It's been suggested in the Guidelines for Editors discussion that Magazine
Editors rarely ask for a poem's revision - and either (up or down) accept or
reject. The primacy of one medium over another (print or online) was - I
think - not really considered an issue. Though we talked about the
advantages of online exposure as being more globally accessible, and as a
medium that makes work easier to both revise and/or critically respond to.
(A highly porous medium, Online is, where print is relatively skintight.
I want to ask about Reviews. Given, say, this listserv combined with other
ones (Buffalo, Britpo, However, etc) creates an audience of up to maybe 2 or
3 thousand readers of poetry, does it make much more sense to have listservs
become purveyors of reviews of books and magazines. The audience is
definitely much larger than, say, a small magazines most often very limited
circulation and exposure. If a review - to one's taste is 'dumb' - or
written by someone whose taste or tone is miles from your own, it's easy to
delete (much in the way many of us automatically delete certain predictable
folks.).
And it's a much quicker way to get the good word out on a book (where
magazines can take months). It's especially good for new poets, or the kinds
of books that will not get easily reviewed in most magazines.
What is lost, I guess, is the imprimatur of the magazine, especially if it
is distinguished. Or, the more sustained space a magazine may provide to
approach several books or the leisure to read half the piece one day and the
other half a day later. Indeed a magazine may provide a space for a more
"considered" reading. Lately, courtesy of a new subscription in the house to
the TLS, I enjoy reading the reviews. This week has a good one on the
Collected George Oppen and a very funny piece Blood Axe's series of
anthologies of poetry for therapeutic ends.
So I guess I am of two minds here. Wanting to get my enthusiasm for a book
out quick to as many as possible versus the 'civilizing' nature of going
into the editorial blessing of magazine publication.
Ideas?
Stephen V
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