October: A few poems sent out, a few poems rejected, and a thought about chapbooks.

As I've mentioned already, I've been looking at my book manuscript, and while it feels cohesive, I also think I could probably glean two separate chapbook collections from the full-length manuscript.

I am thinking more about doing just that, if the manuscript does not make the finalists for either first book prize. I may enter dueling chapbooks in a few contests in spring, instead of trying for another first book prize. 

Maybe by then, I'll have some more work, too--I haven't been generating much of value since school started in late September, but I'm still revising regularly and keeping submissions sent out to journals and magazines. 

Since this summer, I've been largely using Submittable to find and explore new publication opportunities, when for many years, I've used Duotrope. I still pay for my Duotrope membership, but it is becoming a bit of a dinosaur, because Submittable offers much of the same information paired with the actual submission interface used by most journals. I check over the Duotrope weekly newsletters, and every few weeks, I'll complete a few searches, but even with that, I find I use the Submittable "discover" option more frequently.

In the last two weeks, I've submitted a selection of work to the Roanoke Review, and another selection to The Citron Review. 

I also received a standard rejection from Jet Fuel Review on three poems. I'm working on one of the poems submitted, because it really looks like a clunker now that I am appropriately shamed by its rejection. So, revisions are under way, and that is a very good thing--worth the rejection, perhaps. 

I am teaching from home until at least April, and last week I raided my campus office for a few books to help with generating new material. I miss having my "craft books" here at the house, but I have a small office and a small house, and I had to make the choice to separate my library. My collections of poetry are at home; my books on craft are at the office.

The Daily Poet, from Two Sylvias Press. I bought this book several years ago on a whim at AWP--the women who run Two Sylvias Press are lovely people, also! I've spoken to them more than once while standing at their book fair table. (I am quite awkward in social situations, but the AWP Book Fair is a must. They are a small oasis in that chaos.) The book offers one poem prompt per day--some are not right for me, but many are fantastic. It's a great "flip book" when I want to write but am feeling blocked. They also have an "advent calendar" of writing prompts for December that I'll be purchasing, too. : )