Eco-poetry

The Ecopoetry Anthology presents not just poems about nature. Ecopoetry is a movement that seeks to change our culture from dominion over all living things to living in harmony with all beings. Humans are not separate from nature. We know that our increasing population and the increasing pressure to exploit natural resources is becoming a challenge for the planet and our own quality of life. Our needs for fuel, energy, manufacturing, and profit contribute to the degradation of the environment and scarcity of resources. Eco-poetry seeks to rebalance the world, to find a new language that can draw us back from the inevitable disasters caused by materialism, excessive consumption, and short-term vision.

This collection of poetry provides a wide range of work. I recommend it. I think it's a very good starting place.  I felt at times that it was almost too wide a range of poems. The definition of ecopoetry is broad and it accomodates a lot.  Ultimately, I think we need more eco-poetry.  So I'm saying, write it.  The poet Linda Hogan once told me that whatever you write about makes it stronger. Write about what is important to you. Write about things that need to be stronger.  And you might ask: how do you do that?

The Relationship with Rhyme

Tracks

Every poet must contemplate his or her relationship with rhyme.  Meter and rhyme are often identified as the elements that make a poem a poem.  I consider poetry to be a pattern language. The images, marks and appearance on the page are not random. The idea of pattern encompasses more than meter and rhyme.  Poems draw patterns with image, metaphor, myth, and music.  Within the term music, I want to recall the phrase "in time," in other words, being able to hold the beat or rhythm. Timing. Secondarily, poems can be both in time and out of time (referring to temporality) but their rhyme and meter are about timing.

Publishing Tips

The bookshelf

Do you want to see your book in the bookstore? It happens, but it takes a long time. Read on for some guidelines about seeing your work into print (or e-publication). 

Present a manuscript that looks professional: 

• Proofread carefully, then have a friend proofread
• One poem per page
• Use standard margins
• Use a standard, 12 point font. Avoid fancy font.
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments - add a page that acknowledges previous publications: what, where, when
• Paginate

A cover letter should include the title of the work that you are submitting and a brief biographical statement. If you are sending a manuscript to a competition contest, or if it's part of a grant application, read the submission guidelines carefully. Some contests request that your name does not appear on the manuscript.

What are the standard sizes of manuscripts?  

• A full poetry manuscript: 60-100 pages
• Chapbook length: about 30 pages
• Novella: 60 pages
• Novel length: about 300 pages

How Do You Assemble a Manuscript?

This is a challenge, and the answer lies within the poems. Let the form rise out of the content. Art and poetry is an emotional investigation of a subject. Most poets discover the nature of this investigation during the project, perhaps at the completion of the project.  An image or concept might arise. This is the key to the overall organization of the manuscript.  Maybe you wouldn't call it a concept, but you would call it a question or an inquiry.  

It's helpful to develop sequences of poems that are related thematically or by form.  It's sensible to use these sequences of closely related poems to build a manuscript.  

Most presses like to see individual poems published in magazines.  I know some publishers would like about fifty percent of the poems previously placed in literary magazines.  Send out your work regularly. Most online and print literary magazines now have an online submission manager (like Submittable or Submishmash), and the editors of the magazines usually request a small batch of poems to review, 3-5 poems usually. 

The online submission managers are easy to use. You are asked to fill out text boxes online that include your name, address, and other contact information. It will guide you through uploading a file that contains the poems you want to be considered (saved in .docx, .doc, .rtf).  After you press the "Submit" button, a page will open confirming your submission and you'll also receive a confirmation e-mail. 

Read the submission guidelines on the literary magazine's website, and look for additional information. Some magazines develop themes and want to consider theme-related work. Others will request a certain number of poems.  All would greatly appreciate it if you become familiar with the publication (by subscribing or buying a copy). Most presses take 2 months or more to reply, and your reply will come via email.  The better you know the market, the more successful will be your efforts to place poems.  

Alternatives to print publicatiion: zines, broadsides, posters, poetry videos, e-publication

DIY Publishing:  (It helps to know people)

• resource: Midwest Independent Publisher's Association
• http://www.mipa.org/
• be wary of "preditors" -- do your research / avoid paying for unnecessary services

Establish an Editorial Process

• Professional quality work: Hire proofreader(s)
• Cover: cover image/ (hire a professional for professional results)
• Text: Consider "standard practices" or consistent "styles" for title formats, margins use inDesign for best results

Turning the Manuscript into a Book 

There are many design decisions that must be made. You can hire somebody to do it for you (and it will be expensive). You can do it yourself if you are skilled.  These are things you will be thinking about:

• The cover -- have a concept for visual images, title placement, font size & style back cover -- blurbs, isbn bar code, price, publisher
• spine -- author, title, publisher
• ISBN numbers / http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp
• LCN numbers/ Library of Congress / http://www.loc.gov/publish/pcn/ Copyright / http://www.copyright.gov/
• Style Choices (be consistent with font for titles and text)
• Title Page: title/author/publisher/place of publication
• Publisher Information / ISBN & LCN / Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• Poems (one poem per page, consistent margins, format, font style & size, titles)
• Information about the author
• Blurbs - ask other writers

Find a Printer and Distribution Network

• offset press / digital and print on demand / e-books
• read the National Writer's Union Print on Demand Report: http://nwu.org/sites/nwu.org/files/print_on_demand_report.pdf
• A popular website for DIY authors: https://www.createspace.com/

Plan to Do a Creative Marketing Campaign

Many writers are publishing their own books these days, and you will need to work hard to find your market and appeal to readers.

• build your network
• send advance copies to reviewers/ send to Publisher's Weekly 6-8 months in advance create a website
• use social media: facebook / twitter / social bookmarking
• plan a book launch / schedule readings / book signings
• do promotion and outreach / book fairs / book award competitions
• find creative marketing strategies/ niches and unique approaches 

Good News for Literary Fiction

"A striking new study found that reading literary fiction – as opposed to popular fiction or serious nonfiction – leads people to perform better on tests that measure empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence."

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/i-know-how-youre-feeling-i-read-chekhov/?hp&_r=0

A Logic Model for Poetry?

Dream Big!  I want to foster the literature of Minnesota and the North, empower women, decrease the exploitation of the weak, create peace and make the world more beautiful.

Okay, I plan to make a living as a writer. In the Creative Community Leadership Institute, we have been discussing use of "The Logic Model." With it, individuals and organizations can develop projects or programs.  It is a way to strategize. Some people hate Logic Models, and other people find them useful.  As a poet, I was repelled by the concept--it's too linear! it's too insane! it kills creativity!--but now I've decided to try it.

Notice I'm not using it to build poems. For sure, it would not work.  But it might be useful as I build my career.  In the coming weeks, I will be modifying and developing this model.  I'm curious now.  Will it work?

Fringe Festival Comes to a Close

Sheila Packa and Kathy McTavish at Intermedia Arts      photo by Pam Colby

The Minneapolis Fringe Festival has completed the 2013 event. Thank you so much for coming to our show!  Night Train / Red Dust presents stories of the Iron Range: women's stories, labor history, mining, and immigrant stories set in deeply resonant sound and image environment.  If you would like us to present this show in your venue, please contact me at sheila@sheilapacka.com

Night Train / Red Dust

About the project:

Night Train/ Red Dust began as a quest for my grandparents' stories. I grew up on the Vermilion Trail, also known as Highway 4, the road that runs through the Lake Superior National Forest, through the community of Island Lake, and to the Iron Range.  I learned this road was the original route to Lake Vermilion, and it was used since 1000 AD (by the Woodland Indian tribes whose burial mounds are found near Lake Esquagama). There is evidence of early mining among the Woodland Indians. In 1856, gold prospectors came to Lake Vermilion. The gold was there, but too difficult to extract from the quartz. Then iron ore was discovered. Around the small town of Biwabik (population 1500), the town where I went to elementary and high school, ten iron ore mines were working by the early 1900s and trains ran the length and breadth of the region.   

Bonfire of Roses

"Bonfire of Roses" is a phrase from Meridel LeSueur's essay in her book, Ripenings.  Meridel LeSueur had a powerful presence and reading voice that made me shiver the one time I heard her read her poems. I consider her my literary grandmother.

Check out this video-poetry that features three of my poems from Night Train Red Dust set into film by Kathy McTavish. She composed the music that was played by the Zeitgeist New Music Quartet in St. Paul.

bonfire of roses from Wildwood River on Vimeo.

To find out dates and times, visit the Fringe Festival web-page
at http://www.fringefestival.org/2013/show/?id=2418

Kathy McTavish and Sheila Packa
photo by Magic Box Photography

Opening the Eyes

Opening the eyes is one of the important benefits of art and poetry. A work is truly great if it can make us see differently.  One of my missions in Night Train Red Dust was to restore lost history of women. Any geographic area has layers of geology, people, and events. Do you know what happened in the place beneath your feet? Who walked on the same ground where you travel?

Women's stories are often forgotten. They are not considered "important" in the way the city builders and bridge builders and presidents, which is a terrible omission.  New biographies of women are changing the telling of history.  These new perspectives are essential.  Our geography has a spectrum of color. Aside from white immigrants, the First People, Native Americans, travelled on these rivers and pathways.  Highway 4 from Duluth to the Iron Range, once called the Rudy Perpich Memorial Highway, once called the Vermilion Trail began as an Indian path. It was used in 1850s for exploration.  In the 1860s, Civil War veterans arrived with the Gold Rush and they travelled on the Vermilion Trail to Lake Vermilion.  The gold wasn't accessible, but iron ore was discovered. Corporate interests paid the Anishinabe people in 'scrip' in exchange for the land. The people did not resist being relocated as the mining companies moved in to drill and excavate.  These stories are essential.

Night Train / Red Dust at the 2013 Fringe Festival in Minneapolis!

I excavate these words from a vein of iron
from stones broken
beneath old growth 

from the open pit – lit by dynamite

Sheila Packa will be at the Fringe Festival with her new work, Night Train / Red Dust, at Intermedia Arts Theater, 2822 Lyndale Ave, Minneapolis (with film and live music by Kathy McTavish):  

Friday, August 2, 8:30 pm 
Saturday, August 3, 1 pm
Tuesday, August 6, 10 pm
Thursday, August 8, 8:30 pm 
Sunday, August 11, 1:00 pm  

These performances start on time, and end within the hour.  

This project is made possible through a fiscal year 2012 Arts Fellowship grant and a Career Opportunity Grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council (www.aracouncil.org) which is funded in part with money from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008; an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature; The McKnight Foundation.

See a sample:

origin of red from Wildwood River on Vimeo.