THE SMOKING POET
Check out the new issue of The Smoking Poet, including an interview with Sue Miller and fiction by Lynn Stegner, Kris Saknussemm, Mark Batable, Lauren Baratz-Logsted, and many more. Plus some incredible poetry, including submissions by Cheshire, England Poet Laureate Harry Owen. It's all here: http://thesmokingpoet.net
A call for submissions as well as the First Annual Short Story Contest are underway; see ezine for submission guidelines and details.
About Zinta
Zinta Aistars is the published author of three books, founder and editor-in-chief of THE SMOKING POET. She is the creative director at Z Word, LLC, a writing and editing service. Prior to that, Zinta was an editor and writer for LuxEsto, the Kalamazoo College...
Connections
Causes Zinta Aistars Supports
Women for Women International
Is smoking a requirement?
Is smoking a requirement for submitting poets?
TSP Guidelines
Not at all! While there is a page we call the "Cigar Lounge," where we feature cigar reviews, this is more about the ambiance of the literary ezine. Definitely NOT a requirement for literary submissions.
Feel free to review our submission guidelines at The Smoking Poet.
We look forward to reading your work!
Zinta
Writer & Editor, THE SMOKING POET
Question
I noticed that The Smoking Poet's submission guidelines state that poems cannot have been published - to include at your own site. My question concerns online writing workshops. I am a member of an online community and sometimes post work there for feedback. Usually I rework the poem after that. Does this mean I should not submit these "workshopped" poems anywhere? What if I revised a poem that is held in archive at another site? Guess that's two questions. I do not consider any of my work published - but still have been hitting this brick wall when I begin to submit.
Whenever I have touched on this subject before, people respond with remarks that it is stupid to worry about posting your work online, you need a "portfolio" - an internet presence. So, how can I have that without posting my work? Do I really need secret-squirrel poems that I don't show anyone so that I can publish? And how will I get feedback? My most viable option is online. I want to improve... and I want to publish... but I get the feeling that I have two routes available: "publish" my stuff for my friends and die hoping for post-humous "real publishing," or be a hermit that never shows anyone my stuff (I live in Oklahoma and have few resources as far as feedback) and never improve beyond my own opinion. While I know my opinion is most important in this respect, I really value the constructive critique I receive online. Yeah, that's a bunch of questions. Maybe I'll post this to my blog as well.
-Miko is Michelle
Pre-published work
Michelle, speaking for The Smoking Poet, I would not consider workshopped pieces in online forums as "published." I would not, however, post work on my own sites or blogs if I wanted to submit that work for publication elsewhere ... with the exception of excerpts that introduce readers or potential publishers to longer work. An online portfolio should consist of already published work, once rights have reverted back to you.
Zinta Aistars
Writer & Editor, THE SMOKING POET