Poetry Blog of 32 Poems Magazine » 32 Poems

National Poetry Month Celebration

deborah — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:50:41 +0000

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Deborah Ager will interview 32 Poems editor John Poch.

Have you ever wanted to ask a poetry editor of a national magazine questions about publishing, writing, and poetry?

Well, guess what?

Post your questions in the comments here, and I’ll ask John. We’ll post the interview right here on April 20, 2010 as part of the Savvy Verse and Wit poetry blog tour.

32 Poems Spring 2010

deborah — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:56:04 +0000

32 Poems Magazine has existed since 2003. I am eating LOADS of chocolate to celebrate. I think editor John Poch — who is over in Spain — is eating a lot of lobster wrapped with bacon. He might hate lobster and bacon. Maybe he’s eating oranges instead — or olives.

When I started 32, there were doubters, my good friend.

You’re an indie magazine. How can you survive? Print is dead. You’re not The Kenyon Review!

I don’t listen to doubters. I do it anyway.

I’m actually allergic to negative people, so I carry an epipen at all times lest a negative person push me into anaphylaxis.

I digress.

The new magazine is out and about, and I’m feeling a bit nostalgic about the past seven years. In a recent interview, one of the questions asked was about how I started 32 Poems.

The idea grew from my head and percolated for 8-10 years. I had jobs in print production, direct mail fundraising, teaching, copywriting, and online marketing. Fancy that. Each set of skills was quite useful for running a magazine.

In 2003, I attended the AWP Conference in Baltimore, MD and brought bright red flyers to advertise our concept.

I had no exhibit table, no poems to publish, and no magazine. That is a lot of “no” for two people.

We got our first subscriber the next week.

I realized I had to make the magazine.

We’d love to have you subscribe?

Take Yourself Less Seriously to Be More Serious

deborah — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:47:45 +0000

The previous post was post number 1,000. This is post 1,001. Wow.

I’m writing this to tell you I am taking myself less seriously. Since less is more, I am taking myself more seriously as well.

If you would like to join me, I would like the company. We can take ourselves more or less seriously together or be seriously less or more.

Should Editors Have to Take a Poem from a Poet They Solicit?

deborah — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:30:09 +0000

If I accept a poem, all is well. People name their first-born children after 32 Poems. There were 64 babies named “32″ this year.

When I solicit people, I say upfront that I might not take their poems. My note says something about how I can promise a careful read even if I can’t promise publication. My goal with that line is to give the poet a chance to say “no thanks” if they fear rejection after a solicitation. I also aim to set their expectation. I’ve heard stories of poets getting angry and annoyed — certainly, no editor wants that — when getting their poems rejected after a solicitation. Trust me, it hurts an editor to say no. We are not rejecting poems and then performing happy dances to celebrate.

If I don’t take a poem, then I write a NICE note to explain why. I invite the poet to send more poems and to send more soon.

I try to show respect to the poet throughout the entire process. I can take a long time to respond. John Poch, our editor, does not take as long as I do. I let the poet know I am slow to read and invite them to submit elsewhere if they are in a hurry to publish. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. On occasion, a poem is accepted elsewhere and that is sad for me. However, I feel it is only fair to let the poet send elsewhere if I am going to take a long time to get to it. For me, a long time is over two months.

One reason I may say no to the work of a poet I solicit is when the new work is nothing like what I’ve been reading and like what I had loved. This usually means that only between three and five poems did not speak to me. Often, a number of other poems the poet wrote DID speak to me and that is why I asked, yet sometimes people are insulted anyway.

Hopefully, I do not become the poet’s enemy for not taking a poem. After all, I am publishing this journal that supports and promotes poetry, and how many people are insane enough to do that? But that is another topic for another day.

Submission Guideline Changes

deborah — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:24:56 +0000

Since John Poch will be editing 32 Poems from afar next spring, we will not be reading manuscripts via regular mail after December 1. If you wish to submit poems between December 1, 2009 and May 1, 2010, please email your poems to us at 32poems at gmail dot com. As you know, we do not read from May 1 till August 31.

Email the poems (less than 5, please) in one MS Word doc or docx file. The cover letter should be sent as the body of the gmail.

As usual, we prefer shorter lyric poems that fit on a single page, but we sometimes bend the rules to fit other extraordinary work. Do NOT email other materials, promotional, correspondence, or otherwise, to this address. Please query us after 3 months if you still have not heard a reply concerning your poems. We aim to keep our response time at less than 2 months. We will go back to our ordinary postal submission process in September 2010.

And don’t forget to subscribe or give a gift subscription!

News Flash: 32 Poems Cures Blogitis

deborah — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:05:58 +0000

A blogger at Balanced on the Edge raves about 32 Poems. If you aren’t subscribing to 32 Poems yet, maybe you should. =-) I should note that John Poch selects most of the poems. Her comment below about Bernadette Geyer’s poems reminds me that one of my favorite parts of editing is finding amazing poems.

I have been reading some great poetry lately. Next to my computer rests my first copy of 32 Poems, Volume 6, No. 2, published and edited by Deborah Ager, and I’ve got to say, it’s the best $14.00 I’ve spent on poetry in over a month. I’m not familiar with the names of all the poets included in this volume, but of course I recognized Billy Collins, whose tiny poem The Pencil is almost what I’d call a cameo, as it turns the very words of the poem into a metaphor in the quintessential style Collins is known for….

The second and third poems, starring Thumbelina’s mother, captured my imagination the most. They are both modern sonnets, with slant rhyme, except at the final couplet. I love poems that mess with the rules. But even more, I love how the author, Bernadette Geyer, entered into a secret world and made it come alive for me. She went inside Thumbelina’s realm and painted the myth, as if on a miniature Flemish canvas in egg tempera, with all it’s dark, psychic power.

Yes, I think I’ll renew my subscription to 32 poems, in case anyone is wondering. What an exciting life. Feeling much better now.

32 Poems Gives Away FREE Issue at AWP

deborah — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:33:05 +0000

We’re headed to the AWP Conference in Chicago this year and will be giving away a FREE issue of 32 Poems at our table.

Worried how you’ll cram all the books you plan to buy into the one suitcase you’ll be forced to drag on board the plane? Of course, you could check your suitcase if you haven’t flown Southwest and want to spend an extra $15 to $25 per bag.

We thought we’d help you out this year. We thought we’d lighten the load. We’re offering you a digital copy of our most recent issue in PDF format. We’ll email it to you after your arrival home. You have no additional weight to carry! No more hard decisions in the hotel room as you attempt to re-pack your bag, which is filled to the brim with books.

Stop by SW Hall 684 at the Hilton and sign up to receive your free issue!

32 Poems Interview with Eric Pankey by Serena M. Agusto-Cox

deborah — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:34:54 +0000

Below is the second in a series of interviews with poets published in 32 Poems. Serena M. Agusto-Cox conducted this interview in January 2009.

1. Not only are you a contributor to 32 Poems, you also have a published book, Cenotaph, and in an interview with Bold Type you mentioned you once wanted to be a visual artist. Would you ever consider melding the two forms–visual art and poetry? Also as a poet and professor, what “hat” do you find most difficult to wear and why?

I try to keep the poetry and visual arts separate. Each allows me a different kind of articulation, a different kind of vision.

This last year I had the good fortune to have visual artwork in several juried shows across the country. With the visual work I am just now, at almost fifty, moving out of the amateur realm and trying my hand at the professional realm. I am feeling the same thrill and excitement I felt half my life ago when my first book was accepted for publication.

I tend to be a social creature and the writing of poems happens most often in solitude. The work of teaching gives me community and conversation and that stimulation often leads me to long once again for the solitude of writing. And then the cycle repeats.

2. Do you see spoken word, performance, or written poetry as more powerful or powerful in different ways and why? Also, do you believe that writing can be an equalizer to help humanity become more tolerant or collaborative? Why or why not?

Again, I would think the difference is one of solitude and community.

When one hears spoken word, a poetry reading, or a performance of poetry, most often that is with a larger audience and our experience of the art is influenced by the communal reaction. One hears the poem one time in real time. The experience is immediate, intense, and fleeting.

When one reads poetry to oneself either aloud or silently, alone, there is more space and time to be reflective. The experience is as well immediate, intense, and even fleeting, but with the words before oneself, one can return to reread, to meditate, to look up the history of a word.

I think the arts in general tend to make humans more aware of their humanity and I hope that might lead to more tolerance.

3. Do you have any obsessions that you would like to share?

I think if one reads my poems, the obsessions are there, plain as day. Try as I might to hide them, they well up, bleed through the surface-the condition of my soul, the pleasures and burden of possessing a body, the weight of depression.

4. Most writers will read inspirational/how-to manuals, take workshops, or belong to writing groups. Did you subscribe to any of these aids and if so which did you find most helpful? Please feel free to name any “writing” books you enjoyed most (i.e. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott)

For most of my adult life I have been in writing groups. I think it is great to have a small audience of serious readers attend to early drafts of work and I owe a great deal of to these readers. Knowing they are there as an audience keeps me on task when mopping the floor or mowing the lawn looks more attractive than rubbing two words together.

5. Poetry is often considered elitist or inaccessible by mainstream readers. Do poets have an obligation to dispel that myth and how do you think it could be accomplished?

I am not sure what a “mainstream reader” is.

I do not, for instance, read contemporary plays and really only read novels in the summer, but that is not because I find them elitist or inaccessible. I find it more pleasurable to read poetry, art history, and general nonfiction.

I think people read what they find pleasurable. Pleasure is one of the purposes of poetry.
Some people like the surface of the poetry they read to be complex, dense, and even hermetic. Some like a surface that is transparent, clear, uncluttered. Some like poetry that is laugh-out-loud funny. Some people like deeply brooding poetry. I think the variety of American poetry is great and that there is poetry out there for all sorts of tastes.

6. When writing poetry, prose, essays, and other works do you listen to music, do you have a particular playlist for each genre you work in or does the playlist stay the same? What are the top 5 songs on that playlist? If you don’t listen to music while writing, do you have any other routines or habits?
I tend to listen to non-vocal music when I write-from Miles Davis to Bach fugues.

7. In terms of friendships, have your friendships changed since you began focusing on writing? Are there more writers among your friends or have your relationships remained the same?

Many of my friends are writers. After twenty years of teaching graduate students, many have grown into dear friends. And of course, I have friends from church, the neighborhood, places I used to live, travels and such, most of whom are not writers.

8. How do you stay fit and healthy as a writer?
Sometimes my dog will take me for a walk, but mostly I am out of shape.

9. Do you have any favorite foods or foods that you find keep you inspired? What are the ways in which you pump yourself up to keep writing and overcome writer’s block?

I do not believe in writer’s block. There are times when one is drafting and times when one is preparing to write. I think of each activity as writing.

10. Please describe your writing space and how it would differ from your ideal writing space.

I have a study in my house where I work, but much of my writing I do in libraries surrounded by many books that might be handy.

11. What current projects are you working on and would you like to share some details with the readers?

I am finishing my ninth book, MOON PHRASES CARVED ON A BONE. All the poems have appeared or are forthcoming in journals. I would rather let the poems speak

Buy 32 Poems as a Gift for You or a Friend

deborah — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:18:44 +0000

As you know, Christmas is coming. We’re all trying to save money while getting great gifts for our loved ones. I know I myself am not sure what to get everyone on my list this year.

Well, how about 32 Poems for yourself or a friend?

32 Poems continues to publish the newest voices who soon become nationally-known, award-winning poets: Caki Wilkinson, David Roderick, Alison Stine, Paula Bohince, James Hoch, to name a few.

32 Poems publishes outstanding work — see the next Best American Poets or read the reviews.

32 Poems makes it easy for you to order a gift subscription or two.

32 Poems looks cool, too.

Did we mention it’s easy to order?

Click on the link below right now, and you can pay with Paypal AND get a Free issue.

http://blog.32poems.com/about/

The Free Issue will automatically be added to your order.

$20 for two years. (Save $8 Plus Get 1 Free Issue!)
$14 for one year. (Plus Get 1 Free Issue!)

Be patriotic. Be thrifty. By all means, be cool. Order now.

http://blog.32poems.com/about/

Thanks for reading this! We really do need your help. We publish 32 Poems almost completely through the money we get from subscriptions. We continue with your support.

http://blog.32poems.com/about/

Always readable, always affordable, always already, always yours,

Deborah Ager and John Poch

Vote on Our New Web Design, Please

deborah — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:52:14 +0000

We’d like to get your comments and advice regarding our new website design. I’m going to run the whole site off of WordPress, which is the best content management system in the universe. I hope to get our new website up and running by the end of this weekend.

A. http://topwpthemes.com/the-work-of-art/
B. http://topwpthemes.com/gorodovuchi-wp-theme/
C. http://wordpress.diy-template.com/

Please vote on either A, B, or C in the comments. If you’ve not commented here before, your comment won’t show up right away.