Writers and Editors

Poets aspiring to be published: Be aware that there are many scam poetry contests out there, trying to get your money. Among links below are guides to finding the legitimate poetry contests. Above all: Sign nothing granting or selling all future rights on your poetry.
• Arts and poetry organizations
• Paris Review interviews with poets
• Poetry awards and contests
(Legitimate contests vs. contest scams)
• Links to other helpful or interesting poetry-related sites and articles
• Poetry and literary publications online

Arts and poetry organizations

• Academy of American Poets
• Authors Guild (this professional organization for published authors and freelance writers offers advice on contracts royalty statements, and protecting authors' rights and lobbies on issues related to copyright, taxation, and freedom of expression)
• Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP, frequently asked questions page)
• LitLine, its list of organizations devoted to keeping literature alive
• Haiku Society of America (promoting Haiku in English)
• The National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT)
• PEN American Center
• Poetry Foundation (articles, tools, blog, Poetry Magazine)
• The Poetry Book Society (UK)
• The Poetry Society (UK)
• Poetry Society of America (PSA)
• Poetry Society of Virginia
*** Poets & Writers (a very helpful site)[Back to Top]

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Paris Review Interviews with Poets

• W. H. Auden, The Art of Poetry No. 17 (interviewed by Michael Newman)
• Elizabeth Bishop, The Art of Poetry No. 27 (interviewed by Elizabeth Spires)
• Robert Bly, The Art of Poetry No. 79 (interviewed by Francis Quinn>
• Billy Collins, The Art of Poetry No. 83 (interviewed by George Plimpton)
• T. S. Eliot, The Art of Poetry No. 1 (interviewed by Donald Hall)
• Robert Frost, The Art of Poetry No. 2 (interviewed by Richard Poirier)
• Allen Ginsberg, The Art of Poetry No. 8 (interviewed by Thomas Clark)
• Robert Graves, The Art of Poetry No. 11 (Interviewed by Peter Buckman and William Fifield)
• Geoffrey Hill, The Art of Poetry No. 80 interviewed by Carl Phillips)
• Ted Hughes, The Art of Poetry No. 71 (Interviewed by Drue Heinz)
• Carolyn Kizer, The Art of Poetry No. 81 (Interviewed by Barbara Thompson Davis)
• Stanley Kunitz, The Art of Poetry No. 29 (Interviewed by Chris Busa)
• Robert Lowell, The Art of Poetry No. 3 (interviewed by Frederick Seidel)
• Archibald MacLeish, The Art of Poetry No. 18 (interviewed by Benjamin DeMott)
• Derek Mahon, The Art of Poetry No. 82 (interviewed by Eamonn Grennan)
• Marianne Moore, The Art of Poetry No. 4 (interviewed by Donald Hall)
• Pablo Neruda, The Art of Poetry No. 14 (interviewed by Rita Gilbert)
• Octavio Paz, The Art of Poetry No. 42 (Interviewed by Alfred Mac Adam)
• Kay Ryan, The Art of Poetry No. 94 (Interviewed by Sarah Fay)
• Charles Simic, The Art of Poetry No. 90 (Interviewed by Mark Ford)
• Derek Walcott, The Art of Poetry No. 37 (Interviewed by Edward Hirsch)
• Charles Wright, The Art of Poetry No. 41 (interviewed by J. D. McClatchy)
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Other interviews with poets:
• Anecdotes about T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), from Anecdotes About Authors
• U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey (audio, Diane Rehm show, 1-23-13). U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey was born in Mississippi, 100 years to the day after Confederate Memorial Day was established. Her mother was black, her father is white. Their marriage was against the law in the state. Her poetry explores the interplay of race and memory in her life and in American history. The past she mines is often unsettling: growing up biracial in the deep south of the 1960s, the lives of forgotten African-American Civil War soldiers, her mother’s murder and the legacy of slavery. Tretheway is the first poet laureate to move to Washington, D.C., and work out of the Library of Congress since the position was established in 1986. She’s the first southern Poet Laureate since Robert Penn Warren. And she’s the first person to serve simultaneously as the poet laureate of a state –- Mississippi –- and the nation. In 2007, she received a Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection, “Native Guard.” Last year, she published a follow-up titled, “Thrall.” She joins Diane to talk about the role of poetry in our everyday lives.
The beautiful poem she reads early in interview is W. H. Auden's "Musιe des Beaux Arts."

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships, plus contests and other sources of funding (Writers and Editors)

G&A: The Contest Blog (Prize Reporter, Grants and Awards, Poets & Writers). For more contests, see Awards, grants, & fellowships on Writers & Editors site

Poetry Society of America links to poetry contests for books, for chapbooks, and for single poems.

Montreal International Poetry Prize ($50,000 for one poem, in English). As reported by Poets&Writers, New Fifty-Thousand-Dollar Poetry Prize Has Global Ambitions (G&A, Prize Reporter, 4-4-11)

Wag's Review (awards of $1,000 to $100 for top prizes, plus publication, weighed against $20 entry fee per item of poetry, essay, or fiction).

Legitimate contests vs. contest scams • Entering to Win: On Poetry Contests (Robert Casper, Poets.org, The Academy of American Poets) • Web Resources that Help You Identify Scams • Writing Contests: When Winners Are Losers (Moira Allen Writing-World.com, on scams writers should be aware of) • 13 Warning Signs of a Bad Poetry Contest (Winning Writers) • For some artists, success comes with a price. "Free contest 'winners' can buy books, mugs, plaques featuring their work" (Diana Marrero, Jacksonville Times-Union, 4-3-01) • 7 Ways to Become the Victim of a Poetry Contest Scam (John Hewitt, PoeWar, 1-11-10) • Contests and Agencies to Avoid (Winning Writers) • Getting the Scoop on Poetry Contest Scams (Linda Alice Dewey, Absolute Write) • Preditors and Editors list of writing contests (on which they indicate which contests not to enter) • The Free Contest Scheme (Writer Beware, SFWA). In this version of the vanity anthology scheme, writers are targeted via a free contest. Another variation: Pay to Play Anthologies (often nonfiction), and other schemes to get writers to open their wallets.

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Links to other helpful or interesting poetry-related sites and articles

• Advice on how to sell poetry (Neile Graham)
• Articles from Poets & Writers
• The Art of the Metaphor (Jane Hirshfield, TedEd video lesson)
• The Art of...the excellent series from Graywold Press, includes these books, among others:
---Doty, Mark. The Art of Description: World into Word
---Longenbach, James. The Art of the Poetic Line by James Longenbach
---Voigt, Ellen Bryant. The Art of Syntax: Rhythm of Thought, Rhythm of Song
---Young, Dean. The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction. "Evolve your poetics," writes Amy King.
• Ask a Librarian (Saison Poetry House, U.K.)
• The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered. Clive James' classic poem about about literary schadenfreude, as posted by Dwight Garner on the NY Times Paper Cuts blog about books.
• Colonies, Conferences, and Festivals (Poetry Society of America links)
• Dear Writer: Reasons to Love and Fear Your Copyeditor (Sally Fisher Saller, the Subversive Copy Editor, in Prime Number)
• Directory of Poetry Publishers (AWP)
• Japanese Haiku Poetry Resources
• Hall, Donald. Unpacking the Boxes: A Memoir of a Life in Poetry (from youth through old age) and Life Work (reflections on the pleasures of work become more when the well-known poet and memoirist learns, at 63, that he has cancer).
• Handbook for Literary Translators (free download from PEN America)
• Links for poets (excellent resources, American Academy of Poets)
• Me, myself and I: How easy is it to write confessional poetry? (Christina Patterson, The Independent, 1-23-13). Sharon Olds' account of her marital break-up made her a deserved TS Eliot winner. But that doesn't mean confessional poetry is easy to pull off. Confessional poetry, says critic Mack Rosenthal, is poetry that "goes beyond customary bounds of reticence or personal embarrassment."
• Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet (Heather Grace Stewart, guest post on Paul Lima's blog, 6-19-12)
• My Path to Print on Demand Poetry
• OEDILF (The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form)
• Paris Review "Writers at Work" interviews (from 1953 on)
• Poetry and Literature (Library of Congress, links to many helpful resources)
• Poetry journals, publishers, literary organizations, gatherings, contests, and writing programs (Poetry Society of America)
• Poetry Magazine (articles from)/a>
• Poetry Speaks, where poets and poetry publishers and fans of poetry and poets can gather and interact, listen to poetry, upload their poems read aloud)
• Poets & Writers Magazine
• RhymeZone, online rhyming dictionary and thesaurus
• Selby's List of Experimental Poetry/​Art Magazines
• Small Press Distribution (SPD, connecting readers with writers of poetry, innovative fiction, and cultural writing)
• Submitting your work for publication (Charlie Hughes)
• Talking Volumes (MPR's Kerri Miller's multimedia interviews with poets Josephine Dickinson and Galway Kinnell, on Star-Tribune site)
• That's What It Meant: Symbolism in Poetry (English.Answers.com, recommended by Dylan)
• Top 100 Creative Writing Blogs, updated 2012. BestCollegesOnline.com (includes poets who blog)
• What Poetry Form Am I? (do answer the questions)
And what the heck: How to Write and Sell Greeting Cards, Bumper Stickers, T-Shirts and Other Fun Stuff by Molly Wigand, one of several books on a field poets might consider as a sideline!

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Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry (Center for Social Media)

Literary magazines online:
• American Book Review (links to literary magazines, publishers, and organizations)
• Duotrope (lists over 3500 fiction and poetry publications)
• Litlines list of journals and online journals. It also lists small presses and literary organizations.
• New Pages (news, information and guides to independent bookstores, independent publishers, literary magazines, alternative periodicals, independent record labels, alternative newsweeklies and more). Here are links to literary magazines.
• Poets & Writers excellent database (500+ magazines that accept poems, stories, essays, and reviews). P&W also lists MFA creative writing programs and small presses.
• Websites for African American poetry (MTSU)

Poetry Daily. "The urge to 'tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it' lessens when poetry arises freshly each day." (from the Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins)

* Poetry Speaks, where poets and poetry publishers and fans of poetry and poets can gather and interact, listen to poetry, upload their poems read aloud)

The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor (great archive of poems to read and hear)
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