Month: February 2016

So for the last two or three years I’ve been trying out poetry journals, newsletters and organizations. Really learned a lot but I’ve made some changes this year. In review:

The Scottish Poetry Library newsletter was great, friendly and full of awesome community outreach programs and activities but was pretty pricey if you live stateside. I had to give it up for a while.

The Poetry Society of America provided not much return for your membership (except a membership card) unless you live in New York City and can take advantage of their programs and outreach. For instance, when I lived there in the 1990s I enjoyed their poems on posters in the subways.

The Academy of American Poets, who publishes the 2x–a-year American Poets magazine which has really good brief essays and a nice variety of poems and enticing, yet brief reviews. But that only comes out a few times a year. And the price is high considering. But you also get copies of their award-winning books, depending on your membership level. Of all the books I’ve received over the last few years, I only liked one of them. The majority were experimental, language-y books, which I don't dislike but not as a majority of what I read. I will probably go back to them at some point. You also get their National Poetry Month poster with your membership but you can get that separately from their website.

Poetry magazine. I feel torn about this one. Sometimes I loved it. But usually I didn’t. I tended to enjoy more their themed issues. The essays were hit and miss, sometimes affectedly esoteric. The visual content was always good. The key for me was when the thing arrived in the mail. Did I feel burdened about its arrival or excited? The truth was I never felt excited. Does this mean I’m not a sophisticated poetry reader? The Costa Rican poet Luis Chavez from the October 2015 issue, however, proves to me why Poetry is an indispensable journal. He felt like a miracle to find and he’s available nowhere else in translation yet.

American Poetry Review. Now this magazine I was always excited to receive, mostly for its essays which hit just the right tone and variety. However, after two years or so years reading it I’m still seeing the same authors over and over again. This, too, I will probably return for at some later time but if exploring is my goal and money is limited, I have to quit some of these journals for a time.

The only holdover is Poets & Writers which feels indispensable and community-connecting. I’m also keeping One Story. I enjoyed every issue from last year, its inexpensive and a subscription I'm sharing with friends.

My new journals this year are Rattle, Lapham’s Quarterly and The New Yorker, which I haven’t ever enjoyed previously but they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.