AllAuroreanNews

2012 has been a whirlwind! 

The first part of the year had us super-busy with promotion and sales of Nectar, the (amazing) winning manuscript by Lisa Bellamy of Brooklyn, from our first yearly chapbook competition (published in December of 2011). If you missed out on that news, click here (where you can also link to PANK's review):
http://www.encirclepub.com/store/product/nectar Nectar has been wonderfully received.

We're gearing up for and already taking submissions in this year's contest. Publication will again be in December and the winner will receive $100, 50 copies, 10% royalties and various promotional items. For downloadable guidelines, click on the above link. The deadline for online entry fee of $15/registration is 9/1/12. So polish up your very best (and please follow guidelines carefully)!

We are very happy to announce that beginning this year, we will offer publication contracts to a select number of finalists in each year's chapbook competition. 

January was an exciting time for me with the release of my co-edited anthology, Women on Poetry: Writing, Revising, Publishing and Teaching (McFarland). My co-editors on this project are Colleen S. Harris and Carol Smallwood. Women on Poetry has garnered great reviews, including a two-page spread in The Writer (March 2012) written by Lee Cart who said, in part: "Imagine having more than 40 fellow female poetry writers all gathered in one room, all willing to give you useful advice on the how and why of writing poetry. One by one, these women pull you aside and whisper in your ear their individual take on the writing process or the publishing world. They give you checklists, worksheets and questions to ponder. They provide personal examples from their own writing lives to help you learn what they have learned. Their overall intent is to improve your own poetry-writing experience and to convey their love of the writing process and of poetry in general." And then there's this quote from Supriya Bhatnagar, Director of Publications, Asssociation of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP): "This excellent and most comprehensive collection of essays, by some of the finest minds in contemporary poetry, encompasses everything a student or teacher of poetry is looking for." Colleen, Carol and I hope this book will find a home in many Creative Writing classrooms (McFarland offers free examination copies to instructors at  http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/?page_id=106) and on the shelves of women poets of all walks of life. Women on Poetry is available from the publisher, Barnes & Noble, or on Amazon (in paperback and Kindle):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786463929/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_g14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0VQGP2BKV6NNCM4M5TWC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Much of late winter and early spring were spent putting together our Spring/Summer Aurorean (Volume 17; Issue 1).  We debuted the issue during National Poetry Month at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival's Small Press & Literary Magazine Fair. The issue sports a purple lupine on the cover (one of New England's most welcome spring sightings) and features the poetry of Dave Reddall and Kimberly Cloutier Green along with over seventy-ish other poets. Link right to the issue (and to our YouTube video featuring a poem each from our Featured Poets) at http://www.encirclepub.com/poetry/aurorean. We have already begun reading for Fall/Winter 2012–2013 (pub. date: late October) and look forward to your submissions (received-by deadline: 8/15/12).

Pictured below are your editors, Cynthia and Devin, enjoying the Small Press & Literary Magazine Fair:

Presently, we find ourselves full of excitement to announce the Aurorean's first-ever reprint anthology, The Aurorean Editors Present a selection of Favorites from the first fifteen years. Devin and I spent months pouring over the first fifteen years of Aurorean issues. We chose many poems that we considered "favorites," but eventually narrowed our selection down to approximately ninety poems from seventy poets (from over 1,000 poets we'd published). It has been a huge undertaking, from the reading to the selections, to tracking people down, some of whom we'd lost contact with—and are delighted to be back in touch with. We are aiming for an end-of June publication date and hope you will enjoy the compilation. The anthology will contain three sections, "Seasons," "Meditations" and "New England" and will include a retrospective introduction from me, tracing the journal's history and milestones. It will be finely and specially produced for this occasion, perfect-bound with approximately 100 pages. You can pre-order now at http://www.encirclepub.com/store/product/favorites

By way of individual-editor news, Devin is busy putting together the next issue of the Unrorean (Summer/Fall 2012: pub. date mid-July). You can reserve a copy here: http://www.encirclepub.com/store/product/524

And I am looking forward to late June when I will be attending the Conference on Poetry and Teaching at the Frost Place. I have wanted to attend this conference for years, but illness prevented me from doing so. I'm happy to report that my Lyme disease is under control and I am feeling much better. I love the poetry of Robert Frost, I love his "Place" in Franconia, New Hampshire (I try to visit every year for inspiration) and I am delighted to have been accepted to work with Director Baron Wormser (former Poet Laureate of Maine) and Associate Director, poetess extraordinaire, Dawn Potter. My work will be focused on teaching haiku to and workshopping poetry with elementary students—a passion of mine. For more information on the Frost Place, visit http://www.frostplace.org/index.html. If you are in the White Mountains, add a visit to the Frost Place to your agenda. You'll be glad you did. (See website for information on visiting times and hours.)

Branching Out—And Into—A New Year

Where (oh where?) did 2011 go? While it's not officially time to take down the 2011 calendars and replace them with 2012, the time is indeed close at hand. As the years go by, those monthly pages on the calendar seem to need turning ever-more furiously. And sometimes it's mid-month before the pages do get turned. While the passing of time seems to speed up exponentially as we get older (and I know there's some mathematical reason why it seems that way), most of the time it's from sheer busy-ness that I can't quite keep up with time's passing.

In the last few months, I've not kept up with my blogging as I should. I am not one to make New Year's resolutions (for we all know how those go), but instead, I like to try to implement permanent behavior changes. Goodness knows there are many things I'd like to work on and change permanently, but I am going to focus on the regularity of blog posting as a top priority. Blogging is writing—and as writers, we know that the only way to accomplish writing is to do it. Waiting until the time is right or until the spirit moves us does not get it done. I'm likely to have more success with this blogging-more change in behavior than with trying to eat less ice cream. I know how that goes.

Here at the Aurorean, much of the passage of 2011 has been spent not only with our biannual Aurorean publication and all that entails, but in carefully planning and launching our expedition into the world of chapbook publishing. Yes, we have published chapbooks and full-length books of poetry in the distant past (before the widespread usage of the World-Wide Web and its promotional advantages for authors and publishers), and more recently, full-length collections—in 2007, one by small-press great B.Z. Niditch; in 2010, an anthology of poems by Maine Poets Society members; and earlier this year, a collection each by Margaret Rockwell Finch and Marta Rijn Finch, co-presidents of Maine Poets Society.

But beginning this year, we branched out to offer a yearly chapbook competition through Encircle Publications. The above image is of the end result. As with the Aurorean, we wanted the end result to be a work of art—not just the art of the poetry inside, but the art of the presentation. We wanted to offer a reasonable entry fee and ease of submission process. We wanted to become a chapbook publisher that does everything we can to help our authors succeed. We wanted to find the best manuscript from those submitted. We determined to judge the manuscripts blindly—removing identifying information and any list of submitters' publication credentials from the manuscripts themselves. The editors also approached each reading without potentially-biasing comments from the other editor. Comments were shared and discussions held only after both editors read each manuscript personally with fresh eyes. The field was narrowed as we proceeded, and on we went to first, second and final rounds. A winner was declared with anticipation, excitement and a sense of accomplishment. Regarding the winning manuscript, both editors were in absolute agreement.

This first time out, the winner has set the bar high for our future annual contests. That is a good thing. It will insure that as editors, we keep our poetry judging and all-around quality-control thinking caps on at all times. Eleanor Lerman, author of The Sensual World Re-Emerges (Sarabande Books) had this to say: The question that begins Lisa Bellamy's elegant and eloquent collection of poems is a poignant one: are we all "just wind and gristle"? In the pages that follow, this skilled poet goes on to assure us that we are not. In fact, the healing light of our humanity suffuses all our days, as do our memories of our mothers, our home towns, our childhood prayers, and the sight of the stars overhead each night. Sadness is everywhere, Bellamy tells us—but like the bees "mixing nectar with tears" to produce honey—so is joy.

Our first press run arrived just today and we have been busy packing orders and copies requested by reviewers. We hope you will see what fuels our enthusiasm. Copies of Nectar can be ordered (shipping always included) here: http://www.encirclepub.com/store/product/nectar Let Bellamy's amazing poetry serve as your companion as you put up that new 2012 calendar and journey into the new year. As well, join us in 2012—share your work with us by submitting to the Aurorean (Spring/Summer deadline: February 15th). See http://www.encirclepub.com/poetry/aurorean/guidelines Or, submit to our 2012 chapbook competition (deadline to register for online entry: September 1st). See http://www.encirclepub.com/chapbookcontest

I wish all of our Aurorean friends a warm holiday season and a poetry-filled 2012!