Postponement

The Anthology is being postponed indefinitely. Pre-orders will be refunded within 90 days. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

I will not be responding to emails regarding this decision unless they are from presses who want to take up the project wholesale, in which case I may be contacted for the files.

Tomorrow night's New York reading will go on as planned. I hope that associations formed during the Anthology's production will continue to be fruitful. Group readings by younger poets can be legitimate and interesting even without a book to promote, I think.

Anthology Readings!

If you live near one of these places and want to participate in an Anthology-related reading, please email the following people:

Ottowa (May): Max Middle
DC (April): Adam Chiles
Atlanta: Bruce Covey
Iowa: Dan Coffey
Chicago: Kathleen Rooney/Barrett Gordon
Boston (April): Jessica Bozek/Kerri French/Chris Tonelli
Philadelphia: Ashraf Osman
Calgary: Natalie Zina Walschots
St. Louis (5 Feb 09 @ Observable): Aaron Belz

We're still working on Buffalo and California readings to take place anytime this year, and there's one in the works just outside of Asheville, NC. If you're in the position to organize something in one of these locations or another one (like Portland, Vancouver, Toronto), please let me know (but otherwise, please go through these people; I'm not organizing these readings). I'd like to have readings going all year long. Thanks to everyone who's making this happen!

NYC Reading

The Anthology won't be ready in time for the supposed release at the NYC reading, but hopefully proofs will be ready for you to approve by then. The turnaround time from proof to print is entirely dependent on how long it takes 300+ people to approve proofs, so hopefully the proofs will be nearly immaculate by the time you get them and you can just say "ok! ready to go." The reading will go on as scheduled and will still involve awesome Anthology authors, just don't expect the finished book to be there.

Missing email addys

We're missing email addresses for a few of you. If you haven't received an email from the Editors about sending your bio, please shoot a quick email to poetry2008@gmail.com so that we have you on our mailing list. The list will be used to gather bios, approve proofs, and announce anthology readings in your area-- nothing more (I hate spam too). Please do not email for any other reason-- only if you haven't received email from us.

Price change

The Anthology's price has been raised to reflect its actual printing/shipping/PayPal fees costs, which will be around $30 (the best estimate for the book itself, without including the CD, fees, or shipping, is $24). Still a good deal for a huge book with a cd enclosure.

What you may not know about me, since many of you don't know me, is that I'm broke. When I say "broke," I mean I just moved to New York and I'm working an $11/hr job. So there won't be contributor's copies. If you want a copy, you will have to purchase it. Unfortunately, this is what happens when one tries to make a massive DIY project of young poets. Hopefully the connections you'll make, and that you have made during the Anthology's production, with other authors in the Anthology and those interested in the project, will be worth $30 to you. Also, I haven't seen a dummy yet, but from the specs and my own files I think it's going to look really cool.

You will be able to view proofs (including seeing which poems of yours was chosen) and send your bios very soon. Please do not send anything at this point without being asked for it directly. Please do not send unnecessary emails-- there's enough to do without having to deal with correspondence (I need a secretary!).

Readers for NYC Release/Reading

Ellen Baxt
Amy Berkowitz
Lisa Flaherty
Marci Nelligan
Nicole Mauro
j.s. makkos
Justin Marks
Nicole Mauro
Steve McLaughlin
John Most

Subject to adjustments. If you'd rather read closer to home, please either organize a reading there or stay tuned for news of upcoming readings.

I just realized that if you're not using Firefox, you might not be able to see the column on the right of this page which has ordering information and the details about the reading. If you can't see it on the sidebar, you should be able to scroll down to see it. The reading:

Reading/Release Party
d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press
25 March 2008, 6 p.m.
ACA Galleries
529 W.20th St., 5th Flr., NY NY

Delays

There's little chance that the Anthology will be ready by Jan. 1. The official release will occur at the March reading in NYC, although the anthology may actually be available (and mailed out to people who have ordered it) before that. Let me know if you would like to read in NYC. I'm sorry for the delays.

Soundponent participants

Authors for the CD (may be added to)
- Sandra Alland
- Gary Barwin
- Gary Barwin / Gregory Betts [collaboration]
- Gregory Betts / Kent Foran [collaboration]
- jd crosato
- Jennifer Karmin
- Kri Kri [Maja Jantar, Jelle Meander & Vincent Tholomé -- collaboration/collective]
- Steve McLaughlin
- Joseph S Makkos
- rzep
- Jenny Sampirisi
- Mathew Timmons
- Jonathan Zorn

Donations

To make a donation toward the publication of the Anthology, go to the Outside Voices website and click on "donations". There you will find a PayPal button as well as other ways of sending donations.

To make a tax-deductible donation, you must send money through Bootstrap Productions (Outside Voices' parent press). Mark that it is for the OV Anthology. If your place of business matches funds, I would especially encourage you to donate something (any amount!) so we can get the matching business funds.

Anthology release party/reading

The funding is coming along. A few of you have been generous and given $20-30 towards the cost of publication; that's awesome, thanks! In December I'll set up shop online to handle preorders, but it seems too soon for that just yet.

I'm beginning to think about the release party. Because of the number of people from IL, I'm thinking about having it in Chicago. The official release date is Jan. 1, 2008, so I think we could have a big party/reading/booze/music/food fest (bring your sleeping bags and we'll make it a sleepover) on New Year's Eve. A number of discount airlines fly through Chicago, and I figure it's more interesting/less stressful than celebrating New Year's in NYC.

Funding and Contributor Copies

So... guess what. It's approaching the end of March, and I'm not done with the TOC. It shouldn't be long, though, so check back in a month. I'm working on it, but there's a lot of other stuff to do, too.

In the meantime, let's think about funding. Outside Voices is too young a press to be eligible for most grants, and I don't have any money. So there are two options: "normal" publishing, where I will need to raise $5-7k to pay for the run up-front (they don't take credit cards), and print-on-demand publishing (POD) which has no start-up cost but also allows fewer publishing options (the paper weight would be 55#, the cover automatically glossy, etc.--most books look like this).

I am in favor of raising enough money to print the anthology beautifully, non-POD. But for this to work, I need help. My idea is that if each contributor pre-sold 1 copy of the anthology to their local/university library, that would pay for the run and allow each contributor a free copy of the anthology. It is quite easy to sell a book to a library. I'll set up a PayPal button, you will go to your library (or your library's website) and request that they buy the book. You will send me an email saying, "Hey Jessica I just sold a book to University of Delaware Library." They'll click on the button and buy the book. I will keep a list of who's sold a book, and when the books come out, the libraries will get a book and you will get a book.

If this kind of plan isn't ok with ya'll, then we'll go POD. You'll then have the option of buying the anthology at cost (rather than at retail) which should be pretty inexpensive. But in this case, I will not have the money to buy you all a copy of the book.

I am open to other funding suggestions, but keep in mind that I am already doing everything-- choosing poems, formatting, working with the printers, etc.-- myself, unpaid, so I will not want to hear funding suggestions that involve me doing a lot more work. So, like, bake sales are out.

Let me know what you think-- I've opened the comment fields.

Stragglers

Lily Brown
Ian Keenan
Michael Peters
Andrew Peterson
Shannon Smith
Jill Stengel

FAQ (drowning by numbers)

Please read the blog FAQs before sending personal email. Your questions may already be answered on this page. Thank you.

1. If your poems or vispo have been accepted to the anthology, your name is on the list to the right. I don't send out individual congratulatory emails nor do I send rejection notices.
2. Which poems, specifically, have been chosen will be listed sometime in March, when I post a full table of contents.
3. Sometime this summer you will all have access to a .pdf of the anthology where you can make corrections to your poems. Keep an eye on the blog for updates.
4. Before we go to print, sometime in Aug/Sept, you will be able to give me an updated bio.
5. Contributor's copies: not sure about these yet, because how the anthology will be funded is still an issue (if you want to help fund the anthology, donate money to Outside Voices Press). At worst, you will be able to buy a contributer copy at cost. I have absolutely no desire to rip you off-- this isn't some poetry.com scam-- but I'm also not going to go into (more) personal debt buying 300+ people books. If enough donated funds become available to pay for the book then you will each receive one free contributor copy.
6. The submissions window is CLOSED for everything but sound poetry. Do not send me normal poetry or vispo. I will not read it. The deadline was 1/1/07; this deadline was extended till 1/8. Submissions of sound poetry are due to Editor Max Middle by 3/31/07.
7. I don't know who's been advising some of you people about submitting work, but when you submit poems to any periodical you should get the name of the publisher right. It's "Outside Voices" not "Other Voices."

Misplaced poems

If you have sent poems to me at any other address than poetry2008 at gmail dot com, it's quite likely that I didn't consider them (this does not apply if you sent your work via a member of the Editorial Board, who then forwarded it to the right address). So if you've been sending me stuff via MySpace, Facebook, and the like, and do not see your name on this page, please resend to the proper address. It is too big a project to make exceptions for friends. Thanks for understanding.

How many?

Though the sound and vispo files aren't all in yet, the count so far, with almost everything in, is over 250 authors.

At the beginning, I thought there were probably about 500 of "us" younger poets working today, at the peripheries of each other's consciousness. I still think there are probably that many, but I'm kinda glad they didn't all submit, because it's been a lot of work with half that many-- and I'm just getting started on the publishing side of the project.

January Acceptances

Poetry
Nico Alvarado-Greenwood, IA
Robyn Art, NY
Ryan Bird, ON
Sam Byfield, AU
C.S. Carrier, MA
Adam Chiles, VA
Jay Cola, FI
Ryan Collins, IL
Caroline Conway, NY
Eduardo C. Corral, AZ
Luke Daly, IL
Michelle Detorie, CA
Will Esposito, PA
Wade Fletcher, VA
Brad Flis, ON
Jason Fraley, WV
Marina Garcia-Vasquez, NY
Barrett Gordon, IL
Andy Gricevich, CA
Sean Hill, MN
Kevin Isu, AB
Pirooz Kalayeh, CA
Jennifer Karmin, IL
Andrew Koszewski, IL
Erica Lewis, CA
Christopher McVey, VA
Grant Miller, WA
Michelle Morgan, ME
Steve Mueske, MN
Ocean, WA
Nicole Oquendo, FL
Lee Posna, IA
Jordan Sanderson, MS
A.K. Scipioni, IA
Adam Seelig, ON
Luc Simonic, CO
Aaron Armstrong Skomra, OR
Faye Smailes, QC
Jordan Stempleman, IA
Bronwen Tate, RI
Kristen Taylor, VA
Natalie Zina Walschots, AB
Helen White, BE
Richard Wink, UK

Visual Work
Dax Bayard-Murray
Ben Doyle & Sandra Miller, VA
Lisa Flaherty, OR
Barrett Gordon, IL
Andy Gricevich, CA
Jennifer Karmin, IL
Becca Klaver, IL
Shin Yu Pai, CA
Michael Peters, MA
Andrew Peterson, MA
Carton Tragedy, GA

(As if there were a difference between poetry and visual work.)

This post will continue to be updated, so check back. I'll create a new post to announce when I am done looking through all the poetry and vispo submissions at the end of the month. I am also still working on updating links. Oh, and big thanks to Kerri, CA, Jason, Corrine and Aaron for the final push (as well as to whoever's spreading the word in the Midwest).

Visual and Sonic submissions are still welcome, though 1/31 and 3/1 respectively.

Updates

Slowly digging out from under the flood of last-minute submissions. This is getting so big and exciting.

FAQ
Can I still send poetry?
No.

Can I still send vispo/collage/illustrations?
Yes, till Jan. 31

Can I still send soundpo files?
Yes, till March.

When are you going to update my URL/state/name on the website?
Um... soon.

Updates

Ah, poets. Nothing like waiting till the very last minute, eh? My inbox is swamped and my computer access unreliable, so:
- links for poets will be updated next week
- you may continue to submit poetry until Monday, Jan. 8. I will update acceptances Tuesday, so this is seriously the very last day to submit poetry. You may continue to submit visual work and soundpo (digital recordings).

Call for Visual Work

What I would like now is to see some collage or other sort of poetic illustrations. Illustrations by poets, that is. Photos, newspaper cuttings, paintings, drawings, scores, dance steps, collage, vispo are all possibilities; I will choose what strikes me. Send as .jpg or .tiff to the poetry2008@gmail.com address by Jan. 31, 2007. Page size will be 6x9 and printing will most likely be b&w, so plan accordingly. Send as high-res files as possible.

(You can send stuff regardless of whether you've been accepted to the anthology as a poet, and regardless of whether it's been published, as long as you retain the copyright.)

Links and December acceptances are still trickling in and being updated.

December

Congratulations to the final batch of poets accepted to the 2008 Anthology:

Ivy Alvarez
Alixandra Bamford, ON
Aaron Belz, MO
Kristy Bowen, IL
Jenna Cardinale, NY
Dan Coffey, IA
Bruce Covey, GA
Ryan Downey, GA
Michael Ford, LA
Jeannine Hall Gailey, WA
Will Gallien, OR
o. hunt, ID
Lisa Janssen, IL
Aaron Lowinger, NY
Shad Marsh, NC
Laura Moore
Sawako Nakayasu
The Pines
Andrew Sage, NY
Steve Schroeder, CO
Felicia A. Shenker, QC
Matthew Siegel, TX
Michelle Taransky, IA
Maureen Thorson, DC
Eric Unger, IL
Raymond Wachter, AL
Jasmine Dreame Wagner, MT
Ryan Walker, DC
Damian Weber, NY

There's another small stack left to consider, and we'll be considering submissions till Jan. 1, 2007, so this list may get a little larger. I'm also not done editing the names, links, and locations in the sidebar, so bear with me. Thanks.

Clarification

If your name appears anywhere on this page, your work has been accepted for print in the anthology. This is a grassroots operation. We don't have time to respond to everyone's work. If you sent work and your name is listed here, it was accepted. If you didn't send work or if you did and your name isn't listed here, your work will not be in the anthology.

Also re: bios and permissions. In late 2007 before the book goes to print, I will be asking for new bios and for information on who published the poem previously. Giving me that kind of information now is only to give me a sense of who you are. I realize that by this time next year your bio may be completely different. That's fine. There's room for that to change. I will ask for them all at the same time, sometime in, say, August 2007. Then I'll also ask for exact spellings and capitalizations in your names, since many of you use different names for email and life than for poetry.

SoundPoNent

There is now a CD component to the Anthology. Toronto poet Max Middle will be editing sound poetry submissions. Sound files are due to him by March 31. Note that the soundpo component is only for poets whose major medium is the sonic/performance space. If your work is best represented on paper, do not send sound files. If your poetry reading sounds like any other boring poetry reading (sorry, but you know what I mean) do not send sound files. If your poetry sounds like Jaap Blonk, send sound files. You may also send sound files to the poetry2008 at gmail dot com address.

Remember, too, that December is the last month for regular submissions. We're still missing poems from many poets I know personally, and I'm not going to crack down on you each individually. Let's go, people!

November

Dax Bayard-Murray, MA
Ana Bozicevic-Bowling, NY
Jeremy Czerw, NY
Kevin Doran, UK
Eric Gurney, CA
Jeremy Halinen, WA
Donora Hillard, PA
Donald Illich, MD
Carol McCarthy, LA
Brian McMahon, NY
Surya Parekh, CA
Matthue Roth, PA
seflo, CA
Noel Sloboda, PA
Matina Stamatakis, NY
Brian VanRemmen, VA
James Weber, MO

Raison d'etre

Cf. entry for March 8th.

October

Jack Boettcher, MS
Megan Burns, LA
John Cotter, MA
Ryan Fitzpatrick, AB
Lilah Hegnauer, VA
Carrie Hunter, CA
Becca Klaver, IL
Bill Marsh, IL
Stephen McLaughlin, PA
Chris Moran, OH
John Most, NY
Grace Vajda, AZ

September

Sandra Beasley, DC
Kristi Castro, SC
Juliet Cook, OH
Jason Labbe, VA
Kristine Leja, CA
Nick Moudry, PA
Tom Orange, DC
Lars Palm, ES
Kate Pringle, CA
John Sakkis, CA
Mathias Svalina, NE
Elizabeth Switaj, NY
Jane Thompson, AB
Michelle Tupko, IL

August Authors

William Allegrezza, IL
Ellen Baxt, NY
Michael Bernstein, IL
Daniel Borzutzky, IL
Marie Buck, MA
Simon DeDeo, IL
Patrick Dillon, DC
Adam Fieled, PA
Lisa Flaherty, NC
Jeremy Gardner, NY
Chris Glomski, IL
Mike Gubser, VA
Sharon Harris, ON
Lee Herrick, CA
Brandi Homan, IL
Daniel Knudsen, WI
Sarah Lang, RI
Jessi Lee, IL
Rob MacDonald, MA
Kristy Odelius, IL
J.F. Quackenbush, WA
Frank Sherlock, PA
Natalie Simpson, AB
Mark Tardi, IL
Lina Vitkauskas, IL

Congratulations! And thanks to Kerri Sonenberg for her push for submissions from Chicago this month!

July authors

Joshua Arnold, CA
Erin Bertram, MO
Gregory Betts, ON
Tiff Dressen, CA
Kerri French, MA
Susana Gardner, CH
Marci Nelligan, CA
Jess Rowan, OR
Sam Wharton, IL

Congratulations, poets. If you want a link with your name, send it.

The dearth of submissions in July allowed us to spend a little more time appreciating the ones we did get. Still, we hope to see more submissions in August. Remember, too, that if you submitted something that didn't get accepted, you can try again till December.

June Authors

Amy Berkowitz, NY
Mackenzie Carignan, IL
Betsy Fagin, UK
Michael Farrell, AUS
Greg Fuchs, NY
Elisa Gabbert, MA
Scott Glassman, PA
K. Lorraine Graham, CA
Chall Gray, NC
Christine Hamm, NY
Rebecca Hazelton, FL
Sean Kilpatrick, MI
Andrew Kozma, TX
Nicole Mauro, CA
Kristi Maxwell, AZ
Alan May, AL
Matt Rasmussen, MN
Michael Rerick, AZ
Paul Siegell, PA
Jay Snodgrass, FL
Jim Toweill, AL
Cat Tyc, OR

We're a little slow this month. Don't email us asking which poem we chose. Pat yourself on the back, get a friend to buy you a drink, and go write more poetry. (Putting up a link is a different story. Got a website or blog you want us to link to? Just send us the link.)

We accept authors for the anthology based on the strength of one or more of the pieces they submit. Thus, while for some authors it may immediately be obvious to us which poem we will use, for many of our authors we are not entirely sure until weeks later. If you want to use one of your poems for another publication, go for it. But please do not email us asking which poem of yours we have chosen to publish; we're still knee-deep in the organic process of "developing" the anthology.

May Authors

Katy Acheson, MA
Jessica Bozek, GA
Paul Fattaruso, SD
Noah Eli Gordon, CO
Paul Hegedus, ON
Matthew Henriksen, NY
David Harrison Horton, CA
Dan Hoy, NYC
John Hyland, MA
Lauren Ireland, PA
Laura Jaramillo, PA
Justin Lacour, NY
Brendan Lorber, NY
Andrew Lundwall, WI
Jill Magi, NY
Justin Marks, NY
Chris Martin, NY
Ashraf Osman, PA
Eugene Ostashevsky, NY
Shin Yu Pai, TX
Christopher Salerno, NC
Sandra Simonds, FL
Kathleen Rooney, MA
Trudi West, CA*

April Authors

The following poets' work has been accepted to the anthology during the month of April.

Jonathan Ball, AB
Samantha Barrow, PA
Jeremiah Bowen, CO
Melissa Buzzeo, IA
Christophe Casamassima, MD
Emily Critchley, UK
Jaime Anne Earnest, PA
Gabe Gudding, IL
Liberty Heise, WA
Geoff Hlibchuk, NY
Brian Howe, NC
Raymond Hsu, WI
Amy King, NY
Michael Koshkin, CO
Donato Mancini, BC
Bob Marcacci, CHN
James Maughn, CA
Jeremy McLeod, ON
T.A. Noonan, MS
Wanda O'Connor, QB
Alessandro Porco, NY
Carly Sachs, DC
Jennifer Scappettone, IL
Standard Schaefer, CA
Suzanne Stein, CA
Andrea Strudensky, NY
Chris Tonelli, MA

Poets may submit material until Jan. 1, 2007. We strongly recommend that you check out one of the magazines we like, such as BOTH BOTH, Drill, Ferrum Wheel, The Tiny, or any of the magazines listed here. These will give you an idea of the kind of work we're looking for; the magazines themselves are not part of the project.
(27/54)

March authors

The following authors' works have been accepted for publication as of 31 March 2006. Final due date is 1 Jan 2007.

Andrea Baker, NY
derek beaulieu, AB
Brandon Brown, CA
Sabrina Calle, CO
Joseph Cooper, CO
Michelle Cross, ON
kevin mcpherson eckhoff, AB
Jon-Patrick Fadely, GA
Jim Goar, KR
jUStin!katKO, OH
Jim Kober, AZ
Matthew Langley, PA
Tao Lin, NY
Emily Lloyd, DE
François Luong, TX
Tom O'Connor, NY
Craig Perez, CA
PR Primeau, RI
Marcus Slease, KR
Jessica Smith, VA
Logan Ryan Smith, CA
Justin Sirois, MD
John Stiles, UK
Andrew Topel, IL
Amish Trivedi, IA
Dana Ward, OH
Mike Young, CA
(27/27)

The Project

The scene of young/emerging poets has reached critical mass. Thus, we (John Sakkis and Jessica Smith) are editing an anthology of young poets who are working within a certain artistic sphere. Although, as you will see, the variety of aesthetic viewpoints is wide-ranging, the authors are loosely held together by social, academic, geographic, and historic commonalities. They influence each other without necessarily sharing specific formal traits. This plurality may result from the availability of the internet to these authors from an early age--geographical proximity is not as essential as it was for the SF Renaissance or New York School poets, for instance. The "politically correct" mantra of the 1990s almost certainly encourages the aesthetic diversity as well; poets can respect and be inspired by other poets who may seem to have nothing in common with them aesthetically. This scene is so diverse, geographically and aesthetically, that it requires rethinking the "anthology" as a genre. Our anthology will be a massive collection containing critical introductions, a sample poem from each author, and author biographies. It is not intended to familiarize a reader with the depth and breadth of any single author's work, but it is rather intended to provide a detailed record of the sheer magnitude, energy, and plurality of experimental poetry at the turn of the millennium.

The anthology will be released at the turn of the New Year, 2008, by Outside Voices. Click here to email the editors and/or submit work.

Update: John Sakkis has retired as co-editor.

Print Ads

You're welcome to download these and paste them wherever you want. More designs will be up soon, and depending on permissions & legibility they may change slightly. For a text ad, write: Outside Voices 2008 Anthology of Younger Poets, edited by John Sakkis & Jessica Smith. Submit work to poetry2008@gmail.com or visit outsidevoices.org for more info

Editorial Board

Main Editors
Jessica Smith

I will be responsible for final selection, formatting, grant-writing, pre-press/press/distribution, and all those other nice editorial duties that make life worth living.

Editorial Board
Michael Carr, Boston
Jason Christie, Canada
CAConrad, Philadelphia
Corrine Fitzpatrick, New York
Eric Gelsinger, New York
K. Lorraine Graham, LA/San Diego
Aaron Lowinger, Buffalo


These folks are the touchpoints for their respective geographical locations. If your geographical location doesnt have its own editor, that doesn't mean you can't submit. We assigned editors to major scenes so as not to overlook minor/unpublished young poets on those scenes. We assume that smaller cities' scenes are more compact and people there will be gracious enough to spread the word on their own.

FAQs

Q: Who should submit poetry for this anthology?
A: People who are loosely associated with one or more of the following magazines: name, BOTHBOTH, Plantarchy, small town, Drill, lungfull, anomaly, filling Station, dandelion, ixnay, Tinfish,; presses: CyGist, Palm, Handwritten, House Press, Ugly Duckling, Tougher Disguises, Effing, Slack Buddha, Atticus/Finch, Katalanche, CyPress, Narrowhouse. This is a rough guide--but if none of these names are familiar to you, we're unlikely to accept your work, as we are working to establish/reinforce a particular (if very large & loosely associated) community of young poets.

Q: What size will it be?
A: 6x9; leave .75" margins just to be safe

Q: I'm 18/41, and you said 20-40. Can I still submit?
A: It really depends on where you place yourself as a poet. Do you think you should have been included in a 1998 anthology of young poets? Would you like to be included in a 2018 anthology of young poets? Do you think of the poets involved as significantly younger or older than you, or are you their peer? I want you to choose yourselves. Identify yourselves, associate yourselves as you see fit. The anthology will strive to be an archive of zine, website, and book publishers in "our" generation, as well as a map of people who organize reading series. It is intended to establish, environ, and enhance our burgeoning community.

Q: I hate anthologies. Isn't this a stupid project?
A: Perhaps, but it is BIG. Size matters.

Q: What if i've published more than 1 book?
A: Email either Jessica or John, decisions will be made on an individual basis.

Q: I'm from Canada/Holland/China/Sweden/etc.. Can I submit?
A: Go for it, but make sure your poems can be appreciated by English speakers (even if they aren't in English)

Q: How are you going to pull this off? (Funding, editing, distribution, etc.)
A: It surprises me that I get this question--that I also got it when beginning Outside Voices. Just know this, we will get it done.

Q: I sent you stuff, but I haven't received a response
A: A list of authors whose work has been accepted will be posted to this blog at the beginning of each month.

Q: Who will be deciding what poems go in?
A: I (Jessica Smith) and John Sakkis will be in charge of the East and West, respectively. The Editorial Board will help us gather and weed out poems too.

Q: What if I've done something stupid or mean to piss either you or John off?
A: It doesn't matter. This is not a personal project. If you are mad at one or the other of us, you can send your submission to the other one.

Q: I only write really long poems. I would need at least 5 pages in the book.
A: You are restricted to one page. Please consolidate or excerpt.

Q: Can I submit previously published poems?
A: Yes, as long as you own the copyright. At this point we're not sure whether we can (or would want to) pay other presses royalties for using your poem. Unless the poem you're talking about was published in a Book (ie not a chapbook or zine), this restriction probably doesn't apply to you.

initial thoughts

Yes, I think I have a good distinction. One of many attempted over the last week. we are not In the American Tree. We are rhizomatic. (endless postmodernism! yes, but, it's true, growing up in the postmodern moment has made a difference.) Diasporic, influencing not in the way that I described the feeling of being influenced by Howe & Spahr, but influencing each other at a "grassroots" level.

I think I'll make an anthology. It will be a Big Anthology, as big as the Sarabande. One or two poems per poet. You may submit stuff. If you're reading this, I assume you consider yourself part of this young community of poets.

"restrictions" (very roughly)
- young, relatively unestablished, and working within/around the Group, even if a few degrees removed from the Buffalo group I have presented, and even if working from a different aesthetic.
- what you send, you should consider a "poem" or something like a poem. how you define that is up to you. "I know it when I see it."
- you can be from whatever country you want, but the poems should be in English or understandable without translation.
- you don't have to be my friend or even know me.
- send only your best work
- consider that you will have about one page. choose your poem(s) based on this space distribution.
- send a few pieces so i can judge what your best work is and in case we're able to publish more than 1 poem per person.
- provide a short bio (under 100 words) with yr birthdate.
- format will probably be around 6x9" with margins around .5" (make sure it fits)

who cannot submit
- people in the "Zoo" anthology, unless you are half-animal
- If you are in the 1998 Talisman/Jarnot anthology
- it should go without saying, but, people in the Sarabande anthology.
- If you're in Shift & Switch, make sure you meet the age & publication requirements.

I'm thinking, get me poems by Jan. 1, 2007 for a 2008 release, 10 yrs after Lisa Jarnot's An Anthology of New (American) Poets. VisPo is encouraged but must be b&w. SoundPo is encouraged and there will be a CD. Edtorial help from other communities (NY, SF, etc.) would be great--so I can make sure I'm getting the best sample of what's going on. My primary objective is to leave out as few people as possible. 500 pages-- to me that means, 475 poets. Let's go.

If you are a press and are interested in publishing this anthology, let's talk.

if you don't submit and i like your work, i might just take it and publish it anyway. guerilla anthologizing.

it'll be two years before the thing comes out, so it doesn't have to be your most recent work, just a piece that you feel represents you as an artist.

send stuff here so i don't lose it in my normal account. i won't send a confirmation, but at the end of the year i'll post to the blog whose work will be in the anthology.

when you send me submissions, format it:
10 pt garamond
..jpg or .tiff
include a short bio w/your birthdate