Ditto command of language and craft.
“3) Poems must be twenty lines or fewer (the paper is shrinking, like all papers).
“4) To be published, poems must also must conform to what the paper calls "family-friendly content." Recently, I tried to sneak in a poem by Cody Walker (from his book Shuffle & Breakdown) that included the word "crap." The editors caught it and made me pull it on deadline. Aw, crap.
“Finding 40 or so poems a year that fit #3 and #4 but also demonstrate #2 and glitter with #1 AND over the course of a year exhibit a range of aesthetic inclinations can be...difficult. I deeply appreciate contributors who understand the forces at work and don't take rejection personally.”
One last factor she mentioned: “When The Oregonian revived the Poetry column eleven years ago, the editors decided to limit submissions to Northwest writers and visiting poets. So, that part of the equation is taken care of for me.”
It seems a shame that none of our papers can find the space to print poems meeting similar guidelines. The papers do cover and write about the local cultural scene, they just don’t have the fiction component. I wonder why we don’t have our own version of The New Yorker here. Even a little publication, with a short story, a poem, a piece of art, some events, a few ads, would be sweet, wouldn’t it?
Besides Slate.com, which publishes one poem a week on Tuesdays, is edited by Robert Pinsky, and has a very good discussion forum, one of my favorite sites for reading poems is Rattle, which publishes a new poem every day. I read one a while back called Road Sign On Interstate 5 San Diego California, written by Robert Peake.:
Road Sign on Interstate 5 San Diego California, by Robert Peake
http://www.rattle.com/blog/2009/07/road-sign-on-interstate-5-by-robert-peake/
One of our local writers, Steve Kowit, the author of a popular handbook on writing poetry, In The Palm Of Your Hand, is the poetry editor on a site called Perigee, which publishes poems and fiction. I’m not too impressed with what I’ve read so far, you can check it out here:
http://www.perigee-art.com/
The San Diego Union-Tribune doesn’t accept stories or poems, neither does the Reader, or Voice of San Diego, La Prensa, Voice and Viewpoint. None of the local papers do, with one exception; City Beat has a yearly Fiction 101 contest, they call for submissions of very short stories and publish the winners in one issue in September. If you’d like to read the winning stories from the first contest you can find them through this link.:
Fiction 101 Contest Winners 2003
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?id=1263
Some months ago, I had the opportunity to chat on a thread with B.T. Shaw, the poetry editor for The Oregonian, one of the few newspapers that still publishes poetry. Ms. Shaw posted a poem written by Judith Arcana, called Adelita, Talking Inside Her Head, which I felt related to the immigrant experience in San Diego:
Adelita, Talking Inside Her Head, by Judith Arcana
http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2009/07/poetry_adelita_talking_inside.html
I asked Ms. Shaw how she picked the poems that would be published in the paper. This is what she responded:
“[H]ere's the Reader's Digest Condensed Version:
“1) I don't hold submissions to Emily Dickinson's top-of-the-head-taken-off standard, but I do look for moments of surprise and/or delight.
“2) Ditto command of language and craft.
“3) Poems must be twenty lines or fewer (the paper is shrinking, like all papers).
“4) To be published, poems must also must conform to what the paper calls "family-friendly content." Recently, I tried to sneak in a poem by Cody Walker (from his book Shuffle & Breakdown) that included the word "crap." The editors caught it and made me pull it on deadline. Aw, crap.
“Finding 40 or so poems a year that fit #3 and #4 but also demonstrate #2 and glitter with #1 AND over the course of a year exhibit a range of aesthetic inclinations can be...difficult. I deeply appreciate contributors who understand the forces at work and don't take rejection personally.”
One last factor she mentioned: “When The Oregonian revived the Poetry column eleven years ago, the editors decided to limit submissions to Northwest writers and visiting poets. So, that part of the equation is taken care of for me.”
It seems a shame that none of our papers can find the space to print poems meeting similar guidelines. The papers do cover and write about the local cultural scene, they just don’t have the fiction component. I wonder why we don’t have our own version of The New Yorker here. Even a little publication, with a short story, a poem, a piece of art, some events, a few ads, would be sweet, wouldn’t it?