Incendiary Lit

So I hope you have your Poet’s Market dog-eared, Duotrope and New Pages bookmarked, and a pantsload of postage ready. To refresh on what you really need to submit: a manilla envelope large enough to not have to fold your submission (it’s a professionalism thing, which I learned from an editor at the Iowa Review, thank you Nic, for helping a yound writer out) a standard business sized envelope (for your Self Addressed and Stamped Envelope. (That’s right, M. Doughty, join the 5% Nation of SASE), a brief cover letter that says the bare essentials of information for your submission (name, address, phone, email, like a 30 word bio, the titles of the piece(s) submitted, and you know, a little schmoozing goes a long ways. Now, don’t go overboard and gush and gush about a journal you’ve never read, but if you have read it before and can remember a piece from it, mention liking it. It’s just a little coutesy to the editors who have no clue if people are liking what they’ve chosen to include. Or, if you are familiar with an editor’s work, let them know what you liked. As a writer myself, I know the very few times I’ve ever heard about my work I’ve glowed about the compliment. It’s a rare thing to get an unsolicited compliment about your writing, and editors are people and writers too. Be kind to them. Great Writing- If you haven’t read much contemporary poetry, or fiction, try to read a copy of the journal you’re submitting to. Now, with the smaller journals especially, it can be hard to get ahold of one, and buying 20 different sample copies may be a little difficult, but at least, at least read a couple sample pieces on the journal’s website. Most have a couple posted to cut down on the inappropriate submissions. I’ve been guilty of submitting inappropriate work to journals, I think it’s part of the trial and error style of submissions that most novice writers go through before they learn the ropes from either an editor, a fellow writer, or another source (I highly recommend Poet’s Market for poets. It’s a tactile, and very helpful source that you can flip through while bored. It even lists a few writers who’ve been published there, so you can have something of a gauge even before you read it what they like, though most journals are ridiculously ecclectic. And finally, stamps. Here’s a simple guide: it is $1.17 for 3 ounces first class postage for your large manilla envelope along with a single page cover letter (for your own bennefit, don’t even come close to hitting a second page), and 6 more pieces of paper. Be it four single page pieces and one 2-pager, one six page piece, or whatever, 7 total pieces of paper. If it’s one more piece of paper you have to add an additional $.17 stamp. If you have 15 pieces, again, add another $.17 stamp, and so forth. Get these stamps from the post office, or wait in line to weight each envelop and mail them like that if you’re unsure about the postage. And never send it certified… journals don’t sign for submissions. It’s just not how they do it. Trust in the USPS, at least a little. And finally, you need some understanding of the journal publishing world. You don’t need experience, but knowledge that most journals can only (and I mean they only have the page space possible, regardless of quality) accept under 10% of the work submitted to them. So there will be a lot of rejection. Even famous writers… David Kirby’s poem “At the Grave of Harold Goldstein” was rejected on 17 separate occasions before it was finally accepted at Parnassus, and then it went on to be selected for that year’s Best American Poetry. So don’t let some rejection bother you. Maybe it had been an especially competitive month, or year even. Journals will get spikes in good submissions some years, and the bar for acceptance will be significantly higher. Sometimes you’ll have an editor in a bad mood, or if you’re lucky, a good mood. Editors are people too, and they are flawed, and subjective. Realize that, and be cool about it. I’ve probably got at least 300 rejections in my files. Maybe more. It happens. But it makes those acceptances all the sweeter. Have at it guys. Get organizing and figure out who you want to send which pieces. Huzzah!

Emma Bolden is a poet, playwright, teacher and editor. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence and an MFA from University of North Carolina, Wilmington; her poems have appeared in MARGIE, Verse, and Briar Cliff Review among others (including winning the Georgetown Review’s 2007 fiction prize); her newest chapbook The Mariner’s Wife was published in 2008 by Finishing Line Press, and first chapbook How to Recognize a Lady appeared in the chapbook quartet Edge by Edge; and her her one-act, Drinks, was selected as the winner of the American Theatre Co-Op’s Winter 2004 Contest for Original One-Act Plays. She will be assuming poetry editorship of the Georgetown Review this fall. And, she updates the world on her life and writing and whatnot at A Century of Nerve.

Zebulon Huset: Do you have a favorite two-word color?
Emma Bolden: Pearl gray.

ZH: Do you have any tricks that you use when a particular word in a poem just doesn’t feel right?
EB: Sometimes, I just sit and stare at the word for a very long time.  Sometimes, I change it, and then sit and stare at the new word for a very long time.  This process tends to repeat itself ad infinitum, until I finally find a word that feels right.  When I can’t find a word that feels right, even after said process repeats itself ad infinitum, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve.  I am sadly dependent upon the online thesaurus.  I have a collection of odd books lying around, most of which are very old, and I’ll sometimes pick a word randomly from one of those books.  It’s a trick I picked up from OuLiPo, and often shakes the text up enough so that I can see where things need to go, or it gives me a new vision for the work.

ZH: If you were stranded on a desert island what three movies (or books or CDs) would you bring (with the island’s magical cd/dvd player in mind, I guess)?
EB: The three movies I’d bring are Spinal Tap, Dr. Strangelove (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), and The Graduate.  The three CDs I’d bring are Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, and Radiohead’s OK Computer.  The three books would be Emily Dickinson’s complete works, T.S. Eliot’s complete works, and Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping.

ZH: If an actress was to play you in a movie, who would you want it to be?
EB: Oh, Emma Thompson.  Definitely.

ZH: Do you have any tips for writers just beginning to submit their work for publication?
EB: Read the magazine!  I know it’s the most common piece of advice, but I think it’s the most important.  At the very least, read the work samples on the journal’s website.  It can tell you a lot about what they’re looking for.

ZH: If you could only ever read the books of one author again, who would it be?
EB: Hm.  This is an especially difficult question, so I think I’m going to have to cheat.  If I could only ever read the books of one poet again, it’d have to be Emily Dickinson — I’ve read her poems hundreds of times, but am always surprised by something new — or Anne Carson, who I think is one of the most brilliant minds at work today, if not the most brilliant.  If I could only ever read the books of one fiction writer again, it’d be Margaret Atwood.

ZH: Do you have any guilty pleasure books/movies?
EB: I have to admit that I absolutely love Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls and Once Is Not Enough.  I also loved the Joan Crawford movie Straight Jacket.

ZH: What was the last book (or poem) that you’ve absolutely loved?
EB: Louise Gluck’s Averno – it’s a powerful, affecting, complicated, and gorgeously written collection.  I read it months ago and am still wrestling with it, which is when I know a book is really doing its job.  I also loved Beth Ann Fennelly’s Tender Hooks, which is powerful and unflinching and beautifully done.

ZH: What is the best title you’ve come across (actual work notwithstanding)?
EB: Sad Little Breathing Machine — and the actual work is even better than the title.

ZH: Writers are notoriously neurotic, do you have any particular writing-related tics, or have you seen any interesting tics in fellow writers?
EB: The most interesting tic I’ve ever heard about — though this might be a myth (I almost hope it is) — is of a writer who could only write while eating green apples.  That sounds like a stomach ache waiting to happen to me.  I write poetry long-hand, which many people think is crazy.  I always write with a particular kind of pen (Pilot Precise V5 Rolling Ball Pens, Extra Fine, to be exact) and in a particular kind of notebook (those old school composition books you can find for 90 cents at an office supply store).  I tend to write at night, and I have to be alone, in a quiet room.  I never actually realized how particular I am about writing until I answered this question …

ZH: As a Master of the Fine Arts, do you have any advice for writers planning on applying to MFA programs this coming winter?
EB: Steel yourself.  Remember that the most important part about an MFA program is developing your own voice and learning, for yourself, what it means to be a writer.  Remember that this means “for the rest of your life” — only a fraction of your life as a writer will be spent in an MFA program.  Therefore, I think the most important thing to learn as an MFA student is how to work independently — that is, learning and developing the patterns of life and of mind that will allow you to work as a writer after the MFA program.  As important as my classes and workshops were, I think that the most essential work I did as a graduate student happened outside of the classroom, as I studied and wrote and revised on my own.

ZH: You’ve successfully navigated the path from MFA to teaching, do you have any tips for current MFA students who are hoping to teach?
EB: I’d encourage them to remember that good teachers are immersed in their subject, in and out of the classroom — in order to teach well, it’s important that you’re immersed in the work you’re meant to teach.  I’d advise them to not be overwhelmed by the day-to-day problems that occur in the classroom.  There will be challenges, and those challenges will be significant, but I am grateful for each and every problem that’s popped up in the classroom, as it taught me more about what it means to be a teacher, and how to teach effectively.  Remember that your students are human beings, just like you, with their own interests and issues and challenges and concerns.  And don’t be afraid to be a human being in the classroom yourself — in writing classes, I’ve often found that the most helpful thing for a student is to share your own struggles with them.

These cover letters are fairly similar to the cover letters in Poet’s Market, which are pretty simple templates but helpful for those just starting to submit to literary magazines.

Click here to see the post at Poetic Asides.

There’s a couple ways to do it, but the easiest is this: before each paragraph you want indented type<p style=”text-indent: 2em;”> before it, and </p> after it in the html, or code editor tab (as opposed to ‘visual’). Simple as that. I suggest typing everything up without it, then copy/pasting the longer string, and typing the </p> at the end of each paragraph.

So they’ll be indented. Huzzah!

OK, Day 1 is all about being prepared for this intricate sequence, so to prepare for that, let’s remember the fun of rhyming, rhythm and repetition. Let’s assume you’re writing Shakespearean Sonnets, with a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG, though there are other forms, here’s a few options with some info about the forms. But I’m going to be leading you through the English Sonnet Crown, or Shakespearean or whatever you want to call it. Let’s start out with standard sonnet rules:

1) Iambic pentameter. “The cow will jump again, the next mid-day.” It’s like a heartbeat- ba-Duh, ba-Duh, ba-Duh, ba-Duh, ba-Duh. Five poetic feet (metric units) of two syllables, the first un-stressed, the second stressed. As in: when in doubt, sound it out. Say the words aloud and find out where the stresses are. Many recent sonneteers have included lots of alternate metric plans, or a lack of plan, substituted for a syllabic line organization. What that means, if you don’t follow, is that instead of worrying about what syllable is stressed, they stress about making sure the line has ten total syllables, stresses be damned.

2) Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG- that simple. (A) rhymes with (A) , each letter represents a line’s ending word.

3) Turn: This isn’t an absolute necessity, but many sonnets have a turn around lines 8-9… just past what would be the first octave in the Italian sonnet. What is a turn? It’s when the poem takes what it’d done in the beginning of the poem and changes its direction slightly, it turns the poem so that it isn’t completely predictable. It’s the turning over of the leaf, the brilliant orange is brown underneath. If you want your sonnets to have a non-traditional approach to the turn, though, go for it!

Now, a Heroic Crown of sonnets is 15 related sonnets, usually dealing with slightly different aspects of the same subject. For the sake of this experiment, we’ll base our crown around an event. First, though, we have to consider the amount of rhyming we’ll need to do. Each poem’s ending line must have two other rhyming words within the surrounding poems (the final couplet’s pair, and the opening ABAB of the next poem) as well as having to rhyme in poem 15, which means that there needs to be 2 sets of that rhyme, with 3 separate combinations for that rhyme. We’ll do the actual crunching of numbers tomorrow.

As the rules of the crown say that there’s a repetition of last/first lines that links the poems to each other. This means that the last line of poem one is the same as the first line of poem two. then the last line of poem two is the first line of poem three and so on, poem 14 begins with the last line of poem 13, then ends with the first line from page 1. Poem 15 is a combination of all first lines. So it only makes sense to work backwards. To facilitate this repetition without seeming, well, repetitive, there is a lot of forethought required. Today’s task is research. Find 20 of the following: Homonyms (search Alan Cooper’s Homonym list free online here) Groups of 3 interesting rhyming words (my favorite rhyming dictionary is RhymeZone) which, if at all possible, have some sort of link between them besides rhyming; and also come up with 25 different possible perspectives for one event. Think the opinion of animals and inanimate objects as well as people, and don’t feel stifled by time or space or living or dead or anything. You’ll only need at most 15 of these for the final product, but having a surplus is nice when you’re narrowing down the larger implications and suggestions of the piece. You’ll find patterns in the rhymes, perspectives and homonyms that will hopefully drive a few of those earlier poems to their home. Work on that for now. We’ll begin working on forming Poem 15 tomorrow.

Why not, right? Go to Poetry Blog Rankings and start up an account, then go here and vote for Incendiary Lit as the greatest, of allllllll time. Word to your mother. We’ve finally gotten relocated, so the posts should be picking up soon.

I always hear people talking about their daily “writing time” which is a designated time of the day in which they sit everyday and try to write. Some even say they can’t write outside of their “time.” I’ve even heard of special writing outfits that people wear. Maybe I’m just strange, but I write whenever I get an idea, if I can. People at work are always asking me what I’m writing. During lectures at school I’d often catch a phrase or see something out the window and just jot it down. Details, especially. I think that’s key for any writers who don’t have amazing memories, as many of us don’t. As many concrete details as possible. It’s hard to stress enough the importance of concrete imagery in a piece. Fiction as well. There are few things like a well placed, concise and interesting image. And by concise I don’t necessarily mean in three words or less, but not a paragraph long description.

Does anyone else have a specific “writing time” or “outfit” or anything they have to have to write?