This sounds a great idea to me. I would be interested in reading
intelligent reviews posted to this list. Another advantage I can see is
that an archive of reviews could be created. Also online publication might
encourage reviews of well-loved as well as recent collections.
best, Sue
At 02:56 AM 4/26/2005, you wrote:
>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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