Posted by Mike Melia , June 29, 2011
PBS NEWSHOUR- Art Beat
The Poetry Foundation opened its new home in Chicago last weekend. As it celebrates this achievement, we decided it would be fun to ask for people's stories about being rejected from the foundation's time-honored literary journal, Poetry magazine. If you're a writer and you've sent out work to journals, you know the feeling.
Poetry's long history includes publishing some of the first work by some very important poets: T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D. and William Carlos Williams, among others. Founded in 1912, it bills itself as "the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world."
It's also one of the most difficult to get into -- it publishes under 1 percent of what's submitted.
Art Beat asked a number of poets about their experiences being rejected and got a variety of responses. (For the record, the Poetry Foundation helps fund the PBS NewsHour.)
There are some lucky ones. Li-Young Lee has only submitted work once and he was accepted. Marie Ponsot told me she's shy about sending poems out to journals, but after publishing an acclaimed book, Poetry came looking for her. Others have labored for years, gained success in the poetry world, but still never made the magazine's pages.
Brian Spears is poetry editor for The Rumpus, but his experience has been like many others: "I sent poems in and I got a form rejection back. That's really it, I'm afraid." But Spears' experience has not deterred him. "I sent them poems (and will again) because it's one of the most prestigious magazines for poetry in the world, so you have to take your shot, even if it's unlikely you'll hit."
The magazine's own senior editor, Don Share, responded on Twitter that even he has been rejected.
Elizabeth Alexander, who read one of her poems at the inauguration of President Obama, told a panel led by the NewsHour's Jeff Brown at the opening of the Poetry Foundation's new building that she was rejected within the last year.
The rest
Poetry's long history includes publishing some of the first work by some very important poets: T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D. and William Carlos Williams, among others. Founded in 1912, it bills itself as "the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world." It's also one of the most difficult to get into -- it publishes under 1 percent of what's submitted.
Art Beat asked a number of poets about their experiences being rejected and got a variety of responses. (For the record, the Poetry Foundation helps fund the PBS NewsHour.)
There are some lucky ones. Li-Young Lee has only submitted work once and he was accepted. Marie Ponsot told me she's shy about sending poems out to journals, but after publishing an acclaimed book, Poetry came looking for her. Others have labored for years, gained success in the poetry world, but still never made the magazine's pages.
Brian Spears is poetry editor for The Rumpus, but his experience has been like many others: "I sent poems in and I got a form rejection back. That's really it, I'm afraid." But Spears' experience has not deterred him. "I sent them poems (and will again) because it's one of the most prestigious magazines for poetry in the world, so you have to take your shot, even if it's unlikely you'll hit."
The magazine's own senior editor, Don Share, responded on Twitter that even he has been rejected.
Elizabeth Alexander, who read one of her poems at the inauguration of President Obama, told a panel led by the NewsHour's Jeff Brown at the opening of the Poetry Foundation's new building that she was rejected within the last year.
The rest
No comments:
Post a Comment