Poetry Writing & Submitting

Sep 9

Happy Wednesday!

Today I am writing about poetry. These tips and stories will cover writing, themes, publishing, and submission techniques. When I was a student for my BA in creative writing, I studied a little bit of poetry and I was an editor and reader on the college's Poetry Review.

ALSO everything I say about publishing and submitting here can be used for all types of writing--poetry, fiction, creative-nonfiction, etc.

Before I begin...

I want to touch lightly on how to receive critiques and criticism. Poetry has a lot to do with emotions and strong feelings (sometimes) so this is something that needs to be brought up first.

When you create something, you are very attached to it. That's normal! I've sat in many classes where a professor explains how a type or subject of writing should be avoided unless you have something new to say about it. Aka, avoid cliches. Let's say you constantly write in that cliche, it's easy to feel defensive and think everyone is attacking your writing. They are not. I used to be very emotional about my writing. But, in critiques and workshops, I learned to look at it with perspective, taking advice with a clear mind and turning to my writing objectively.

If you ever feel yourself getting defensive, take a deep breath and try to clear your head. Being defensive will stunt the possibilities of your growth as a writer because you will not be receptive or even listening to the ideas and advice put before you...

That's my food for thought! Next week I'll talk about criticisms more, what is good advice, and what is not. Being objective towards your writing and work opens you to the world of editing and revisions.

What to Write

When you think of poetry, I'm sure love, heartbreak, the wind in the trees... all of this comes to mind. Poetry can be a place to vent your emotions, or try to cope. But, there is more to it than that.

A professor of mine told us, don't write only about love, hate, anger, fear, happiness... (writing about real--not cheesy-- happiness is very hard for some reason!). Everyone writes about these things. You want to create something unique to you, something that hasn't already been said. Reading poems about these topics may be relatable and a quick way to your readers' heart, but it is not special, nor does it stand out from other works. You need to make your work stand out from the crowd! You are a poet, invent new ideas to your heart's content. These themes come out as cliche unless you tie them to something specific in your life. 100 poets publish 100 poems about heartbreak. How can you make yours different?

I recommend practicing with smaller and more specific themes. You want to grab a detail and grind all the words out of it that you can. Working with big themes, you run the risk of being vague and unoriginal. For example, try writing about a chair or that scrap of paper on the floor. Heck, one of my favorite poems is about someone's laundry/ washing machine (and its a metaphor for lost love! See, that's different because it was tied to something specific so that is already a much more interesting read than writing about love in general.)

Submissions

Submitting your poetry is a great way to gain experience, build a resume/ portfolio, and achieve the dream of being a published poet. My advice? Submit everywhere! Literary journals/ magazines, poetry reviews, anthologies, and more. These kind of publications can be in print and online. Journals take poetry, art, photographs, and more.

I will touch on why to submit, how, where, and some perspectives on submissions.

I personally am a lazy submitter. I try to submit to three journals a day which is 21 submissions a week, 90 ish submissions a month... but I never make it past two weeks of submitting.

A classmate of mine, an accomplished poet, was getting published often. He recently printed his own chap book, a collection of poetry, as well. He finally talked about this experience in class. "It's because I am obsessed with poetry," he said. "I don't talk about myself too often, but this is all I do. It is everything I put my energy into." He would submit a single poem to over 80 journals and only then he would get published. ... this puts things into perspective.

What I'm trying to say, is don't get discouraged. Every publication is looking for something specific or different. The reader judging your poem could be having a bad day and not accept anything, maybe you wrote about a topic they don't like--your rejection can be as simple as that.

That's just how it is. So, be sure to keep on submitting more and more to get that first publication.

How to Get Published and How to Submit

To begin, make an account on Submittable.com. Submittable is a platform that allows writers to easily submit their works to millions of journals and magazines. If you want to submit anywhere, you have to use this account.

Submittable also lets you search places to submit and keep track of your submissions. When you begin your search, adjust the filters to be "poetry" and "no fee" --you do not want to submit to journals that want you to pay for a submission. This is literally a rip off and if you are submitting to 80 or more journals... that isn't feasible either.

When you submit, here are a few things to do:

Submit cover letter
Submit a bio
Adjust font and format
Take your name off your poem

*Posting your poems and work online is seen as a form of publication. If you have posted a poem online, you can't have it posted in a published journal. They want only new and unseen works. As always, I really stress, do not post anything you wish to be published one day. That's why I can never share my poems or my book! T___T But it'll all be worth it in the end when publication is a reality.

Bio and Cover Letter

When submitting, you usually have to make a small bio or cover letter. Write these in the third person. Say who you are, where you have published, and if you have any degrees or higher ed, list that. For bios, keep it brief, and you can say whatever you would like. The bio is what gets published in the index of the journal if your poem is selected.

Sample cover letter:

NAME is an emerging/professional writer/poet with a BA in creative writing from Sample University. She has published two poetry reviews in... (list poems published by title and where they were published.)

Thank you for your consideration,

NAME

Sample bio:

NAME can often be found hiking or enjoying a nice cup of tea when she isn't writing. With a BA from SAMPLE UNIVERSITY, she hopes to pursue a MA in Korean Literature.

I recommend saving a copy of your bio and cover letter and then copy and pasting it with each entry. That will save you a ton of time.

Rules of Submitting

Every journal has its own rules that you must follow or your submission will be declined immediately. Every journal will notify you of this before you submit. For example, the font might have to be New Times Roman, single space, and 11 pt. size. All poems might have to be on a separate page, and maybe an individual poem's length cannot be more than 120 lines long.... There are a million stipulations. Usually times 11 and single space is safe to use as your base, but make sure you read the rules before submitting.

Your name usually cannot appear anywhere in the word document you are submitting. Your name will go on the form you submit and upload your poems to, but if your name is on the document, you will be disqualified. This is so no bias can be given and the readings remain anonymous.

Do not submit something that has already been published.

Stay Organized

Keep track of where you submit. If your poem is accepted somewhere, it's polite and routine to notify everyone else you submitted to, if they have not declined your submission already.

To stay organized, you can create a list in Microsoft word or excel. The old fashioned way, you can print your rejections and acceptances and keep them in folder, labelled when you submitted and when you can submit to that journal again.

Where to Submit

I recommend, try to avoid getting published in brand new journals or reviews. This is because, they have not created a name for themselves yet, and they will receive only a few submissions. This might up your chances of getting published, but when the other publishers see this, it doesn't look too great if you have only been published by unknown journals...

On Submittable you have a massive list of places to submit to. But as promised, here are some direct links of where you can get started with!

The Lunch Ticket is open to submissions in both March and September!
Up the Staircase Quarterly has submissions closing in 6 days!
Lily Poetry Review is open to submissions
Snapdragon is open to October submissions
Hiram Poetry Review -- open all year, in print, and is one of the oldest in print poetry reviews in the country!

... those are just a few places to get you started. Make a submittable account and start to explore the endless places to submit. I am in the process of creating a list of place to submit. Once I get it to a pretty good size, I can share the list on here for you all to use.

My Take on Poetry

How do I write poetry? Let me tell you, I sucked at poetry. When I began, I was caught up in all the big ideas of love and heartbreak and loss and realized I couldn't pick the words to make it special. In class, we were given ideas and a type of poem. For example, write a villanelle about snow. That simple idea forced us to create rather than copy over the usual ideas of love and loss. I wrote about my sister and I in a snowstorm. Rather, I wrote about our hands in that storm. Another poem was about a tree in my backyard getting knocked down representing the loss of childhood. I wrote about the sound my favorite bird makes when it walks. I started to learn how to write poetry by each failure I created. Following a structure helped me think beyond what I knew. Reading out loud in class with much cringe highlighted the spots where I could grow.

For our finals, we had to write one poem in class. For the first time, after weeks of practicing and experimenting with different techniques, I wrote about love. It was a love that vanished. I read it on the last day of class and my class literally said, "dang, finally!" It was one of my best pieces.