Getting Poetry Published
It's Not How You Write, It's How You Re-Write: The Art and Craft of Revision, Susan Rich
“Art and virtue are measured in tiny grains. Only when revisions are precise may the building stand square and plumb,” wrote the Chinese poet, Lu Chi three thousand years ago. Some things never change. Revision is still at the heart of poetic practice. At least for this poet. I tell my students if it weren’t for learning the fine art of revision, I would never have become a published poet. I suspect this is true for most writers. But does what one writer learns about revision, have any bearing on what works for another?
Last week at a conference in Vancouver, BC a woman approached me. She’d attended a workshop that I gave on revision three years ago and she wanted to thank me for the handouts from the class that she still refer to when writing. It struck me as odd that showing her and the other participants the messy, muddled, often embarrassing worksheets for my own poetry could be useful in their own poetic practice. This chance meeting in Vancouver convinced me that there’s something useful to be gleaned by looking deeply into another writer’s practice, even if it is only the pleasure of literary voyeurism.
First some confessions. I am a slow writer. It is not unusual for a poem to take me at least a year to get right. Many pieces lie in old computer files for a decade until I figure out what to do with them. And when I am working on a poem my methods can be unconventional. For example, I like to take my poems for walks. Perhaps I’ll spend the morning working on a piece and after a few hours get to the point where I’ve changed the word remodel back to reclamation four or five times. That’s when I know it’s time for a change of scene. I grab my clipboard, the poem, a pen, and throw on a warm jacket.
Read more: It's Not How You Write, It's How You Re-Write: The Art and Craft of Revision, Susan Rich
Advice on Editing Poetry by Grace Wells
Formerly an independent video and television producer in her native London, Grace Wells moved to Ireland in 1991. In 2001 she became Literature Officer with the South Tipperary Arts Centre, and for the next three years co-ordinated ‘Impressions, the South Tipperary Literature Festival’.
Her first book, Gyrfalcon, a novel for children was published by the O’Brien Press in 2002. It won the Eilís Dillon Best Newcomer Bisto Book Award 2003 and was selected for the International White Ravens Catalogue 2003.
A second children’s novel Ice Dreams was published by the O’Brien Press in 2008, and One World, Our World, a Development Education, information and story book, was commissioned & published in 2009 by Irish Aid on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Since 2007 she has regularly reviewed Irish poetry for Contrary, the University of Chicago’s online literary journal, The Stinging Fly and for Poetry Ireland Review.
In 2009 she became Writer in Residence for Kilkenny County Council, and has since then continued to work for Kilkenny Arts Office and Library Service, and for County Waterford Arts Office facilitating creative writing classes and providing mentoring for upcoming writers.
Wells has read at numerous Literature Festivals and been broadcast on RTE. Her short stories and poetry have appeared in a wide number of journals. Prior to publication of her debut poetry collection, her work was short-listed for a number of awards and took third place in the Patrick Kavanagh award 2007. She facilitates creative writing classes for adults and children and is a member of the Poetry Ireland, Writers in Schools Scheme.
Her debut collection of poetry, ‘When God Has Been Called Away to Greater Things’ was published by Dedalus Press in May 2010. It won the Rupert and Eithne Strong Best Debut Collection Award and was short-listed for the London Fringe Festival New Poetry Award.
With this background, Grace is the ideal person to provide you with advice on editing your poetry...
How to Order the Poems in a Manuscript
A single poem may be the sum of its parts and, as much as any poem can be, its own end and beginning, but when a poem appears in a collection, under that collection’s title, as well as its own, it becomes part of a larger narrative (be it literal, emotional or conceptual). While the order of poems in a collection may appear arbitrary, this is more to do with how collections are read than how they are written. By virtue of its design a reader is free to read a collection however they wish; to pick and choose from the contents page at will. While ‘dipping in’ is a reader’s privilege, for someone putting together a manuscript, ordering the poems and deciding on sequence is a carefully thought-out process. It’s an odd time too because it calls for a certain amount of self-awareness, a sort of accounting for what it is you have written. It may, in fact, be the first time you think of your poems with a reader in mind.
Poetry Workshops with Susan Lindsay
Workshops provide the synergy of teamwork for the solitary art of writing poetry.
This week I mailed a fellow member of the Skylight Poets workshop to ask if my edited translation, of ‘Bruscar Litter Box’ into ‘American’ had worked. Whether or not it needed to be translated is arguable. We both know that. What was important is that she brought the choice to my attention by pointing out, during the communal critique of the current draft, that the meaning of the lines could be obscure outsideIreland.
At the Poetry Now festival, in Dun Laoghaire a few years ago, the poet giving a workshop used my submission to highlight the use of language that may make it difficult for a poem to travel. Along with my co-students, he did find things to like about the poem as well as things to question - a new title was recommended. A Life of Her Own can be read in Whispering the Secrets, the first published collection of my poetry. He concluded the work-shopping of the poem with the words, “…and as to the last line, I simply give up” to the general merriment of all around the table – including the poem’s author! But ‘…as she lifts the lid of the last wheelie-bin’ remains in place because it worked in others ways that were ultimately given priority.
What Next? Writing Poetry and Getting Published
You can begin to write poetry at any time. Very often those taking pen in hand are referred to as 'new' or 'young' writers. Such terms can be off-putting. People begin to write when they can no longer resist the urge not to, or when they can find the time to do so. For many this can be after they have raised a family, retired from a demanding job or when domestic arrangements allow. 'Emerging' seems to be the best term to describe those who are beginning to grapple with the craft of writing.
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