tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post1642337130612516128..comments2023-11-12T13:22:30.358+01:00Comments on andrewjshields: Patterns in book manuscriptsAndrew Shieldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post-28560265895249455892006-12-15T23:45:00.000+01:002006-12-15T23:45:00.000+01:00The one that really hits home for me is number one...The one that really hits home for me is number one. The poems that are not getting accepted in journals just may not be as good as the ones that are. Or am I understanding you incorrectly?Andrew Shieldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post-48348072972534820192006-12-14T17:59:00.000+01:002006-12-14T17:59:00.000+01:00100 in 2 days is daunting. At Yale Press, I used t...100 in 2 days is daunting. At Yale Press, I used to look at about 300-400 over several months . . . towards the end, it was more and more months. But here's some of what I learned (doing this for 7 years):<br /><br />1. Most people who work at poetry manage to publish their best poems somewhere, and often the rest of the ms. doesn't compare.<br /><br />2. The family is the root of all evil. Or: ills that befall the family are the stuff of poetry.<br /><br />3. Poems about or in the persona of historical persons are very popular.<br /><br />4. Formalists tend to go abroad and write about it; free versers tend to stay home (sometimes I think they never leave the room).<br /><br />5. The Wallace Stegner program at Stanford admits and produces writers capable of professional quality poetry.<br /><br />6. The names of famous people can be used as metaphors.<br /><br />7. Many poets live lives of quiet desperation -- and are glad to write about it.<br /><br />8. Humor is making a comeback.<br /><br />9. Writing programs must be assigning at least some of the following: a villanelle, an ars poetica, a prose poem, a "loose" sonnet, a poem based on a mythological story (jazzed up versions of Persephone are plentiful), a poem in response to a work of art.<br /><br />10. A collection of poems, even if most are good quality, does not necessarily make "a book."Donald Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391024449222256377noreply@blogger.com