The Poetry of Well Being FAQ
What is the deadline for submitting poetry?
The first major deadline is July 7, 2010. A preliminary manuscript will be compiled in July / August 2010. A secondary request for poetry with an extended deadline may be established, so please continue to submit poems even after the initial deadline. Your chances of being credited in the anthology increase with early submittals, as the first person to submit a given poem will be the one credited in the book.
I read the guidelines, but am still uncertain about what type of poetry to submit.
The anthology will be a collection of uplifting and transformative poetry from any era and any culture. All submissions will be considered and evaluated. Poems that depict the human condition at its best are more likely to be selected (relevance). Poems that would be evaluated positively from other poets of their genre are more likely to be selected (quality). This means that poetry about grief and hardship is less likely to be included, and poetry that is more like the message in a greeting card than a published poem is less likely to be included.
Although the anthology is intended for a general audience, it will be less like Chicken Soup for the Soul than it is like A Book of Luminous Things by Czeslaw Milosz, although the tone and depth of the book may fall somewhere between these two bookends.
Spoken word poetry is also something to consider. It is an emerging field of poetry that is often powerful and evocative. There are several good anthologies of spoken word poems. New and different is perfectly acceptable.
Where would I go to look for poetry to submit?
Some submitters will have favorite poems handy that meet the criteria for selection. That’s great!
For those who do not, anthologies are a quick way to locate a poem of well being.
Poetry books by a given, favorite poet are great source of poems. Choosing from a favorite poet’s work allows you to be very selective, and to submit a unique (less anthologized), yet fabulous poem.
There are many good poetry sites on the web. A few that I’ve used are http://www.poetry.org/,
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/, and http://www.poems.com/. Poets and Writers magazine’s website often features great, contemporary poets whose work you could research, http://www.pw.org/.
The many different university press publishing houses are also a rich source of good poetry.
Please remember that you will need to identify where a particular poem was published.
Why are you requesting a 200-word description to accompany the poem?
The poems that will be selected for the anthology will speak for themselves. The description is intended to connect the reader with the ways in which one person sees the poem contributing to well being or to simply make a human connection with the reader. The description is not intended to analyze or critique the poem. We'll leave that to the literary critics.
What about copyright issues?
It is the responsibility of this editor to ensure that all copyright laws have been followed and all necessary permissions granted. For classic poetry, the publishing rights have become anonymous and copyright is typically no longer an issue. In all other cases, the editor will seek permissions from the person(s) holding the publishing rights.
