National Poetry Month: Weekly Gems for Your Inbox with Poem-A-Day and Weekend Sherpa

I've been clearing out my email lately, unsubscribing from reams of newsletters, deals and alerts that flood my inbox daily. But, in addition to keeping my tried-and-true weekly round-up of lit mag goodness from The Review Review and Duotrope, I've just added two more to the list: Weekend Sherpa and National Poetry Month's Poem-a-Day.

I recently applied as a freelance writer to Weekend Sherpa, a Sonoma-based company that offers "insiders' recommendations on the best outdoor pursuits exclusive to California," and which I only now realize I mistakenly misspelled as one word (WeekendSherpa) in my letter of interest--a copywriter's nightmare.

Ah well. If I don't get any assignments describing favorite weekend getaways, at least I've got weekly inspiration in my inbox: this week's newsletter highlights San Francisco GoCars (I just did a rewrite for one in San Diego for Viator!) and a Segway ride around Angel Island ("They're fun and goofy... kinda like the Hall & Oates of outdoor recreation").

April is National Poetry Month, and I know I'm a little late here after tax day and the last frost date, but there are some really cool happenings for this annual event, considered by the Academy of American poets to be "the largest literary celebration in the world."

This year's poster, which holds the spotlight at my local library, was designed by National Book Award finalist Roz Chast, whose comic memoir Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? made me laugh out loud throughout, even though the topic--aging in America--isn't funny. If you'd like to post this one in your classroom, library or home office, you can request a free poster!

In addition to attending special events and readings throughout the country, you can sign up for National Poetry Month's aforementioned Poem-a-Day: receive original, previously unpublished poems  throughout the week and classic poems on weekends.

Finally, for any of you teachers out there, Dear Poet is a multimedia education project for grades 5 through 12 where students write letters in response to poems by award-winning poets (see the video below of Naomi Shihab Nye reading "How Do I Know When a Poem Is Finished?"). A curriculum specialist even helped design a series of classroom activities aligned with the Common Core.

According to the website:

Students—to participate in this year’s Dear Poet project, watch the videos below of Chancellors reading and discussing one of their poems. Then, write them a letter in response and send it by post or email to the Academy of American Poets, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038 ordearpoet@poets.org by April 30, 2015. Please include your name and the name of the poet to whom you’ve written. We will consider all letters for publication on Poets.org in May 2015. And our Chancellors will reply to select letters of their choosing.

Duotrope Submissions Tracker: "Rinse & Repeat"

Thank you for your recent submission to Gulf Coast. We appreciate your patience while we read your work. However, we're sorry to inform you that your work was not the right fit for us at this time. Thank you again for submitting, and good luck with all your writing endeavors.

Sincerely,
The Gulf Coast Editors

My first publication by Travelers' Tales

It's just another day in the business of literary rejection. After submitting "Crisis" as my sample essay for my application to Lit Camp, I polished (and re-polished) the piece and sent it on its merry way. During the months of March and May I submitted to 10 literary journals. Since I'm pretty bad at keeping track of my submissions/rejections (needle-in-a-haystack acceptances I celebrate--yes, that's me with my first publication in 2009), I decided to try out Duotrope, "an established, award-winning writers' resource." Check out features like its publication search (you can customize searches of market listings and even compare response times and acceptance rates) and submissions tracker.

I signed up for the 7-day free trial and committed to a full-year subscription ($50, or just $5 a month, which might be the best route in retrospect). Here's what my submission tracker looks like:

In case your magnifying glass couldn't decipher the tiny text from my screen capture, it's basically a spreadsheet with columns for piece, publication, date sent, date rejected/accepted, type of response (I've got 4 of those lovely letters so far!), and how many days you've waited with bated breath. You can even filter your report by submission status, piece, market and year of submissions.

Even if you don't have any submissions to date, I encourage you to check out the Duotrope website. In their own words:

Like the shampoo bottle says, "Rinse and repeat." Keep writing, keep submitting. Learn to shake off rejections and accept constructive criticism. Celebrate your acceptances. You'll have many more to come!