Craft

The maddening process of submitting poems

The latest .Haiku column for the Haiku Society of America focuses on “The maddening process of submitting poems.”

“Back in the day, submitting to poetry magazines was a very different beast. We formed support groups for each other because of the processes that editors required.”

The publication process brings every poet down at some point. But this column looks at the changes that have come about thanks to the Web and social media. In it, I also highlight some of my favorite publications that accept email submissions.

Please let me know what your favorites are, especially if they’re ones I didn’t mention!

Gene

This Post Has 4 Comments

  2. Hi Gene,
    From your Frogpond column:

    “All you need these days is an email address. Instead of using a spreadsheet to keep track of what poems were sent where and when, you can simply search your email sent box for keywords. It’s a streamlined, cheaper and less maddening process.”

    Yes, it’s all so much easier now with email submissions, but I’d still suggest that we all keep an updated record of poems submitted, accepted and published to avoid submitting poems already published, accepted or currently out on submission. I’d also suggest that before we submit to a particular journal, we ‘read the instructions on the paint tin’ …familiarize ourselves with the requirements, since they do vary between publications. Eg, if one of the requirements is that you include your name and country beneath your poems, then do so. Editors don’t want to guess and even if you’re famous in your home town, someone from somewhere else in the world might have the same name as you, or a similar one.

    As haiku editor for ‘A Hundred Gourds’ I’d like to bring this EL quarterly online journal to your attention. We have completed a successful first two years of publishing a wide range of haiku and related work and will begin our third year with the publication of issue 3.1 on December 1st.

    http://www.ahundredgourds.com/

    We have an international team:

    Haiku Editor – Lorin Ford (Australia)
    Haibun Editor – Mike Montreuil (Canada)
    Haiga Editor – Aubrie Cox (USA)
    Renku Editor – William Sorlien (USA)
    Tanka Editor – Susan Constable (Canada)
    Expositions Editor – Matthew Paul (UK)
    Resident Artist – Ron Moss (Australia)
    Webmaster – Jim Sullivan (USA)

    The journals I’ve come to submit my own haiku to more or less regularly are Acorn, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Paper Wasp (Australia), Presence (UK), Shamrock Haiku Journal (Ireland),Tinywords and The Heron’s Nest. A few more recent journals I’ve submitted my work to are Moongarlic (UK), Under the Basho (USA) and Windfall (Australia).

    cheers,
    Lorin

  4. Modern Haiku encourages email submissions. I loved the drama of receiving a SASE. An acceptance meant a crisp dollar bill along with the affirmation. The rejection… well, no dollar.
    Alas, I’ve gone paperless, and am coming to terms over the loss of the good old days.

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