IRON ANGELS by Geoffrey Landis, ( Cleveland and Berlin CT; 2009,VanZero ) pb ISBN 978-0-9789244-7-8, $19.95, $15.00 if you order from the author directly at www.geoffreylandis.com/IronAngels.
Geoffrey is both a poet and a physicist, a combination that is not as rare as you might think. He has been active as a sf/f/h poet before ASIMOV'S became the major professional showcase for sf poetry.. He has been able to blend two distinct types of poetry into one, the poem of science and the science fiction poem. To refresh your memories, a poem of science is a poem about natural/scientific phenomena and/or the life of a scientist.while a science fiction poem is a narrative that uses the imagery and archetypes associated with science fiction. I know it sounds like the basic mix for an ANALOGUE story but its harder to do in poetry than in prose.
Anyway this is a collection worth having. Let me show by these two lines from the poem 'Search' which is about a young astronomer putting in the terribly long and endless hours in SETI research, the quest for extraterrestial intelligence.
'The telescope sends to him nothing but a string of numbers
His fingers are doing the scan..."
Landis very much a typical ANALOG writer, he is optimistic that knowledge ultimately leads to a better society.
This paragraph from the poem 'Into the Cool Cyberspace' in the collection sums up his work as a poet
"Our robots precede us
With infinite diversity
Exploring the universe
Delighting incomplexity.'
Anyway its a collection worth having. Buy it.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
THEY LOVE YOUR MONEY
I just cameback from an up to date website devoted to children's/YA markets, It has a very useful list of children/YA magazine markets but it seems really intent on inviting the money in your wallet to stay with them. Use them with caution.
A SUGGESTION
It has been suggested and I agree that anyone can workshop a poem if he or she wants. For my part I can tell iif the poem works for me. Contact me at sgreen@grolen.com and I shall post it with my comments at least. Try to keep the poems to a max of 20-25 lines for I have a passion for brevity.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
AN OBITUARY NOTE
SIMPLY HAIKU which was a mainstream haiku magazine that published a fair share of speculative poetry that has received DWARF STAR nominations has folded.
A PLETHORA OF MARKETS
An ebook imprint dark wine and stars is putting together several pod anthologies that are open to poetry though the rates are austere 5 cents per word. Go to their website for more details, http://www.darkwineandstars.com/ for details.
DASHING THROUGH THE SNOWS LOOKING FOR NEW MARKETS
MUSHING is a magazine devoted to all things about dog sledding. Their editor emailed me that they would consider poetry if its really very good. Email queries to info@mushing.com . BTW I have yet to find a paying market for cowboy poetry. Does anyone out there managed to rope one? Let me know.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
MARKET NEWS FOR MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
First let me say I get leads from a variety of sources but I always follow up with my own inquiries before I use the data.
The following markets are temporarilly closed to submissions; THE FUTURE FIRE, RAY GUN REVIVAL, SOMETHING WICKED, ELECTRIC VELOCIPEDE, ALTERNATIVE COORDINATES.
You can now submit to ON SPEC via email. onspecmag@gmail.com .
MEMBRA DISJECTA is not dead which is comforting.
The following markets are temporarilly closed to submissions; THE FUTURE FIRE, RAY GUN REVIVAL, SOMETHING WICKED, ELECTRIC VELOCIPEDE, ALTERNATIVE COORDINATES.
You can now submit to ON SPEC via email. onspecmag@gmail.com .
MEMBRA DISJECTA is not dead which is comforting.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
A LITTLE OF THIS AND THAT
First the Canadian sf magazine is open for submissions again. Secondly a weekly NZ magazine of politics and literature, a Kiwi vewrsion of the NEW REPUBLIC or NATIONAL REVIEW is a paying market for poetry. Its NEW ZEALAND LISTENER and its web site is http://www.listener.co.nz/ .
On another thought there is an ebook out on how to make money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! out of your blog. Its HOW TO MAKE A MONEY MAKING BLOG by Mike Seddon and its website for ordering is http://www.moneyforblogging.com/ and I presume you can order it through Amazon. If anyone has read it and wants to comment on it please feel free to post it at my blog.
On another thought there is an ebook out on how to make money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! out of your blog. Its HOW TO MAKE A MONEY MAKING BLOG by Mike Seddon and its website for ordering is http://www.moneyforblogging.com/ and I presume you can order it through Amazon. If anyone has read it and wants to comment on it please feel free to post it at my blog.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
STILL ANOTHER RESOURCE
http://www.textetc.com/ is just one of those web sites that are lists upon lists of web sites. In this case they are all resources for poets. I spent hours going through them especially the sites on rhyming. I am not terribly fond of rhyming but to me its a skill I have to work at.
A USEFUL SITE
http://www.poetrymachine.com/ is a useful site for finding poetry markets snd other useful data. The last update was Sept. 2008.
A CORRECTION IS IN ORDER
I made a boner of an error in the previous post.The Ashwood collection's title should be A MINSTREL'S MUSINGS .
TWO BOOK REVIEWS
CyberWizard Productions (1205 N. Saginaw Blvd, #D, PMB 224 Saginaw TX 76179) sent me two poetry collection titles from their Diminuendo Press imprint sent me two of their titles ,A MINSTREL'S TALES ( 2009, ISBN 978-0-9821352-9-7, pb, $8.00) by Sarah Ashwood and NIGHTSHIP TO NEVER ( 2009, ISBN 978-0-9821352-3-5,pb, $8.00 ) by David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Kendall Evans .
I did not like the Ashwood collection at all. First let me say that this was a general collection that happen to have a lot of poems in the high fantasy and historical genres. No matter what genre the poems gush with word and letter I. I have the sense that the poet is a new writer and she should have waited until her work matured but there are making of a good poet beneath all the purple prose. There are better collection in her future. After all Mike Resnick survived RED BEARD and that awful book he did on sf collecting for House of Collectibles.
Now on the other hand the Kopaska-Merkel/Evans collection is a terrific group of long hard sf narrative poems. I normally do not have the patience to read poems of more than thirty or forty lines. I sat down last night to read the collection and did not stop until I finished it. I cannot conceive higher praise. I wont single out a particular poem because they were all so good.
I did not like the Ashwood collection at all. First let me say that this was a general collection that happen to have a lot of poems in the high fantasy and historical genres. No matter what genre the poems gush with word and letter I. I have the sense that the poet is a new writer and she should have waited until her work matured but there are making of a good poet beneath all the purple prose. There are better collection in her future. After all Mike Resnick survived RED BEARD and that awful book he did on sf collecting for House of Collectibles.
Now on the other hand the Kopaska-Merkel/Evans collection is a terrific group of long hard sf narrative poems. I normally do not have the patience to read poems of more than thirty or forty lines. I sat down last night to read the collection and did not stop until I finished it. I cannot conceive higher praise. I wont single out a particular poem because they were all so good.
Friday, May 21, 2010
HALF AND HALF MARKET NEWS
The online horror magazine HORROR BOUND is not a paying market for any material including poetry but the print anthology projects are paying markets for work including poetry.
A REVELATION
I checked out a web directory of paying markets for poetry, http://www.fictionfactor.com/ and it was almost entirely sf/f/h markets and ones that I knew from http://www.ralan.com/. I keep surfing for web directories of paying markets for poetry and I find that most of them are two to five years out of date. At least when it comes to looking for specifically sf/f/h/mystery markets you might as well stick with http://www.ralan.com/ .
A RESOURCE
http://www.cowboypoet.org/ is a useful starting point if you have an interest to including cowboy poetry in your expanded repetoire as a poet.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
A USEFUL SITE
http://www.world-newspapers.com/ is a web site worth visiting and trolling for markets. A llot of useful links.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
ANOTHER MARKET NOTE
BIBLE ADVOCATE is the magazine of the 7th Day Adventists and like many denominational magazines is a paying market for poetry. Right now its filled for 2010 but starting in July its going to look at poems for 2011. For more details go to www.cog7.org/BA . BTW they do pay $20.00 per poem.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
WALL STREET COMES TO MY POCKET
If you are going to be making sales to foreign markets be prepared to pay humongois charges. I am an examiner for a distance learning MA. Creative Writing program of a small Irish college. They wired me a check for $138.oo and they assumed that $13 of that for fees and charges. When I got the receipt of the transfer it was for $101.20. I call my bank and all they could tell me was that the Bank which acted as the 'traffic cop' for this ,Bank of New York, would not tell me their fees thst they charged. AArrgghhh.
Monday, May 17, 2010
BOOK REVIEW, STRANGE VEGETABLES BY G. O. CLARK
STRANGE VEGETABLES by G. O. Clark (Colusa CA; 2009, Dark Regions) Its a pdf copy of the reviewed work and the ISBN # is incomplete. Cover price is $7.95. and you can order it at AMAZON as indeed you can order most of the titles I review.
Gary Clark is a speculative poet who is as comfortable with humor as the late great Ogden Nash. Most of the poems including the title poem are wry comments on popular culture and media with using the images from df/f/sf/h print media and films.
My favorite poem is the first poem in the collection,'Harpo's Pocket's' which comment on the endless supply of props that flow out of his pockets as well as his ability to crawl into his pockets
"...when Harpo
wanted a little privacy, he'd climb inside
one of his own pockets..."
The whole collection is of this quality and the collection is certainly worth the price. BTW the cover is a brillant piece by Wayne Miller.
Gary Clark is a speculative poet who is as comfortable with humor as the late great Ogden Nash. Most of the poems including the title poem are wry comments on popular culture and media with using the images from df/f/sf/h print media and films.
My favorite poem is the first poem in the collection,'Harpo's Pocket's' which comment on the endless supply of props that flow out of his pockets as well as his ability to crawl into his pockets
"...when Harpo
wanted a little privacy, he'd climb inside
one of his own pockets..."
The whole collection is of this quality and the collection is certainly worth the price. BTW the cover is a brillant piece by Wayne Miller.
SFPA HAS CONTEST FOR NEW POETS
The Science Fiction Poetry Association has a poetry contest for new poets New Poetry Contest The Art of Poetry. It is open to any poet who has made three or fewer paid sales. Posted on the SFPA forum, www.sfpoetry.com/forum/index are five works of art. Contest entrants must write a poem of 20 lines or less about one of the works of art in any of the following genres, sf/fantasy/horror/slipstream/poems of science. You cannot post more than one poem and have a limit of three entries. There are no entry fees and you do not have to be a SFPA member but you have to be registered with the SFPA forum. 1st prize is $10 and posting. My only critique is why ir does not include publication in Star*Line.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
COYOTE CON POETRY PANEL
As promised I went to the live online poetry panel discussion at the digital con CoyoteCon and I was not terribly happy with it. The three panelists Karen Newman, Lisa Snyder and political poet Victor Infante were very well prepared but so well prepared that they sounded rehearsed.
I came away with five major highlights and two minor highlights from the discussion.
MAJOR POINTS
1. Poets either write for the reading public or they write for public performances but its hard to do both. Literary devices such as alliteration and rhyme works for performances but turns off editors who prefer free verse and are averse to rhyme.
2. They used the word enjambret and I have no idea what it means.
3. Ezines and ebooks may be the future for sf/f/h poetry but the onrush of changing technology makes it hard to preserve work in what may soon be obsolete technology
4. Political poetry focuses today on the economy and race but rarely on either healthcare or the war
5. ASIMOV'S tends to publish mediocer poetry. Really? Sounds like what I use to say, an editor is terrible until he or she became brillant and started buying from me
Now for the minor points.
1. The format makes it easy for panelists to ignore unpopular or controversial questions
2. The format is slow and its not helped when a person who enters the chat room is announced and when a person leaving the chat room is indicated by the sound of a door closing abruptly.
There has to be a better way to do this online.
I came away with five major highlights and two minor highlights from the discussion.
MAJOR POINTS
1. Poets either write for the reading public or they write for public performances but its hard to do both. Literary devices such as alliteration and rhyme works for performances but turns off editors who prefer free verse and are averse to rhyme.
2. They used the word enjambret and I have no idea what it means.
3. Ezines and ebooks may be the future for sf/f/h poetry but the onrush of changing technology makes it hard to preserve work in what may soon be obsolete technology
4. Political poetry focuses today on the economy and race but rarely on either healthcare or the war
5. ASIMOV'S tends to publish mediocer poetry. Really? Sounds like what I use to say, an editor is terrible until he or she became brillant and started buying from me
Now for the minor points.
1. The format makes it easy for panelists to ignore unpopular or controversial questions
2. The format is slow and its not helped when a person who enters the chat room is announced and when a person leaving the chat room is indicated by the sound of a door closing abruptly.
There has to be a better way to do this online.
HURRAY ITS UP
There is now a poetry page at the web site of the Gunn Center for Science Fiction Research at the University of Kansas http://www.aboutsf.com/ and I am in charge of it. Ideas are welcomed .
Thursday, May 13, 2010
VERY GOOD NEWS
http://www.aboutsf.com/ is a web site maintained by the University of Kansas and is devoted to the teaching of science fiction and fantasy at all levels. I am now the director/editor/advisor of its poetry page and I plan to use it to illustrate the depth and width of sf/f/h poetry. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
A ZINE REVIEW COMMENT
I was invited to visit the web site of NEW MYTHS ezine, http://www.newmyths.com/ in order to read the one poem in the current issue ' Green Bird' by Marge Simon . However I do have a policy of not doing nagazine reviews unless it has at least three poems unless it is a twitterzine because the one or two poems may be the sole content of a twitterzine.
A MARKET NOTE
KALEIDOSCOPE is a journal dedicated to examining the experience of coping with handicaps through the arts. They pay $10.00 per poem. Query at kaleidoscope@usdakron.org attn Gail Wilmett.
SOME COMMENTS ON THE RHYSLING NOMINATIONS
If you are reading this blog you are probably familiar with the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA). You may also know that its annual award for best poetry of the year. Its divided into categories, long and short. In the begining mainstream poets whose work appeared in non-genre publications frequently won the award but now it is rare for a poem by a mainstream poem to be nominated let alone win.
In order for a poem to be nominated it must be nominated by a SFPA member. Each member is entitled to nominate one poem in each category. A poem only needs one nomination to be considered so there are lots of poems in the annual Rhysling anthology but you have to wonder why there aren't even more nominations.
Any way I am going to comment on where the nominees were originally published. 15 came from GOBLIN FRUIT a new df/h webzine that seems to have built a huge following in the small community of sf/f/h poetry. Following a close second is STAR*LINE which is the magazine of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and thus it is the one publication that every SFPA member reads. Coming in third at 8 nominations is STRANGE HORIZONS a leading sf/f webzine that also has a large list serve associated with it.
Fourth was the now defunct webzine FARRAGO'S WAINSCOTT with 6 nominations. The zine was a mainstream literary publication with many writers from the sf/f/h genres appearing in it
Tied for fifth with 5 nominations apiece was ASIMOV'S and the ezine ILLUMEN. For some reason I cannot fathom ASIMOV'S has never done well in the race for the Rhyslings AND THAT COULD BE SAID FOR ALL THE NEWSSTAND MAGAZINES. The same could be said for ILLUMEN.
At sixth with 4 nominations was MYTHIC DELERIUM a print prozine whose publisher is a past President of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, PAPER CROW is a biannual poetry print magazine that can be described either as sf/f/h zine that buys a lot of mainstream speculative work or a mainstream zine that buys a lot of genre work. The third one in this category is NEW MYTHS is a sf/f ezine.
Occupying 7th by itself with 3 nominations is the very long lasting DREAMS & NIGHTMARES which usually has many more Rhysling nominations and is a magazine that is widely read in the field
8th is somewhat more crowded with 2 nominationsare two defunct or about to be defunct df/h ezines NITEBLADE and DOORWAYS MAGAZINE, SCIFAIKUEST which is a zine that specialises in sf/f/h poetry that uses haiku and other Japanese forms. Considering the huge popularity of Japanese forms you expect more nominations from this title but really short poems rarely reach the Rhysling ballot. Lastly there is SYBIL'S GARAGE and IDEOMANCER that can be described the same way as the previously mentioned PAPER CROW.
Coming in 9th with single nominations is the MAGAZINE OF SPECULATIVE POETRY a long running magazine that is highly regarded but rarely makes much of an impact in the Rhyslings, THE MAYO REVIEW which is a mainstream literary annual from Texas A&M-Commerce, ASTROPOETICA which is an ezine that does poetry about stars and other astronomical phenomena, APEX a well known sf/f ezine, BARBARIC YAWP which is a personal blog, the speculative ezine LAYERS OF MAN/LIQUID IMAGINATION, WORDS OF POWER which I never heard of nor does googling reveal anything about it so post a comment if you know anything about it, SLOTH JOCKEY which is a mainstream speculative ezine published by an expatriate living in China, NOT ONE OF US which is a well regarded long running sf/f/h poetry printzine that like the MAGAZINE OF SPECULATIVE POETRY rarely makes an impact in Rhysling nominations,SPACE AND TIME which is the first small press sf/f/h magazine starting in 1964 and inexplicably does not fare well in Rhysling nominations, ABYSS & APEX which is a fairly well known sf/f ezine, CHIZINE a well known Canadian sf/f ezine, CABINET DES FEES is an exine devoted to retelling of fairey tales;,TWIST COLLECTIVE,POET'S ESPRESSO and HOT METAL PRESS are general literary ezine. ALI ALIZADEH is a personal blog for the writer of the same name.
At a later post I shall comment on the ten nominees that appeared in anthologies or collections.
In order for a poem to be nominated it must be nominated by a SFPA member. Each member is entitled to nominate one poem in each category. A poem only needs one nomination to be considered so there are lots of poems in the annual Rhysling anthology but you have to wonder why there aren't even more nominations.
Any way I am going to comment on where the nominees were originally published. 15 came from GOBLIN FRUIT a new df/h webzine that seems to have built a huge following in the small community of sf/f/h poetry. Following a close second is STAR*LINE which is the magazine of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and thus it is the one publication that every SFPA member reads. Coming in third at 8 nominations is STRANGE HORIZONS a leading sf/f webzine that also has a large list serve associated with it.
Fourth was the now defunct webzine FARRAGO'S WAINSCOTT with 6 nominations. The zine was a mainstream literary publication with many writers from the sf/f/h genres appearing in it
Tied for fifth with 5 nominations apiece was ASIMOV'S and the ezine ILLUMEN. For some reason I cannot fathom ASIMOV'S has never done well in the race for the Rhyslings AND THAT COULD BE SAID FOR ALL THE NEWSSTAND MAGAZINES. The same could be said for ILLUMEN.
At sixth with 4 nominations was MYTHIC DELERIUM a print prozine whose publisher is a past President of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, PAPER CROW is a biannual poetry print magazine that can be described either as sf/f/h zine that buys a lot of mainstream speculative work or a mainstream zine that buys a lot of genre work. The third one in this category is NEW MYTHS is a sf/f ezine.
Occupying 7th by itself with 3 nominations is the very long lasting DREAMS & NIGHTMARES which usually has many more Rhysling nominations and is a magazine that is widely read in the field
8th is somewhat more crowded with 2 nominationsare two defunct or about to be defunct df/h ezines NITEBLADE and DOORWAYS MAGAZINE, SCIFAIKUEST which is a zine that specialises in sf/f/h poetry that uses haiku and other Japanese forms. Considering the huge popularity of Japanese forms you expect more nominations from this title but really short poems rarely reach the Rhysling ballot. Lastly there is SYBIL'S GARAGE and IDEOMANCER that can be described the same way as the previously mentioned PAPER CROW.
Coming in 9th with single nominations is the MAGAZINE OF SPECULATIVE POETRY a long running magazine that is highly regarded but rarely makes much of an impact in the Rhyslings, THE MAYO REVIEW which is a mainstream literary annual from Texas A&M-Commerce, ASTROPOETICA which is an ezine that does poetry about stars and other astronomical phenomena, APEX a well known sf/f ezine, BARBARIC YAWP which is a personal blog, the speculative ezine LAYERS OF MAN/LIQUID IMAGINATION, WORDS OF POWER which I never heard of nor does googling reveal anything about it so post a comment if you know anything about it, SLOTH JOCKEY which is a mainstream speculative ezine published by an expatriate living in China, NOT ONE OF US which is a well regarded long running sf/f/h poetry printzine that like the MAGAZINE OF SPECULATIVE POETRY rarely makes an impact in Rhysling nominations,SPACE AND TIME which is the first small press sf/f/h magazine starting in 1964 and inexplicably does not fare well in Rhysling nominations, ABYSS & APEX which is a fairly well known sf/f ezine, CHIZINE a well known Canadian sf/f ezine, CABINET DES FEES is an exine devoted to retelling of fairey tales;,TWIST COLLECTIVE,POET'S ESPRESSO and HOT METAL PRESS are general literary ezine. ALI ALIZADEH is a personal blog for the writer of the same name.
At a later post I shall comment on the ten nominees that appeared in anthologies or collections.
MAINSTREAM MARKET NOTE
MASSACHUSETTS REVIEW is an independent literary quarterly. They pay $35.00 minimum for poems. Boy those Adams and Lodges still have dough to spare. Submission info can be found at http://www.massreview.com/ .
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
NEWS FROM CANADA
Two Canadian publishers,Sandra Kasturi of Chizine Publishing http://www.chizinepub.com/ and Halli Villegas of Tightropebooks http://www.tightropebooks.com/ announced they would be publishing a 'Best of' anthology for Canadian sf/f/h/spec/whatever writers or if they are Canadian residents who had their work published anywhere in the world and calledIMAGINATION 2001; BEST CANADIAN SPECULATIVE WRITING. Its web site is http://www.specfic.webs.com/ . Yes its open to poetry and pays $20 CDN for poetry.
REVIEW
SPORES FROM SHARNOTH AND OTHER MADNESSES by Leigh Blackmere (Sydney; 2008,Prea )
ISBN 978-0-9804625-2-4 $13.50 AUS Overseas customers should contact the publisher at DannyL58@hotmail.com .
This is essentially the professional debut of an Australian poet who specialises in poetry in the weird tradition. especially sonnets set in Lovecraft's universe His work shows a close and strong devotion to the Lovecraft tradition. However he has no hesitation to go beyond Lovecraft and sonnets in writing excellent poetry of the weird. My favorite poem in the collection is a haiku.
'Alone'
The dripping tallow
Wail of child in distant dark
The laughter of fear
If you love Lovecraft and admire formal poetic form and structure then this professional debut collection must be in your collection.
ISBN 978-0-9804625-2-4 $13.50 AUS Overseas customers should contact the publisher at DannyL58@hotmail.com .
This is essentially the professional debut of an Australian poet who specialises in poetry in the weird tradition. especially sonnets set in Lovecraft's universe His work shows a close and strong devotion to the Lovecraft tradition. However he has no hesitation to go beyond Lovecraft and sonnets in writing excellent poetry of the weird. My favorite poem in the collection is a haiku.
'Alone'
The dripping tallow
Wail of child in distant dark
The laughter of fear
If you love Lovecraft and admire formal poetic form and structure then this professional debut collection must be in your collection.
Monday, May 10, 2010
THREE MORE BOOK REVIEWS
RICHARD L. TIERNEY ; A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CHECKLIST by Charles Lovecraft, (Sydney; P'rea,2008) pb ISBN9780980462500. Copies can be ordered from the imprint's sole US dealer that I have posted earler.
If you are a serious collector of genre poetry or of writers in the 'Weird Tales' tradition or a serious collector of writers who work in the Lovecraft canon then this is a necessary part of your research library. What more can be said.
EMPERORS OF DREAMS SOME NOTES ON WEIRD POETRY by S. T. Joshi (Sydney; P'rea,2008) pb ISBN9780980462531 Copies can be ordered from the imprint's sole us dealer that I have posted before.
Joshi is one of the leading scholars on weird fiction and poetry and on Lovecraft and his circle in particular. The book is a collection of esays on six major poets of the weird; George Sterling, Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, Samuel Loveman, Donald Wandrei and Frank Belknap Long plus a short essay on some more recent poets of the weird.
This is an important book on several levels . The most important from my perspective is that before World War II there was considerable overlap between mainstream commercial and literary poetry and poets who were more focused on genre and popular fiction markets. Smith and Loveman were particularlly individuals who acted as links between some parts of the mainstream poetry community in America, especially the San Francisco writers and poets who wrote for the popular and pulp magazines, especially WEIRD TALES. I wish I had read this book before I blogged about how poetry in America is a collection of ghettoes that do very little communicating with each other. I never appreciated the linkage among different communities of poets before World War II that seems so minimal today except for those who use haiku and other Japanese forms. If I had a quibble I think Wandrei could have been dropped and an essay on Lorraine Lillith put in place or perhaps on the small group of women poets who wrote for WEIRD TALES and then continued with F&SF after the war. To me Wandrei was more famous as the writer who didn't do work for forty-five years than for his actual output.
As far as I can tell Sterling had no direct contacts with poets of the weird beyond being a protege od Ambrose Bierce. His importance comes from the impact his work had genre poets. Loveman wrote and met many poets of the weird including Lovecraft but his own work appeared in mainstream and literary publications and never in genre or pulp publications with the exception of Lovecraft's own amateur magazine THE CONSERVATIVE.
I loved this book and hope that Joshi expands it into a general history of weird and horror poetry. My only problem and this is being egotistical is that he did not use my book CONTEMPORARY ,SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY AND HORROR POETRY ; A RESOURCE GUIDE AND BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY (Westport CT; 1989,Greenwood)
And now for a book that I disliked intensely.
AMERICAN RENDERING by Andrew Hudgins (Boston; 2010, Houghton Mifflin) ISBN 978-0-547-24962-9
Yes I know that Hudgins is considered a major star in mainstream American poetry. That also means that his work is well crafted stuff about himself, his family and of course all that is wrong woth America. Now I do admit to watching THE O REILY FACTOR on Fox but I balance it off with watching that saucy Rachel Maddow (and she is my favorite pundit) on MSNBC. I am a retired politician who reads magazines of all political stripes, (MOTHER JONES, NATIONAL REVIEW, NEW REPUBLIC) AND i APPRECIATE THAT THEY ALONG WITH OTHER POLITICAL MAGAZINES PUBLISH POETRY BUT I FIND THAT POEMS IN POLITICAL MAGAZINES ARE EMINENTLY FORGETTABLE. There I feel better now but I still dislike the Hudgins collection.
I do plan to review non-sf/f/h poetry collections from time to timw and maybe I shall like some of them. After all I did enjoy the movie 'JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS.
If you are a serious collector of genre poetry or of writers in the 'Weird Tales' tradition or a serious collector of writers who work in the Lovecraft canon then this is a necessary part of your research library. What more can be said.
EMPERORS OF DREAMS SOME NOTES ON WEIRD POETRY by S. T. Joshi (Sydney; P'rea,2008) pb ISBN9780980462531 Copies can be ordered from the imprint's sole us dealer that I have posted before.
Joshi is one of the leading scholars on weird fiction and poetry and on Lovecraft and his circle in particular. The book is a collection of esays on six major poets of the weird; George Sterling, Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, Samuel Loveman, Donald Wandrei and Frank Belknap Long plus a short essay on some more recent poets of the weird.
This is an important book on several levels . The most important from my perspective is that before World War II there was considerable overlap between mainstream commercial and literary poetry and poets who were more focused on genre and popular fiction markets. Smith and Loveman were particularlly individuals who acted as links between some parts of the mainstream poetry community in America, especially the San Francisco writers and poets who wrote for the popular and pulp magazines, especially WEIRD TALES. I wish I had read this book before I blogged about how poetry in America is a collection of ghettoes that do very little communicating with each other. I never appreciated the linkage among different communities of poets before World War II that seems so minimal today except for those who use haiku and other Japanese forms. If I had a quibble I think Wandrei could have been dropped and an essay on Lorraine Lillith put in place or perhaps on the small group of women poets who wrote for WEIRD TALES and then continued with F&SF after the war. To me Wandrei was more famous as the writer who didn't do work for forty-five years than for his actual output.
As far as I can tell Sterling had no direct contacts with poets of the weird beyond being a protege od Ambrose Bierce. His importance comes from the impact his work had genre poets. Loveman wrote and met many poets of the weird including Lovecraft but his own work appeared in mainstream and literary publications and never in genre or pulp publications with the exception of Lovecraft's own amateur magazine THE CONSERVATIVE.
I loved this book and hope that Joshi expands it into a general history of weird and horror poetry. My only problem and this is being egotistical is that he did not use my book CONTEMPORARY ,SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY AND HORROR POETRY ; A RESOURCE GUIDE AND BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY (Westport CT; 1989,Greenwood)
And now for a book that I disliked intensely.
AMERICAN RENDERING by Andrew Hudgins (Boston; 2010, Houghton Mifflin) ISBN 978-0-547-24962-9
Yes I know that Hudgins is considered a major star in mainstream American poetry. That also means that his work is well crafted stuff about himself, his family and of course all that is wrong woth America. Now I do admit to watching THE O REILY FACTOR on Fox but I balance it off with watching that saucy Rachel Maddow (and she is my favorite pundit) on MSNBC. I am a retired politician who reads magazines of all political stripes, (MOTHER JONES, NATIONAL REVIEW, NEW REPUBLIC) AND i APPRECIATE THAT THEY ALONG WITH OTHER POLITICAL MAGAZINES PUBLISH POETRY BUT I FIND THAT POEMS IN POLITICAL MAGAZINES ARE EMINENTLY FORGETTABLE. There I feel better now but I still dislike the Hudgins collection.
I do plan to review non-sf/f/h poetry collections from time to timw and maybe I shall like some of them. After all I did enjoy the movie 'JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
SUBMISHMASH
There is a web service site for both print and web magazines and publishers called Submishmash. You submit via the site rather than emailing submissions directly. What do you folks think of it? On another note I got a few remarks about submitting to twitterzines and the only thing they are saying that respomse to submissions is often two days oe less.
Friday, May 7, 2010
A NEW RESOURCE
In the course of my research I discovered a dicussion board devoted to writing for twitterzines, its http://www.twitfic.com/ . I shall refrain from making available to you folks all the gags running through my head but I still want to hear about people's experience with twitterzines.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
APEX OPEN FOR BUSINESS AGAIN WITH NEW GUIDELINES
APEX MAGAZINE, http://www.apexbookscompany.com/ is again open to submissions and it has new guidelines. So check it out.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
VENTING
Is it just me or do other poets get really aggravated when an editor of an anthology or periodical tell you they dont buy poetry because they dont know what is good. I always say to them that 'buy what you like and dont buy what you dislike'. Perhaps that is not helpful. Anyway I want your comments on why editors seem reluctant to buy poetry.
Monday, May 3, 2010
MEOWING FOR BUCKS
HAZARD CAT is an ongoing blogzine that buys any genre poem, prose piece or art as long as it is about cats. Pays through PayPal $5 pfor poems. Perhaps I can come up with a cowboy poem about Snagglepuss vs Gabby Hayes or a prose poem based on a scene from 'Madmen' that has the Pink Pamther as one of the principal characters. Suffering Succotash what ideas are popping in my mind.
TWO GHETTOS THAT SHOULD OVERLAP
Today I was browsing through the 2010 PUSHCART Prize anthology and I was struck by the fact that despite the efforts of a few poets like Bruce Boston, Peter Payack and Bob Frazier that there is little overlap between mainstream litwerary poetry and sf/f/h poetry. No Rhysling nominee unless he or she was an established literary poet received special mention with the exception of Bruce Boston but his special mention was in fiction !!!! The only genre imprint that was active in the Pushcart process was DarkScribe.
On the other hand many of the published nominees had strong speculative elements. I also noted that other niche content and/or form poetry ranging from cowboy poetry to haiku and other Asian forms also seem underrepresented in the Pushcart process. I want tu hear your thoughts on the lack of interaction between two ghettos.
On the other hand many of the published nominees had strong speculative elements. I also noted that other niche content and/or form poetry ranging from cowboy poetry to haiku and other Asian forms also seem underrepresented in the Pushcart process. I want tu hear your thoughts on the lack of interaction between two ghettos.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
USEFUL NEW NEWS
ASIMOV'S is finally allowing electronic submissions..Go to their website for how to do it
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