Bill Allegrezza's Submission Dos and Don'ts

Just in case you missed the deadline for Moria a few days ago, here's some choice advice from Bill Allegrezza for when you are submitting poetry:

• 'read the journal before submitting. most of the poems i reject are in styles not published in the journal.


• don't write me two weeks after you submit looking for an answer.


• go read some contemporary poetry. if you, a poet, don't read contemporary poetry, who does?


• i don't publish poetry written by poets named harold unless they remind me of haroldo de campos.'

The last one is a bit harsh. While it could be taken as the words of a world-weary editor, most of it rings true for me, even with the relatively small amount of submissions Openned gets. In order to give this work its due Steve and myself usually take a good long look at it, which means any unnessary correspondence can get in the way of what really matters - the poetry. I think this holds especially true when sending to online publications, where it is quicker easier to publish work. Just because it's easier doesn't mean the quality level needs to be lower. Read the rest of his post here.