Michigan Literary Network Blogtalk Radio~April 17, 2013

In an effort to support poetry month, check out Andrea Daniel today at 5:30 on Michigan Literary Network Blogtalk radio as she interviews Charles Madigan. Charles is a poet and coordinates the Oakwood Healthcare Creative Writing Program. Later on at 5:45 Andrea will interview Ann Holdreith another Detroit area poet who facilitates a number of poetry workshops. For more information about Ann check out her website at www.annholdreith.com

News from @LiteraryDetroit Bookswap coming in April #detroit #motownlit #mwn #michlit

Literary Detroit is happy to announce the debut event: a two-day Book Swap at Cafe 1923 Coffeehouse: 3-6pm on Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27.

For every book you bring, you get to take another book home. Plus, we’ve got some participatory poetry and storytelling up our sleeve…

More to come.

Get updates at their facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/LiteraryDetroit/

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT AT MANILA BAY CAFE–OPEN MIC POETRY Jan 18th wsg… #mwn #michlit #motownlit

IN THE SPOTLIGHT AT MANILA BAY CAFE–OPEN MIC POETRY FEATURING:

• Also, Save the Date for our 3rd Friday feature Ju Hall on January 18, 2013

We hope to see you performing under the Spotlight!
http://www.facebook.com/events/515753281792437/?notif_t=plan_user_joined

via Rosemarie Wilson

IN THE SPOTLIGHT AT MANILA BAY CAFE–OPEN MIC POETRY Jan 4th … #mwn #michlit #motown frm @onesinglerose

IN THE SPOTLIGHT AT MANILA BAY CAFE–OPEN MIC POETRY FEATURING:

• January 4, 2013–LaShaun Phoenix Moore
• Also, Save the Date for our 3rd Friday feature Ju Hall on January 18, 2013

We hope to see you performing under the Spotlight!
http://www.facebook.com/events/515753281792437/?notif_t=plan_user_joined

 

via Rosemarie Wilson

Rochester Writers’ Conference 2012 WRITING CONTEST via @talktravel Deadline December 31st! Enter Now! #michlit

2012 WRITING CONTEST

Call for Entries in the Rochester Writers’ Conference 2012 Writing Contest!

Categories:  Poetry, Micro Fiction, and First Page

Prizes:  1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards will be given to each category plus a best of show

Entry:  Entry to contest will begin on October 6, 2012

Deadline:  December 31, 2012

ENTER NOW | FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION

 

ARTICLE: Plagiarism, Copyright, & Fair Use Irene Watson @BLOGGINGAUTHORS #mwn

You love a poem you saw on the Internet and want to quote it in your book. But is that plagiarism? You want to quote a passage in a book but you’re not sure whether you need to ask permission or not. What counts as fair use and when do you need permission to use a copyrighted work?

All the time I see people stealing from other people on the Internet by reposting their articles, stories, or photographs. Before you post anyone else’s information on your website or use it in your book, you need to get permission. Yes, there are such things as public domain and fair use, but it’s always best to be safe regardless. Before you decide to use something that belongs to someone else and risk angering that person and facing a potential lawsuit, ask yourself a few questions:

1. Do I really need this piece of information, poem, cartoon, or whatever it is? Will my book or website be okay without it?
2. Is this item in the public domain?
3. If it’s not in the public domain, can I use part of it under the fair use laws?
4. Can I rewrite or reword the work and then reprint it?
5. Is giving credit enough?

Let’s look at each of these questions in detail.

Do I really need this piece of information? Will my book or website be okay without it?

I can almost guarantee that in every situation the information, document, poem, cartoon, or whatever it is, is something you can do without. Why use someone else’s property to illustrate your own? Hire your own cartoonist, artist, or write your own poem. If you can’t do that, then look for one in the public domain. If you, however, absolutely want to include something that is copyrighted, then be prepared to pay for it. You will need to contact the owner or his or her heir for permission, and you will doubtless have to sign some sort of document promising you will only use it as you are given permission to do so. You will also usually have to pay to use it, especially if it is for commercial purposes, such as in a book you plan to sell, and you’ll usually pay dear for it-in the hundreds of dollars or more is not uncommon. At that price, do you really need to include it in your book or on your website?

Is this item in the public domain?

Just what constitutes public domain? It varies by country and by the kind of work it is. Today for authors, copyright in the United States is for life plus 70 years, so if I were to die tomorrow, it being the year 2012, anything I write would be copyrighted until 2082. However, copyright laws were less stringent in the past so some works may have shorter copyrights that have expired. As a rule, if an author or artist has been dead since 1941 or earlier, you’re probably safe, but it still never hurts to investigate. Furthermore, while an old work like “Don Quixote” may be in the public domain, that doesn’t mean a modern translation of it is.

What counts as fair use?

If a work is not in the public domain, a lot of the time you can still use a small part of it if appropriate, such as a quote or passage, usually not to exceed a page. That said, a short work like a poem cannot be used in its entirety despite its short length because you will be using the whole work, but you might be able to quote a verse or stanza from it. Even so, in such cases it is best to play it safe and ask for permission to quote from the work in your book or on your website. What constitutes fair use depends on many circumstances including: the purpose of its usage, whether it is commercial or charitable, whether the quote is used to promote the work such as in a book review, or whether your use of it will harm sales of someone else’s book because you provide too much information from it.

To go direct to the source, here is what the 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites as examples of fair use:

“quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.” (source: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html )

There are always fine lines that exist in using someone else’s work. Even if you are sure it falls under fair use laws, if it’s not in the public domain, it’s best to ask for permission to use the work, and if that seems impractical, it is always best to consult an attorney.

Can I rewrite or reword the work and then reprint it?

You may paraphrase a work by giving a summary of a basic idea, provided you give credit to the source, but you may never rewrite someone else’s work and pass it off as your own, or even as theirs when it is rewritten. And even when you paraphrase an idea, it is still someone else’s idea (intellectual property) so you must give credit where it is due.

Is giving credit enough?

No, it’s not enough to give credit. You need permission to reprint as well, unless as noted above, it is in the public domain. You must always give credit to the owner, whether it be an author, publication, artist, another website, etc. It is usually sufficient to state who is the original creator or copyright holder of the work. For a poem, provide the title and the author’s name. For a passage from a book, you can state, “George Smith states in his book ‘My Brilliant Ideas,’ that:” Depending on your own book or website, you may want to consult a style manual for how best to cite a source. “The Chicago Manual of Style” is the preferred style manual to use for most books, although others exist depending on the kind of book you are writing, such as the “Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association” (APA style) or the “Christian Writers Manual of Style.” If you do receive permission to reproduce copyrighted material, make sure you ask the owner how you are to cite that permission to reprint the work.

Always find out if a work is copyrighted and always give credit where it is due. Then you will avoid issues of fair use violation, copyright infringements, and plagiarism that can later come back to haunt you.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, http://www.readerviews.com, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Irene_Watson

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Motown Writers Network Poet Feature~ Alex Jones

As poetry month is coming to an end, but not our love for poetry; we’d like to invite you to meet Alex Jones, another of Detroit’s favorite poets!

Alex Jones holds a B.A. in English from the University of Detroit Mercy, where he won the first place prize in the Dudley Randall Poetry Contest for 2010. He went with a group of students to present their poems at the annual symposium of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Additionally, he has been featured at various open mics around the city of Detroit, including the now-defunct Byte This Poetry Series and the Broadside Press Poets’ Theater. His poems have appeared in Detroit’s *Metro Times* newspaper as well as in *[sic]*, the student literary journal at UDM.

5 Questions with Alex…

What is it like being a poet in Detroit?

Well… let’s break that question down a bit. First: What’s it like being a poet? Being a poet means that you observe. You feel. You take in
everything, distill it to its essence, and then fire it back at people. At least, that’s my take. Detroit is a place that is like a mountain or a
cliffside. It can be absolutely beautiful, but it’s certainly not without its rough edges and pitfalls that can do quite a bit of damage to you if
you’re not careful. It has strong light and dark sides. Being a poet in Detroit, then, means that you’re never without inspiration for too long, I
guess. This is an incredible, unique place. If there isn’t something that can agitate your heart and move your pen here, I’d start checking your
pulse.

Do you remember the first time that you read one of your poems? If so, what was that like?

I don’t know. I remember the first time I didn’t read one of my poems. It was 6th grade and we had to write a poem for class and the teacher wanted us to read them in front of the class. Well, I wrote mine about a girl that I really liked and I didn’t want to embarrass myself by reading it in front of the class because I was pretty sure she didn’t like me back. I asked him if I could get away with not reading it and he said sure. If I had to guess, the first time I read one of my own poems aloud would have been in my creative writing class freshman year of college. But it must not have left much of an impression if I don’t recall it clearly.

If you could have lunch with any poet in the world dear or alive, who would it be?

Shakespeare. I don’t know how much people realize this, but he added tons of words to the language that just completely didn’t exist before. I want to see what it took to do that. I want to see what kind of man could do that. That sort of fiercely creative spirit might be something that we
should all strive toward. Not that we need to make more words, I mean, but that we should all strive to create something that has a lasting impact. It’d be nice to get tips from the master on that.

What is your favorite type of poetry?

My favorite type of poetry is the poetry that makes you feel something intensely, whether it’s overwhelming unease from a poem that does an
incredible job of painting a picture, a narrative poem that makes me want to march in the streets, or a poem that manages to almost make me pee myself from laughing so hard. As long as it makes me feel something strongly, I like it. Ideally, it’d be well-crafted in addition to being
moving.

What inspires you to write poetry?

There’s a line from the Dudley Randall poem “A Poet is Not a Jukebox” that pretty much summarizes it for me. It’s “A poet writes about what he feels, what agitates his heart and sets his pen in motion.” It explains why some days, even though I don’t want to think about certain old relationships anymore, all I can do is scribble about them. Or why no matter how much I try to temper my temper when it comes to certain things, all I can write is anger. That’s not to say that one shouldn’t try to corral their writing when it comes time to refine or edit, though. But those moments where you just have to pick up a pen and put it to paper or else you won’t be able to get to sleep? That’s what the quote is for me. That’s usually what gets me writing.

 

 

[PODCAST: ] #MichLit Radio Show wg/Poets A Dub

Listen in now at http://tobtr.com/s/3023845. #BlogTalkRadio

 

Guest summary: Alex “A Dub” White is a spoken word artist whose passion and musicality with words demands his audiences’ attention. Today he’s here to talk about his debut book, For What It’s Worth.

Motown Book Club feature ~Andrea Daniel, Follow her around the city #MWN

Motown Writers Network Meet Up
Sat. 4/14, 10 a.m.
Barnes & Noble on Cass & Warren

Read Aloud to Me Series
Th. 4/19, 5:30 p.m.
Source Booksellers
4201 Cass Ave.

La Shaun phoenix Moore Presents The Summer Soundtrack
Sat. June 30, 8 p.m.
Tangent Gallery
715 E. Milwaukee

Poet Spotlight~Caesar Torreano

Caesar Torreano believes poetry is a beautiful vessel of expression. He chose the name  “Caesar” because it means King and fearless leader in Greek. Approximately 2 1/2 years ago, Caesar started his poetic journey and “spit” for the first time at Cliff Belles. Caesar is fondly known as “a venue junky” because he enjoys going to two to three venues in one night. He is extremely diverse in his poetic writing.  His poetry ranges from social injustices/conscious topics, love, and erotica. Caesar is the host at Nandi’s Knowledge Café in Highland Park and will soon celebrate his one year anniversary. In addition, he is a 38-year-old father of five beautiful children and repair computers in his spare time.

Questions with Caesar…

What fuels you to write poetry?

My life experiences and every day encounters fuels me to write poetry.

Do you remember when you wrote your first poem? 

I remember writing my first poem in the 7th grade at Durfee  Middle School for an extra credit assignment in English.

How would you describe your poetry?

Poetry is a learning experience for me therefore trying to  describe my poetry is hard because it covers a wide range of  emotions, it is raw, comes straight from my heart and authentic.

 Who are some of your favorite poets?

I have too many favorite poets to name them all but a few of my favorite local poets are LaShaun Phoenix Kotaran, Kevlaar, Claretha  Peace Robinson, Omari Barksdale and Chace “Mic Write” Morris. Also  one of my non local favorite poets is Rudy Francisco from California.

Videos:

Kai Mann 

PODCAST: #MichLit Show w/Poets @tmillerpoetry & Honeycomb!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN: http://tobtr.com/s/2967451

1. Guest:  Tawana Honeycomb Petty                  www.amazon.com/author/tawanapetty

Interview time: 5:30

Guest summary: Tawana Honeycomb Petty is a poet, activist, and host of Guerrilla Nights poetry series. Her book is Introducing Honeycomb.

 

Guest bio:

Tawana Petty, a mother, poet, author and activist is best known as “Honeycomb” on stage. She has been featured at many prestigious events, including but not limited to the 1st Annual Focus Hope Black Marriage Day Celebration, the International Black Expo, the 2008 Ribs n Soul Festival in Detroit, the 175th Annual Emancipation Day Festival in Canada, the 2008 Literary Arts Gala at The Charles H. Wright Museum, the 2010 African World Festival and at Lakeshore Economic Coalition Celebrating 10 Years of Freedom with Yusef Bunchy Shakur & Friends: “Granting the Formerly Incarcerated A Second Chance”. Hosted by Reggie Reg Davis, with Keynote Address by Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee.

 

Honeycomb has also performed at the 1st Annual I Am Woman Expo, opened for HBO/BET’s Punany Poets, was the featured artist at Wayne State University’s “A Tribute to Harlem” Showcase and performed at MTV’s Quest Mcody’s “Quest for A Cure” event, just to name a few. She has been a spotlighted poet on AM 1440, FM 107.5, The Writer’s Block on svmixradio.com, Comcast channel 20′s Mix’n It Up with Barry Ross as well as Dr. John Telford’s show. Honeycomb has also been a featured speaker and is a regular guest on Dave Marsh’s national program the “Land of Hopes and Dreams” radio program on channel 127 on SiriusXm Satellite and is the former co-host of Poetic Vibrations radio program on 88.1 FM. Honeycomb has also been the featured artist at venues in and outside of the City of Detroit, including but not limited to the Artist Village, L!V Resto Lounge, They Say, The Key Club, The Upper Room and The Legendary Cliff Bells and Bakers Keyboard Lounge. She is the current host of Guerrilla Nights weekly poetry open mic series, held every Saturday evening  at the Urban Network Cyber Café located at 5740 Grand River, Detroit, MI 48208.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN: http://tobtr.com/s/2967451

2. Guest:         T. Miller  www.facebook.com/tmillerpoetry

Guest summary: T. Miller is a writer, performance poet, author, publisher, activist, producer, actress and motivational speaker.

Guest bio:

Natasha Miller is the voice of wounds exposed, and the healing balm of poetry applied to the human spirit. The passionate 26 year-old Detroit, MI native is a writer, performance poet, author, publisher dedicated activist, producer, actress and an aspiring motivational speaker. Since her debut, just over four years ago, Natasha has proven to be a poetical powerhouse. After one year on the performance circuit, in 2007, she was crowned Detroit Poetry Slam team’s Grand Slam Champion, and has been a member of four National Poetry Slam teams. She has also been a Women of The World Poetry Slam top five finalist three out of the last four years once ranking as high as the third female slam poet in the World. Natasha continued her impressive record by leading and coaching her own slam team to a championship at the 2010 Midwest Rustbelt Poetry Slam, where she also came out ranking #2 overall in the individual competition.

 

Natasha has awed audiences across the country at universities, festivals and numerous venues including slams and shows like the famous Nuyorican Poets Café in New York, Vancouver Poetry slam, Seattle poetry slam, Girl Fest Hawaii and Chicago’s Green Mill. She has premiered on stages with celebrity actors and comedians Oscar award winning Mo’nique, Star of the movie “Paper Hearts” Charlyne Yi, Brandon T. Jackson, actor Malcolm Jamal Warner, legendary poet Jessica Care Moore, hip-hop artist Talib Kweli, and many more. Mo’Nique, impressed, personally invited Natasha to feature on her radio show.  In 2010, she starred in a national commercial campaign for Sprite. In the same year, she released her solo spoken word album “Poetry for Change,” and featured in the stage play “The Revolution’s In The Ladies Room” produced by Jessica care Moore.

 

Natasha is currently ranked as the number 5 female slam poet in the World. She now produces the popular “Its Not About You” Poetry Slam Series. Recently she started her own publishing company “All I Wanna Say Publishing”, in 2010 she published her first book of quotes “Dreams Of A Beginner”, and in 2011 she published her second book “Coming Out of Nowhere” a Social Networking Memoir that allows readers to mentally and emotionally “log-in” to their favorite websites (Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube) and view the opinions of others on love, hate, suicide, tragedy, politics, religion, cyber-bullying, entertainment, mental illness, freedom of choice, homophobia, and all other things surrounding homosexuality by simply turning a page. She is currently working with popular video director Erica D Hayes on a documentary that focuses on prostitution and placement in the transgendered community. Natasha uses her words to enlighten, create equality, imbue life, and most importantly spread love and peace in the tradition of great leaders before her.

 

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN: http://tobtr.com/s/2967451

Poet Spotlight~ Natasha Miller

Natasha Miller is the voice of wounds exposed, and the healing balm of poetry applied to the human spirit. The passionate 26 year-old Detroit, MI native is a writer, performance poet, author, publisher dedicated activist, producer, actress and an aspiring motivational speaker. Since her debut, just over four years ago, Natasha has proven to be a poetical powerhouse. After one year on the performance circuit, in 2007, she was crowned Detroit Poetry Slam team’s Grand Slam Champion, and has been a member of four National Poetry Slam teams. She has also been a Women of The World Poetry Slam top five finalist three out of the last four years once ranking as high as the third female slam poet in the World. Natasha continued her impressive record by leading and coaching her own slam team to a championship at the 2010 Midwest Rustbelt Poetry Slam, where she also came out ranking #2 overall in the individual competition.

 Natasha has awed audiences across the country at universities, festivals and numerous venues including slams and shows like the famous Nuyorican Poets Café in New York, Vancouver Poetry slam, Seattle poetry slam, Girl Fest Hawaii and Chicago’s Green Mill. She has premiered on stages with celebrity actors and comedians Oscar award winning Mo’nique, Star of the movie “Paper Hearts” Charlyne Yi, Brandon T. Jackson, actor Malcolm Jamal Warner, legendary poet Jessica Care Moore, hip-hop artist Talib Kweli, and many more. Mo’Nique, impressed, personally invited Natasha to feature on her radio show.  In 2010, she starred in a national commercial campaign for Sprite. In the same year, she released her solo spoken word album “Poetry for Change,” and featured in the stage play “The Revolution’s In The Ladies Room” produced by Jessica care Moore.

Natasha is currently ranked as the number 5 female slam poet in the World. She now produces the popular “Its Not About You” Poetry Slam Series. Recently she started her own publishing company “All I Wanna Say Publishing”, in 2010 she published her first book of quotes “Dreams Of A Beginner”, and in 2011 she published her second book “Coming Out of Nowhere” a Social Networking Memoir that allows readers to mentally and emotionally “log-in” to their favorite websites (Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube) and view the opinions of others on love, hate, suicide, tragedy, politics, religion, cyber-bullying, entertainment, mental illness, freedom of choice, homophobia, and all other things surrounding homosexuality by simply turning a page. She is currently working with popular video director Erica D Hayes on a documentary that focuses on prostitution and placement in the transgendered community. Natasha uses her words to enlighten, create equality, imbue life, and most importantly spread love and peace in the tradition of great leaders before her.

Questions with Natasha…

How old where you when you wrote your first poem? Do you remember what it was about?

I don’t remember what age I was exactly when I wrote my first poem. I think I was in high school, maybe 10th or 11th grade but I was not performing poetry at the time. I was 20 when I wrote my first performance poem it was titled “Black vs Black” and it was about black on black crime.

If you had to describe your poetry how would you describe it?

Forgiving. Fun. To the point. Vulnerable. Relatable. Not too up there, not too down there but exactly where I need it to be to reach who I need it to reach.

What is your favorite poem that you wrote? why?

My favorite piece varies from performance to performance. It all depends on what I had the most fun performing that night or that day. I write all of my poems with the same amount of sincerity and confidence so I can’t pick a favorite because they all contain the same amount of love…To me picking a favorite poem is much like picking a favorite child, I just can’t do it.

Who are some of your favorite poets?

Mahogany Browne, William Evans, Edgar Allen Poe, Rudy Francisco, Andrea Gibson, David Blair, Jamal “Versiz” May, Sierra Demulder and plenty more. I love slam and performance poets so I named a few.

What inspires you to write poetry?

My strong desire for peace inspires me to write poetry.

Kai Mann

Don’t Be Fooled! ARTICLE: Seven Deadly Signs of Poetry Scams #mwn

In America, poets are held in such low esteem that even the most Honored Representative from Nigeria won’t bother scamming us. Society says to us what Dermot Mulroney says to Julia Roberts in “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” that we are “The pus that infects the mucus that cruds up the fungus that feeds on the pond scum.”

Even being cheated by Mr. Honorable Minister, however, is preferable to the poetry scams that have proliferated. Wind Publications’ Literary Scam guide has this to say:

Hidden among the many sponsors of legitimate literary contests advertised on the internet lurk those who care little about literature, its audience, or authors. These organizations and individuals exist solely for profit through their so-called writing or poetry contests. Often you’ll find these “free” poetry contests lavishly advertised in your local newspaper.

There is a cottage industry of writing scams perpetuated by pus poetry pimps, the chief among them International Library of Poetry, aka Noble House Press, aka Poetry.com. They advertise in USA Weekend and the Penny Saver–well, not the Penny Saver, but they might as well, because that sums up their opinion of poets. If you’ve seen the ads or received a letter that says, “Congratulations, your poem has been selected for our next anthology,” congratulations, you’re being scammed.

Like so-called modeling agencies or “talent agents” who prey on the dreams of nubile girls wanting to be the next Lindsay Lohan, poetry pyramid schemes exploit the number one hope of writers: publication, and more importantly, recognition. Many excellent Web sites such as Preditors and Editors and PoetryNotCom detail the outrageous mechanics of poetry “anthology” scams, and the infamous Wergle Flomp Poetry Contest by WinningWriters.com cheerfully skewers vanity poetry contests and the submicroorganisms who perpetuate them.

How do you spot a poetry scam? Look for…

1. Insane pie in the sky prize amounts.

I ran the DeAnn Lubell Professional Writers’ Competition. Most poetry contests with reading fees pay, at most, $1,000, and that’s for a book-length manuscript of poetry. For a single poem, the first prize pot is usually a whopping $100, $150 tops. A $20 million prize, as dangled by Noble House, is a big crimson flag. Oh, and no one ever offers poets a chance to win a world cruise. It’s usually assumed that we sail around the world on a Mark Twain raft, a sampan, or a Hemingway skiff.

2. No contest fees.

Wergle Flomp is the only “F*r*e*e” poetry contest. Now, people on the Internet and toiling poets naturally leap at the word “F*r*e*e”. But, like victims of those modeling scams, you’ll end up paying for your moment of bargain hunting. Modeling scams want you to work with a particular photographer (usually fake European). Likewise, poetry scams won’t let you even see your poem in print unless you pay for the anthology. When you do pay for the anthology, you may wonder if you just bought a copy of the Penny Saver, because your poem looks like it was crammed onto the page to make room for the “Spot the Difference” puzzle and the adult talk lines. Then there are those awards banquets…

3. Phony awards banquets.

Ten years ago, no joke, I received a mailing from Famous Poets Society that lured me to fork over the cash to attend an awards banquet and convention. If I paid my money, I could join the elite company of poets such as…Ted Lange of “Love Boat” fame. Who knew Isaac the bartender was a closet Langston Hughes? Plus, I could win $6,000 in door prizes. Now, if you’ve ever attended a poetry reading, especially in coffeehouses, you know that poets wear their vow of poverty as proudly as a Che Guevara T-shirt. Just the thought of winning $25 in a poetry slam made my fellow poets and me weep more cathartically than the contestants on “Deal or No Deal.” And Ted Lange usually doesn’t attend.

4. Questionable reputation or none at all.

In poetry, if you don’t have Nikki Giovanni, Czeslaw Milosz or Donald Hall front and center in your magazine, plus several angsty Eastern European poets, would-be poets drop you like Oprah dropped James Frey. Look for magazines, publishers and poetry contests that publish and are judged by literary lions. It’s Bukowski or bust. And when Poetry.com can’t figure out that Dave Barry and 20/20 are hoaxing them, the joke’s on Poetry.com. Similarly, if a vanity press charges you $3,000 to $8,000 to publish your collection of poems, and the top author promoted by Façade Press is an eighteen-year-old writing poems from the point of view of her liver, save your money for the hard work of actually submitting your poems to Threepenny Review, or literary magazines or publishers that you read about in Writer’s Market or Poets and Writers.

5. Advertising in newspapers and glossy magazines.

Real poetry contests don’t advertise in USA Weekend–sure, USA Weekend may sponsor a teen essay contest, but poetry advertisers? Forget it. People don’t pick up USA Weekend as a literary publication, even though USA Weekend features books and authors. If you see a mass call for poets in a mass market magazine, give it a miss. Real poetry contests get deluged with submissions as it is. They don’t need to fish for more.

6. Sending you a letter of acceptance for a contest you can’t remember entering or a publisher you can’t remember submitting to.

I admit, as a writer I have difficulty keeping track of what I sent to whom and when–we go into writing to avoid paperwork, not do it, although when we’re not in the mood, reorganizing files suddenly becomes as tempting as a day in Cancun. Fortunately, Writer’s Market features a Submission Tracker, and some enterprising bloggers actually post their submission schedule to make the rest of us sigh in unorganized envy. If you can’t find the cover letter/e-query in your file cabinet, on your computer, on your Zip drive (you do back up, right?), or in your Sent folder, chances are you never submitted to National Library of Poetry or Wordscum.com (apologies if there actually is a Web site out there called Wordscum.com). Yes, after 300 rejections, getting an acceptance letter may be a boost, but to misquote Groucho Marx, think twice before you accept just any club that will have you as a member. Aim higher. Imagine if JK Rowling had just said, “All right, I’ll pay a million pounds to have a few hundred copies of Harry Potter for my friends and relatives to buy.”

7. Promising to get your book or handsome anthology on the bestseller rack in bookstores.

Number one, PoetryNotCom is one of the many sites reporting that this claim is bogus. Number two, most people who go into a bookstore to read poetry probably can find the poetry section blindfolded and spend three hours debating the symbolism in Whitman over a decaf skinny latte at Borders Café. Number two, although getting your book in bookstores is still the gold standard, Amazon.com and online retailing make it easy for even the tiniest press to get books noticed. Number three, bookstores are so glutted with inventory that they can’t even stock the POD books, let alone anything from ScamPoet Publishing or Poetry.com, and bookstores will not accept vanity press books. For that matter, no poet besides Ludacris or Jimmy Carter will end up on the bestseller list in a bookstore. We don’t go into poetry to be rich. We go into poetry to sound our barbaric yawp…and a fellowship or two is nice, too.

Many beginning poets get bilked, but you don’t have to. If you’re smart and ambitious, you’ll be a successful poet with tons of lierary magazines and e-zines bearing your byline. Poetry.com and its ilk will always be “The pus that infects the mucus that cruds up the fungus that feeds on the pond scum.”

Movie reviewer/screenwriter (“Blood Mask,” filimng summer 2006) Kristin Johnson composes personalized poems, speeches, toasts, vows, and family memories. Visit http://www.poemsforyou.com to order your personalized memories. She is also co-author of the Midwest Book Review “enthusiastically recommended” pick Christmas Cookies Are For Giving: Stories, Recipes and Tips for Making Heartwarming Gifts (ISBN: 0-9723473-9-9), dedicated in part to her mother and grandmother.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristin_Johnson

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/229567

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Win Tickets to see Natasha Miller @tmillerpoetry event March 25th

Thanks to the kind people  at the association for the study of African American life & history –ASALH, for sharing these tickets to ” the Heroine Poetry Slam, Sunday march 25, 7:30 – 11, at the Detroit historical  museum, hosted by t. miller.

Hence O would like to donate them to the 1st person to make a comment at the end of this feature that highlights Poetess Natasha Miller on the Motown writers network website on today.

natasha miller

@Tmillerpoetry

Nobody big:star of a sprite commercial, author and traveling poet. Glory to God at all times. Lesbian activist, humbled often.

http://tmillerpoetry.com

Pick up your copy now! Click the book now to get your copy!

Coming out Of Nowhere by Natasha Renna Miller (Nov 19, 2011)

If you’ve read this book, or seen T.Miller’s performance, please let us know your thoughts!
May this first comment win!

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Bring only poems you’ve just written or never read before TONIGHT!

from

LaShaun Phoenix Moore

Fam:

Often, poets read the pieces that are more popular or get the most attention and feedback. In those cases, poets feel that they are somehow expected to please their “audience” by recycling those poems every week. I am no stranger to this phenomenon. I can also admit that there are some folks that don’t even come hang out in the venue because they refuse to pay to hear the same poets read the same poems.

So, what did we do about it? We bit off of the Columbus, Ohio series Writer’s Block (thank goodness President Scott Woods and I love each other). They run an event called first draft open mic. We’ll be running once each month The Raw Uncut, First Edit Open Mic.

Bring new or “new to us” pieces tonight. Keep those popular pieces at home. Don’t get mic pulled, Playa.

Hope you can make it out! Here’s the official event info:

Peace, Family!

I am really looking forward to this week’s open mic! Once a month, on a Feature Free week, I’d like to turn our open-mic into a space where first poems can be read. I’m sending a shout out to our Writer’s Block family in Columbus, Ohio for starting the First Draft Open Mic. They told us if we changed the name, we could enact the same event in Detroit.

Our event will be called “The Raw Uncut, First Edit Open Mic”!… Bring your first drafts and/or poems you’ve NEVER read to an audience before on the Cliff Bells stage. If we’ve heard your poem before, your mic will be cut.

No restrictions on topics, it just has to be new to us. Bring 2-3 pieces to share! This event encourages writing/reading newer work. Come hang!

Yo Gurl,
~phoenix

The ByteThis Poetry & Slam Series

Comedy, Monologues, Poetry Readings, Performances, Music, Slams and Activism

Hosted By:
La Shaun phoenix Moore

with sounds by:

DJ G-Smoove & Northend Productions

Cliff Bells
2030 Park Avenue
Detroit, MI 48226

Mondays: Doors @8:30 PM, Show @ 9:30 PM

Cover: $5 + 1 Drink Minimum

***Featured Performers Are By Invitation Only ***

Spring/Summer Programming:

8/9 – Feature Free

8/16 – Honeycomb

8/23 – WOWps Finalists Laura Yes Yes & Sonya Renee

8/30 – Taalam Acey

Directions from the Wayne State Area:

Go South on Woodward (towards downtown) to Elizabeth W. (near the Fillmore/State Bar), make a right. Take to Park (first street) make a left and park your car!!

ByteThis Poetry Series is an Official Poetry Slam, Incorporated Venue.