How to Publish Your Poetry, Second Edition: A Complete Guide to Finding the Right Publishers for Your Work (Square One Writer's Guide)
If how-to books are supposed to be opinionated, informative and sophisticated, this guide from Ciaravino (How to Pray: A Practical Guide to Prayer) is less a beginning poet's guide than a gentle and repetitive initiation for the completely cluelessAbut, blessedly, they're out there. The target audience of 20,000 (the book's first printing) seems to be those who come to poetry through self-help programs or sui generis verbal implosions, or who are otherwise completely out of the loop of periodicals, presses and academic programsAindeed of poetry of any sort: "This poet, whose full name is Thomas Stearns Eliot, has influenced history with his work." Almost none of the actual presses, magazines and programs that make up the current scene are described, evaluated or even mentioned hereAalthough the publications that list them areAand the ones that do show up make for a highly skewed selection. (The University of North Dakota Writers Conference is one of three discussed. The Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference is another.) Some of the initiated may find the sample cover letters, submission packet suggestions, "tracking chart[s]" and glosses ("QuarterlyAfour times per year") useful, but those looking for a Baedeker to the current lay of the land will not mistake this map for the territory.--" and glosses ("QuarterlyAfour times per year") useful, but those looking for a Baedeker to the current lay of the land will not mistake this map for the territory.Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.