To:
ALL Publishing Editors and Published Poets.
Subject:
Out of Touch
In my life, poetry always played a strong role. However, when mental illness drug me down into the mud in my 20s, I lost something. I can not explain exactly what it was. However, it lead to my withdrawing from publication. I stopped submitting poetry. I Aldo stopped writing it.
Over the 15~ years that followed, I wrote and worked almost exclusively on the technical side of writing. Editing. Proofreading. Teaching. Tutoring. Copywriting. Blurbs. Advcopy. Consulting and partial ghostwriting.
In 2015, I lost my father to cancer. I wrote his eulogy. It was the first time I’d tried poetry in years. A few months later, I looked online at the submission market. What I found was dismal. Publications going out of business. Canceling journals that published only a single year. Craziness.
Since joining SubStack just last year, I’ve begun writing poetry again. And I’ve also seen that the online poetry community is strong again. Not just at Substack, but with regular print journals, too! And chapbooks!! I thought the chapbook was a lost [email protected]
So, poet, magazine employee?? I want to hear from you. Poets, I’d love to hear anything about your experience publishing. Anything at all.
Zine, or Journal worker, or editor, I want to know what kind of material you choose and why.
Here, JACK is: English Honors, BA, Creative Writing focus.
Veteran of somewhere around 30-50 workshops, crash courses, group circles, online communities, and so much more. I’ve consulted on a lot of novels. Some made it big. Many were very happy with their experiences.
I’ve also consulted in about 10 ConWorlds. Worldbuilding is a strength. Editing is a strength. I can cause a noticeable improvement on the work on anyone starting out, up to mid-tier. More qualified writers have used my consulting role in ways that facilitate fresh outlooks and unblocking both minds and plots. I usually refer to it as “Helping to trim the fat.”
That’s a metaphor I use to describe my time with more experienced writers.
I want to hear from the community. Anyone at all. Say something!! Send links! Tell me the good and the bad!!
I’m Jack Lhasa.
You are amazing!
👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/moonshadow-exoteric
