Since Jen and Jay both write series of poems focused on a subject or persona, here's a question for those of you who do the same. How do you handle sending out poems that are obviously part of a series? Do you mix in a few non-series poems, or go whole-hog?
I'm super stoked that a poem from my series, "Saint Monica Stays the Course," will be appearing in an upcoming issue of Ninth Letter. Yay! I tend to put a few Monicas in with some non-Monicas, with a note about the series in my cover letter. What has worked for you?
PS--Big ups to Jessica Jewell who just got a poem taken by RHINO.
4 comments:
To tell the truth, nothing has ever worked for me when I try to send out poems which are part of a series. So much so, I just stopped mentioning it altogether. I simply send the poems and hope against hope editors see some connectionand are willing to take a chance on one of them.
The only exception to this was when I submitted to The Missouri Review, and that was because they want to see 10-20 pages.
I actually read cover letters only after the poems. I kinda don't want the preface or introduction--it's not like the reader of the journal is going to have that, so I just assume save it until after I've spent time with the poems.
If it's good the fact that it's part of a series doesn't matter to me.
thank you!!! yay!!! :)
and, as for the persona or series submissions, i usually don't mention it, unless someone asks. francine r. at nimrod asked if i was writing about the dust bowl, so i sent her my little standard excerpt, but usually i don't because i don't want anyone to think that i'm trying to explain something that the poems can't do. i don't know. i guess it depends on the journal. ha. big help that is!!!
I edited a little magazine called Karamu for about 5 years and didn't read cover letters much until after I had looked at the poems or stories.
If I liked the writing, I wanted to know something about the writer. If I didn't like it, I wanted to send it back pronto.
About my own poems, I tend not to mention that it's a part of a longer, larger work. All of the writing I do is pretty much about my parents and their experiences in the Nazi labor camps.
If I say that, I figure the editors will think that they need to read the other poems to get the story, and they probably will shut me out.
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