Salon-O-Rama: Poet's Market editor Nancy Breen, Monday Sept. 11

by **Administrator1** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 3:52 am

Hey Writers:
Our guest today is Nancy Breen, Poet's Market editor. So if you have questions about poetry and the poetry marketplace, stop in and chatthis lady knows her stuff.

Here's Nancy's bio: Nancy Breen is editing her seventh edition of Poet's Market for Writer's Digest Books/F+W Publications. Her poetry has appeared in fresh boiled peanuts, The Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, and Common Threads, as well as in the prize anthologies for Ohio Poetry Day and National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS). Her chapbooks include Rites and Observances (Finishing Line Press) and How Time Got Away (Pudding House Publications). She annually presents sessions on publishing poetry in a variety of venues, which have included Barnes & Noble and other bookstores, Penn Writers Annual Conference, the Mad Anthony Wayne Book Festival & Writer's Conference, and the 2004 NFSPS Convention. She has also judged poetry competitions for Penn Writers, The Cincinnati Celtic World Festival, and Writer's Digest. She lives in Loveland, Ohio.

See you there.

by **maria** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 12:45 am

Hi writers,
I'm moving Salon-O-Rama to this forum to make it easier to find. Nancy Breen, of Poet's Market, will be checking in later this morning, so stay tuned. Oh and Linda (by-the-bay) is bringing caviar and champagne. Fancy! Please use drink coasters so you don't get rings on my antique mahogany cocktail table. Enjoy!
maria

by **NancyatPoet's** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:19 am

Hi, all. I'm here and ready to take your questions regarding poetry. Thanks, Maria, for inviting me.

And I just wanted to acknowledge the fifith anniversary of 9/11. With thoughts and memories of those who perished...

by **jasipper** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:29 am

NancyatPoet's - 2006-09-11 7:19 AM Hi, all. I'm here and ready to take your questions regarding poetry. Thanks, Maria, for inviting me. And I just wanted to acknowledge the fifith anniversary of 9/11. With thoughts and memories of those who perished...

Hi, Nancy!

Thanks for the thoughts on 9/11. I still remember the day it happened. I was in the Air Force and worked in the intelligence field at the time. Someone in the hall at work stopped me and said, "Hey, a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center." I laughed and thought perhaps some stupid guy in a Cessna had wandered into NYC and flown through fog into the WTC. I walked into my office and looked at the TV we used to track breaking news and my eyes began to water.

Sorry, I don't mean to hijack you thread. I'm not even really a poet; I write novels. But, 9/11 is still with me in a physical,emotional, mental, and spiritual way. I think it is with more of us more deeply than we think.

Glad you're here, Nancy.

by **maria** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:30 am

Hi Nancy,
Thanks so much for visiting with us today. We have a lot of very active poets here on the forum. The Poetry forum on Critique Central is always buzzingespecially at night for some reason.

So you've been Poet's Market editor for a while now. Are you seeing any changes in the marketplace for poetry?

by **jasipper** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:34 am

I'd also like to know how closely the poetry and songwriting markets are related. I said before I'm not really a poet, but I write songs. In essence, they're poetry, I suppose.

by **abqwriter** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:34 am

Nancy -

I've always been curious how one judges a poetry competition. It seems so much more subjective than other forms of writing.

But perhaps that's because some of my best poetry includes things like:

Violets are red

Roses are Blue

I hate gum

Stuck on my shoe

by **NancyatPoet's** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:43 am

Hi, Joshua. I agree, I think 9/11 is very deeply with a lot of us, and I mean those of who didn't even lose someone or experience the day directly.

My experience was kind of strange. I was with my mother on vacation--we'd spent the night before in Gettysburg, on our way to a few days in Amish country near Lancaster. The morning of 9/11 I was searching for Marianne Moore's grave in the town cemetery (didn't find it on that go round). I figure about the time the planes hit, Mom and I were on Little Round Top, and I remember meditating on war and violence and what it must have been like to face such carnage. Little did I know.

By the time we learned of the attacks, the towers had already fallen. We had stopped at an antique mall in New Oxford, and they were piping public radio over the intercom. They were talking about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center, and I kept trying to remember when that might have happened. Then they talked about people jumping out of windows, and I thought it was some kind of perverted speculative fiction thing. Then they said the towers collapsed. I still didn't believe it was real. I had to go ask an older woman salesperson nearby if something had happened to the World Trade Center. She got a funny look on her face and said, "Oh, you haven't heard." Needless to say, Mom and I ended our vacation immediately. It was 9 that night before we got home and I actually saw the film of what had happened.

by **NancyatPoet's** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:47 am

Hi, Maria. I guess the biggest change in the poetry area is the growing prevalence of online publications. Also now print publications often offer samples online (i.e., table of contents, covers, a few sample poems). So poets can do a lot of reading on their computers to keep pace with the current styles in poetry.

In the six years I've been editing Poet's Market, though, the pattern seems to be pretty consistent. New magazines pop up, then die away quickly. Or the new ones take hold, but old reliables suddenly fold and vanish. We contact the markets in our book for updates for every edition, and it's funny how we won't hear from a magazine or publisher one year, then they're back the next. Sometimes it's simply a matter of finally tracking down some updated contact info, other times it's that the magazine or press is ready to take submissions again after being overstocked.