Why poets don’t submit
Zach Wells – poet, Canadian Notes and Queries review editor, and frequent Q&Q contributor – reacts on his blog to a Books in Canada essay entitled “Where Have All the Poets Gone?” by The Malahat Review editor John Barton. Barton says he is saddened and confused by the lack of poetry submissions he’s receiving of late; Wells replies, in effect, that the Malahat makes suitors jump through too many hoops for too little reward.
Wells takes a spin through the myriad reasons he doesn’t submit to the Malahat: no electronic submissions (and SASEs required for the written ones), a likely sluggish turnaround time by the editors (who discourage simultaneous submissions), and little financial recompense. All of that, Wells concludes, is compounded by the fact that no one really reads the journals anyway.
His suggestion? Poetry editors need to stop overfarming the fields and get out there and grow some new potatoes – er, solicit more submissions.
Y’know, if I was an editor and I wasn’t getting many high quality unsolicited submissions, I might just, oh, I don’t know, SOLICIT SOME SUBMISSIONS!! If you’re a poetry editor, part of the job description, it seems to me, is scouting, keeping an ear to the ground and seeking out work that will distinguish your publication from all the others. Boohoo, no one sends us stuff anymore, what are we to do? What will become of our poor little magazine? Why are my potatoes so puny and few? Oh well, guess I’ll go out and get the ploughing done before winter.
Wells also recommends openness to e-mail submissions, and improving web presence in order to increase readership. Hey, the Malahat says on its website that it has a Facebook group – isn’t that enough? It’s good enough for Michael Winter…
Refusing vs embracing email submissions seems to be the great divide when it comes to Canadian lit mags…
Their response times are horrendous — far worse than the ones posted on their Web site. All journals are bad for that; Malahat is really bad. Who has the patience?
This is hilarious. Gotta love those poets. Always fighting.
hI, BROTHERS OF THE POET’S PEN, LISTEN, HERE IN THIS NEW ZEALAND YOU HAVE POETS /EDITORS WHO CAN’T EVEN GRACE YOU WITH A REPLY, i HAVE WRITTEN POETRY SINCE THE AGE OF7 HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN MANY MAJOR JOURNALS, AND SEEK COUNTLESS NEW PLACES TO SEND MY WORK, EVEN TO POETRY com IN USA, WHICH THEY SAY IS A SCAM AND SHAM FOR ANY SELF
RESPECTING POET. YOU SEE THE REAL POET NEVER GIVES UP
BECAUSE HIS POETRY IS A NEVER ENDING PASSION. kEEP AT IT
ALL YOU POETS OUT THERE,EDITORS DON’T CONTROL YOUR PEN NOR VISIONS.i RECALL WRITING TO A gary geddes SAME NAME AS MYSELF IN TORONTO A POET/PROFESSOR, HE NEVER REPLIED SO WHO CARES ABOUT IT.
jaffray geddes email jef-iwen@xtra.co.nz