Diving For Pearls
Online writers' resources by Ingrid Bruck
Ingrid Bruck is an editor at Between These Shores. She was a featured writer in BTSA Issue #2. Her column is devoted to online writer resources. She found her own writer support community online. Writing this column is one way of "paying it forward".
Diving for Pearls: Online Writers Resources
BTS Books strives to be a writers resource. Toward that end, we invite writers to share their information, link, and news of interest for the literary community.
Email your pearls of resources for writers to:
Ingrid Bruck, Network and Resource Editor
March 2020
On Post Modern Writing
Politics and the human costs of abuse tend to grate heavily on poets and writers. We become word seekers of peace, human rights and social justice. These convictions cross over into our writing. These kinds of attitudes invigorate post modern writing and create poetry of witness.
You can tell when post modern trends have happened to you when your writing takes on some (few or many) of these post modern writing characteristics:
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Intertextuality.
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Pastiche.
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Metafiction.
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Minimalism.
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Maximalism.
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Magical Realism.
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Faction.
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Reader Involvement.
According to the Prezi.com model above, post modern writing happens with “The mixing of actual historical events with fictional events without clearly defining what is factual and what is fictional.” For more information, see: https://prezi.com/3gqkbsq6-nhd/techniques-used-in-postmodern-literature/
At some point, “art for arts sake” can stop driving what creates and characterizes your writing style. You slip into post modern writing, as did The Dark Room Collective and Cave Canem. This kind of writing phenomenon exemplifies post modern literature in action. DRC, a Black Lit movement developed in the US in 1987, changed the style of many Black authors to post modern. “Elbow Room,”a great article about Black DRC writers, appears in Harvard Magazine. https://harvardmagazine.com/2016/03/elbow-room
What distinguishes poetry of witness from art-for-art’s-sake writing is the writer’s use of post modern writer techniques. Ann Kesner, past editor of Poetry Breakfast (closed), did this recently when she openedPoetsAndArtistsForPete.com, a new literary journal venue that opposes the “division and hate… flooding into our world when Trump came onto the political scene.” Ann’s new US literary journal includes “a grassroots community of poets, artists, musicians and crafters who support Pete Buttigieg <for President> through their art.” Her journal opposes Trump and supports a more democratic way. Ann Kesner believes that poetry builds community, she wants a kinder world to live in so she’s helping to build it with her new poetry journal.
For those who want to learn more about post modern writing techniques, I suggest you read Ramen Sharma and Dr. Preety Chaudhary’s article, “Common Themes and Techniques of Postmodern Literature of Shakespeare.” Link: https://www.ripublication.com/ijepa/ijepav1n2_11.pdf. Or the Wikipedia article on Postmodern Literature. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_literature
If you are a writer with a post modern hue and the intent to make the world a better place through
literature, who will publish what you write? Where can you submit that poetry of witness, current events or politics? Check out this Blogpost by Trisch Hopkinson: “21 lit mags/journals to send your current event poems.”https://trishhopkinson.com/2018/03/30/22-lit-mags-journals-to-send-your-current-event-poems/ Note: literary market changed a lot since then. Even though the post is a year old and outdated, it’s a good one. On Hopkinson’s list, I highly recommend: New Verse News, Poets Reading the News, Social Justice Poetry and Writers Resist.
Rattle Poetry also publishes a current events weekly feature called “Poets Respond”, with subject limited to news of the week. https://www.rattle.com/respond/
Here’s wishing you luck getting your post modern writing published!
And Don't Forget...
Contemporary Poets, Their Works, Current Poetry Projects, News, Links: Free. Participation open to public. 15,971 members. Administered by Michael Lee Johnson. A Facebook page where a large community of practicing writers gather. Writers promote themselves by posting links to newly published work. This active social network is a place to discuss writing trends, read interviews of practicing writers, read reviews of newly published work. Contemporary Poets, Their Works, Current Poetry Projects, News, Links
International Women’s Writing Guild (IWWG): Women gather to write, be supported and learn. For women or female identifying. Non-Profit. Established 1976. Offers free and member services. Global village is public, free and open. Members receive discounted prices for events and services. IWWG presents an annual week-long summer conference, regional writer events, online webinars. Closed Forums for members only include: IWWG Member Room; Writer Share Forum; online bookclub; online critique groups. The International Women's Writing Guild - IWWG & The International Women's Writing Guild
Verse-Virtual: An Online Community of Poetry:
A free, public and online poetry community facilitated by Firestone Feinberg, editor. Verse-Virtual is an online poetry community AND an online poetry journal. The online journal is named Verse-Virtual. V-V has three FaceBook pages: Verse-Virtual (the place where members share links for published poem acceptances, writer career milestones, submission calls, etc.); V-V Talk (discussion of poetry and poetics); and V-V Shmooze (writer chat). Membership in the V-V writer community begins when a poet has one (or more) poems published in Verse-Virtual. V-V members are encouraged to share positive comments about other writer’s poems that appear monthly in Verse-Virtual. Connections are made; personal friendships develop. HOME - VERSE-VIRTUAL
Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (“Mod-Po”):
Massive free online course (MOOC by Coursera) facilitated by Al Filreis, Kelly House, University of Pennsylvania. 31,790 students enrolled. No prior experience required. Global membership. To participate in the ModPo writer community, you must enroll in ModPo. Core curriculum includes a ten-week-survey of American poetry for writers and students of writing. Participation in this community of writers and students is incremental and on-going for lifetime learners. Writers complete ModPo, advance to ModPoPlus curriculum, join discussion groups in multitudinous areas of interest. Participants have an option to participate in study groups in their areas of interest. (EX: Haiku Corner participants discuss haiku and write collaborative renga). ModPo-ers don’t stop when they complete one area of interest. Instead, they progress to the next advanced group. (EX: Global Study Group exhausted ModPo & ModPoPlus resources but wanted more so they organized a discussion group to study, close read and discuss even more poems by featured authors in the course.) This unique ModPo community of writers runs year round in Slo-Po study groups. New class session starts Sept. 7, 2019. To enroll, follow this link to join: https://www.coursera.org/learn/modpo
Rats Ass Review: Closed Free Workshopping Group.
Reserved for published poets in the RAR family. Roderick Bates, editor of RAR, saw a need for writer workshopping and formed an online workshopping group. An invitation to the RAR workshopping group is offered to each poet that RAR publishes. The expertise and generous support of the RAR writers in this group has helped me improve as a poet. Many writers seem to be searching for a writer’s group to join; they are open to learn from other writers, want peers to read what they write and seek support for their writing. If this speaks to you, I recommend submitting to Rat’s Ass Review, a high quality and fine online poetry journal. The next submission period is not yet open. Rat's Ass Review
High Quality Journals (No Fee to Submit)
Between These Shores Annual- Open: January 1 - June 30, 2020
https://www.betweentheseshoresbooks.com/call-for-submissions-2018
Gold Dust Magazine - two editions per year, in June and December. They don't accept simultaneous submissions and recommend you submit two to three months prior to the publication dates. http://www.golddustmagazine.co.uk/Writers.htm
Poetry Breakfast- Subscribe for a daily poem in your inbox. Submission Guideline:
https://poetrybreakfast.com/submission-guidelines-2/
Rat’s Ass Review- Open: Aug. 1-Sept. 30, 2019 Those published receive an invitation from Editor Roderick Bates to join a fine workshopping site.
http://ratsassreview.net/?page_id=81
Verse-Virtual— supportive poetry’s community that accepts submissions the first ten days of the month. https://www.verse-virtual.com/submit.html
General Information About Where to Submit (Fee & Free to Submit)
Submishmash Weekly by Submittable- subscribe to receive the posts
Entropy Magazine: Where to Submit: June, July & August 2019
https://entropymag.org/category/where-to-submit/
Erika Dreifus- subscribe to Practicing Writing Blog
https://www.erikadreifus.com/blogs/practicing-writing/\
Trisch Hopkinson- subscribe to her writer’s blog - Trisch emails weekly blasts of information about writer opportunities https://trishhopkinson.com
NewPages - subscribe to receive information about writer opportunities and places to submit https://npofficespace.com/newpages-newsletter/
