The Steiny Road to Operadom A book publishing trajectory

ChaptGPT and Book Reviews

2025-07-22T15:52:00.000-04:00

Ask any writer who reviews books, how hard is it?

It’s hard, a genuine struggle to understand, digest, and then write something meaningful and true. Hours go by.

Enter ChatGPT. I asked for a review of Karren Alenier’s book how we hold on. Within seconds, the bot produced thoughts that rang true. Here’s the conclusion:

“How We Hold On is a beautifully crafted collection that marries formal discipline with heartfelt depth. Alenier navigates memory, grief, joy, and language with elegance, offering an emotionally resonant journey through family ties, love, and loss—both intimate and universal. A compelling read for anyone who appreciates lyrical precision and emotional honesty.”

The only nit I might pick is that I meant for the title of the book to be in lowercase but that’s a hard thing to know given how my publisher rendered the title on the front cover and on the title page inside the book (all uppercase letters).

Furthermore, ChatGPT picks up the details. It knows that my section “Mama’s not a trapezoid” deals with the “complex relationship” with my mother. It recognizes that I wrote in various poetic forms from villanelle to Golden shovel. It draws professionally from the excellent review that was published in the Mom Egg Review. What I mean by professional is that ChatGPT provides a quote from the MER essay. There is no pirating of the words in that review. And surprise surprise, it also mentions the video of the reading I did from how we hold on for Poets vs. the Pandemic.

Now it seems justifiable to do profile reviews that provide the vital details plus key descriptors, first and last lines, and a short comment. Have a look at this format done for Fables from Italy and Beyond and The Mouth Is Also a Compass.

The Grace of Guest Artist Diana Tokaji

2025-03-26T17:08:00.001-04:00

Invitation to be a guest artist on her website is something the Steiny Road Poet does to promote other poets and to keep her website vital. Usually, she asks poets for permission to feature a short poem with short lines. However, for the month of April 2025, she asked Diana Tokaji to allow an excerpt from a long poem which also had some long lines. Her website format is not so flexible. Nonetheless, she was profoundly moved by the poetry (and prose) Diana had sent her and felt her words bore witness to the difficult times we are enduring.

I was also moved by her Facebook post that reads as follows:

In the kindest way, Karren Alenier occasionally invites fellow poets as guest artists on her site. This month I was so honored, an act that seems especially generous in an ever creepier world. It's not just the posting that is kind but the way she goes about it, with enthusiasm and her bright aesthetic in play. She read both of my books and expressed that Conversation 4 in SURVIVING ASSAULT especially speaks to these times, as it both empathizes with and asks us to rise above despair. Create Courage is the theme of that chapter - how do we manufacture courage when we actually don't feel it? She asked me to pull an excerpt out for this feature, and with hope that it's not too disjointed, that's what I did ...a short offering in the space. My thanks to her for this and multiple ways she touches and guides the artistic community.

Here's the cover of SURVIVING ASSAULT–Words that Rock & Quiet & Tell the Truth, of the book that the featured excerpt comes from. After reading SURVIVING ASSAULT, Steiny highy recommends you proceed to the prose memoir Six Women in a Cell: Survival and Sisterhood After Police Assault. These books are companion pieces.

The Intimate Interview—Miller of Alenier

2024-10-01T16:40:00.001-04:00

What makes a good interview? In September 2024, Karren Alenier was interviewed for an hour by E. Ethelbert Miller for his podcast On the Margin.

Besides interesting questions that addressed the concerns of working poets like how does one arrange a book manuscript, it was clear that interviewer and interviewee liked and trusted each other. Trust is crucial if the interviewer wants honest discussion about such issues as grief and race. The good chemistry between Miller and Alenier added to the shared history of the literary scene in the Washington, DC area.

People who listened to this interview made such comments as:

—I didn’t expect to watch the whole interview, but I was swept along by the exchange.

—I learned new things about the DC literary scene.

—I got to know Karren Alenier better.

Heron Clan XII accepting submissions

2024-07-02T12:29:00.006-04:00

Heron Clan XI: 2024 Poems from Katherine James Books has been published. It includes such poets as Lola Haskins, Hiram Larew, Ed Lyons, Doug Stouber, Brad Strahan, and Karren Alenier (a.k.a. the Steiny Road Poet).

Here are some snippets from poets that caught Steiny’s attention

What There is to Lose [excerpt]

A Golden Shovel with thanks to Louise Gluck

by Frances Klein

Leather shoes in the rain, of course, and the endless why

of your child’s third year. A pillowy slice of cake. Love.

Cloud-Speak [excerpt]

by Brad Strahan

What comes from this cloud of words?

Surely not rain. – Blood perhaps?

Surely not coins. – Maybe stones?

Not hail, perchance pale maidens

dressed in wet veils.

Stage Fright [excerpt]

by Earl Carlton Huband

You sit, staring straight ahead.

Your jaw tight. Hot. The spotlight

focused, overhead a hood

poised, the final curtain drops.

To submit for the 2025 Heron Clan anthology, send three poems and a 50-word bio to

katherinejamesbooks@gmail.com

Checklist for an Excellent Poetry Manuscript

2024-03-29T20:29:00.002-04:00

What does a poetry manuscript in the 21^st Century include? Here are some of the elements possible.

[ ] Prologue Poem

This is a poem that sets up the major themes of this collection and ties its sections together. It should be short and easy to enter.

[ ] Sections

A typical collection might have three to five sections. Fewer seem better but it depends on the work. There are collections where the work is one long poem without sections.

[ ] A Repeating Title

This is a technique for demonstrating that the collection contains poems that talk to each other and deepen the subject matter. Such poems might open or close each section. To identify these poems with exactly the same title consider picking up a few words from the first line of the poem.

[ ] Forms

While there are successful collections that use the same form for every poem in the collection (e.g. the sonnet is a popular form), variety shows the poet’s mastery of craft. Creating your own form and then, if possible, writing another poem in that form also shows craft.

[ ] Poems in a Series

Poems that repeat some aspect such as subject matter, character, linguistic marker, add glue to a collection. The question is whether to group these together or spread them out in the manuscript.

[ ] Poems that Contain Research

Whole collections of poetry might be based on extensive research but poems in a series might also operate under the magnifying glass of researched information. Be careful about keeping end notes to a minimum.

[ ] Metapoems

Poems that are about writing poetry. This is another way to demonstrate your knowledge of poetic craft.

[ ] A Repeating Word

A word or a version of a word that repeats throughout every poem of the collection creates an undercurrent of meaning to deepen the subject matter.

[ ] Punctuation & Capitalization

Many poets have quit using punctuation and capitalization. Whatever you decide, just be consistent.

Don't Go into the Steinian Woods Alone

2024-03-01T11:13:00.008-05:00

Because the Stockbridge Library poetry series airs on Zoom at midday Eastern time, it's a great opportunity to include poets in Europe and on the US west coast. So Steiny (a.k.a. Karren Alenier) is taking her own advice about don't go into the Steinian woods alone.

Mark your calendars now!

March 20, 2024 12:30 pm Eastern

On Zoom

Who: Karren Alenier with Andrea Carter Brown & Margo Berdeshevsky

What: Stockbridge Library presents The French Connection—Karren Alenier reads with Andrea Carter Brown & Margo Berdeshevsky their poems in From the Belly: Volume I "Objects" and much more.

How: Visit stockbridgelibrary.org (close to the date, go to events calendar to register or email Karren@Alenier.com and she will make sure you get the link.)

Free

About the Words Being Spoken: upcoming reading

2024-02-01T11:28:00.001-05:00

Part of publishing poetry is getting the words spoken, getting the poems read out loud to an audience. The Steiny Road Poet is pleased to say she has lined up another reading of From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons.

This time Steiny goes solo. This means she will focus on poems she wrote in response to Tender Buttons Objects. There are over 20 poems of Alenier's to choose from. She will also be reading the Tender Buttons that inspired Alenier's poems and shining light on those buttons. It is a one-hour program. Here’s an example:

NOTHING ELEGANT.

from Tender Buttons Objects by Gertrude Stein

A charm a single charm is doubtful. If the red is rose and there is a gate surrounding it, if inside is let in and there places change then certainly something is upright. It is earnest.

about the word

by Karren L. Alenier

the pen is the

pen is an organ

flaccid or sound

muscular music

flowing milk or ink

Horace said pen

is tongue of

mind who needs

articles point is

pen is maker

of kind teacher

teaching us

right

Mark your calendars now.

March 20, 2024 12:30 pm Eastern Standard Time

On Zoom

Who: Karren Alenier

What: Stockbridge Library presents Karren Alenier reading her poems in From the Belly Volume I Objects—reading & discussion

Free

Contact Karren at Alenier.com and she will make sure you get the zoom link.

Poetic Honoraria: One Breath at a Time

2024-01-02T11:39:00.002-05:00

The issue of getting paid for presenting poetry is ever present among poets. Most of us present without any promise of honorarium because we need to reach audience.

Recently, the Steiny Road Poet organized a reading featuring four other poets and herself based on her anthology From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons through the Brooklyn, NY organization One Breath Rising. The reading was spectacular with lots of great questions posed by our host. Although there was some mention that we might get an honorarium, we had no expectation. Some weeks later we each received a check for $100 thanks to funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council and Poets & Writers (NY).

Stepping back to see the bigger picture, one should note that was $500 for one program. Some speakers easily get that kind of money, insist on that level of funding. Just saying that poetry is an art form that brings spiritual benefits if not entertainment and that we poets are much like monks sitting with our begging bowls. Kudos to One Breath Rising for their generosity in sharing their resources.

Poetry Mutual: A New Washington DC Poetry Promoter

2024-01-01T14:08:00.002-05:00

Washington, DC, has a new poetry promoter in town called Poetry Mutual.

Years ago, DC had the Poetry Committee of Greater Washington, DC Area which was hosted by the Folger Shakespeare Library. That poetry promotion group had a literary calendar and an award system (the Columbia Prize). It’s a brave thing to do because it takes staying power.

Behind Poetry Mutual are Kim Roberts (founder of Beltway Journal now hosted by Indran Amirthanayagam), Michael Gushue, and Dan Vera. These three poets have been involved in promoting other people’s poetry through small presses they have formed and supported. They are an awesome literary force.

The Steiny Road Poet is pleased to have had From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons selected by Poetry Mutual as one of the three best anthologies of 2023. The other two selected were Dora Malech and Laura T. Smith’s The American Sonnet: An Anthology of Poems and Essays and Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and Jeremy S. Hoffman’s Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States. There were many wonderful anthologies they could have singled out for recognition. Check out Poetry Mutual and sign up for all their news, including their selection of the ten best single author poetry collections.

The low down on the low profile Heron Clan

2023-12-02T15:19:00.004-05:00

The Steiny Road Poet (a.k.a. Karren Alenier) usually doesn’t submit work to publications where she has been published before. However, she finds herself drawn to Doug Stuber’s Heron Clan anthologies and has been published annually there since 2020 in volumes VII, VIII, IX and recently X. The books, numbering over 200 pages of poetry by mostly poets she has never read before, are handsomely produced. They are promoted by Stuber on his weekly Sunday afternoon Zoom readings.

In a way, these volumes, in English, which often include poets who are not United States citizens, seem oasis often for unexpected poetic gems. Poets of all levels are represented. Stuber, Ed Lyons and librarian Richard Smyth developed the project in Rochester, NY in 1998 and has included such luminaries as Ilya Kaminsky.

Here’s one poem published in Heron Clan X

a mother in selma

by Karren L. Alenier

there’s a mother

in Selma Alabama

I reached her

during a phone bank

an eleventh hour

action to flip

a Republican seat

in Congress she said

no one cares

about my vote

in one ear I spoke

I do they do in the other

ear her baby fussed

later I thought your

child will thank you

for joining the

community to elect

a better human being

but then I said

god bless you

and I could feel

her hanging on

with her life

The collection is published by Katherine James Books, but does not appear regularly in Amazon listings. For more information contact KatherineJamesBooks@gmail.com.

How to Make a Sound Byte of Promotion

2023-11-02T11:53:00.000-04:00

So you need a sound byte of a minute or so to promote your new book of poetry.

Here's what to do:

—Choose a poem and think of a snappy intro.

—Write a script.

—Go to your personal Zoom account and record.

When you exit your Zoom account your video file with be ready.

Upload that file to your YouTube Account.

Here's What the Steiny Road Poet did recently with her reading of Gertrude Stein's Tender Button "A Blue Coat" and her own response poem.

W-E Poets Reading: The Bones

2023-09-18T13:59:00.002-04:00

On September 17, 2023 through W-E Poets of the Pandemic and Beyond—a tri-coastal Zoom reading, the Steiny Road Poet (a.k.a. Karren Alenier) presented several selections from From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons that included Nils Michals (CA), Susana Case (NY), Carolyne Wright (WA), Brad Richard (LA), and Karren Alenier (MD).

Each presenting poet followed this format:

—A sound byte of bio

—A signature poem

—Stein’s text (read by Karren Alenier)

—Response poem

—Remarks on process of writing response poem

—Introduction of next responding poet

An unedited video now sits on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncEa1I89ZSQ.

Here is how to navigate this one hour plus footage:

1:49 Introduction by Sandy Yannone

6:00 Karren Alenier

11:30 Nils Michals

23:00 Susana Case

27:54 Carolyne Wright

39:40 Brad Richard

48:21 Closing remarks and Q&A, Karren Alenier, Carolyne Wright, Susana Case, Lynn McGee, Brad Richard, Sandy Yannone, Nils Michals

Highlights

—Sandy Yannone’s introduction: She calls Alenier a Gertrude Stein whisperer and hopes to present all three volumes in this forum

—Karren Alenier: responds to Stein’s “Nothing Elegant.”

—Nils Michals: responds to Stein’s “A Chair.”

—Susana Case: responds to Stein’s “A Table.”

—Carolyne Wright: responds to Stein’s “Suppose an Eyes.”

—Brad Richard: responds to Stein’s “It Was a Black, Black Took.”

—Comments and Q&A:

——Respondents appreciated getting assigned Stein text and felt that they wrote a poem that took them to a new place in their writing.

——Did respondent learn anything new about Stein?

——Responding to Stein’s work is an exercise in ekphrasis because her work is an object of art.

——The responses brought our world to Stein’s work and showed relevance.

——What did you learn about yourself as a poet in responding to Stein?

——Responding to Stein became a tale of gaining more life experience.

——Stein morphed in one poet’s prejudice from being the Jackson Pollack of poetry to a poet that brings out realities not seen before.

Feedback from a Reader

2023-09-01T11:29:00.004-04:00

Feedback from a reader is often more rewarding than what comes from a formal published review.

Karren:

As you know, I’m not a Steinian addict, but your book [From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons] serves as an excellent introduction or textbook on to how to read, wonder and appreciate what she does. Your emphasis on the invitation to play—to having fun with writing—is a lesson I need to absorb in order to write more pleasurably, perhaps more creatively. As I slowly wade through the poems, thus far a few of my favorites include your “the wars of Leo Stein”, “birth of the long dress made in America”, “two more purses” by Duhamel, “hat before snow” by Cavalieri, and “after “A Leave” by Armantrout. Your challenging project certainly attracted some big name poets. Kudos! --Gary

Picked by the Critics

2023-05-02T10:58:00.004-04:00

Karren Alenier (a.k.a. the Steiny Road Poet) was just published in the premiere issue of the online magazine Porlock…along with Paul Muldoon and many others with impressive literary credentials.

How a poem is picked for this publication is unusual. A panel of people of various occupations does the choosing. Here’s what the Porlock website says about these guest editors: A philosopher, three science writers, a political candidate, a fiction writer, two critics and a filmmaker selected 39 poems for this first issue of Porlock.

While each poem presumably ends with the names of the guest editors who chose the poem, the biographies of these editors are not published. For that matter, the biographies of the contributing poets also are not published. A reader must search on these mostly unfamiliar names to discover who these editors might be. Sven Birkerts and Matt Hanson are listed with “Paul Bowles Laments theDeath of His Wife Jane” by Karren L. Alenier. As best as she can determine, both of these people are critics.

There might be more to this story. Stay tuned.

Catch Poets as Rock Stars

2023-04-13T12:49:00.001-04:00

Admit it. Haven’t you always wanted to be a rock star standing at a mic with the audience leaning in to catch your every word?

Actually, the Steiny Road Poet didn’t know she still had that desire in her until she started rehearsing with DC Musica Viva’s Carl Banner and his colleague saxophonist Rhonda Buckley-Bishop. Here’s a cut of the rehearsal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOS7Cby7lJI

Poet Anne Becker worked with Carl Banner to create the Leider Project in which poets were able to choose Brahms songs based on the poetry of 19^th century poems to update the linguistic message in English.

Steiny has done improvisational readings with saxophonists before but this time the musicians weren’t training their ears to the ebb and flow of the poet’s words. This time the music wasn’t improvisational. This music is Brahms and by the laws of artistic ethics and esthetics, the poet was tasked to fit the words along the score of what this master composed!

In this performance, you will hear the original German lyrics along with the original re-interpretations of poets Karren Alenier, Anne Becker, Laura Costas, Craig Flaherty, and Dine Watson performing new poems created in response to the original German lyrics.

While the in-person performances are sold out, you can catch the livestreaming at www.youtube.com/washingtonmusicaviva on April 22 & 23 at 3 pm Eastern.

The Pleasure of Those Met at AWP

2023-03-29T12:14:00.002-04:00

More than half the pleasure of going to AWP is who you meet and who you see again. Here are photos of such meetups:

It was a pleasant surprise to find myself talking to Monica Youn, who I had just heard on the Podcast Between the Covers.

Another little frisson was I realized I was talking to Leslie Pietrzyk, a fiction writer I met years ago at a party in Washington, DC but do not see except once in a blue moon.

Why Kazim Ali knows me is beyond my imagination but we always greet each other at AWP.

This masked duo turned out to be Allison Hedge Coke and her granddaughter. I "know" Allison from an online listserv.

This is Nate Brown who stopped by The Word Works table where we gave him a protea flower and a book of poetry so he asked to buy a book by me!


		Always congenial is Jericho Brown who once read at Word Works Cafe Muse Literary Salon.

I run into Sandra Beasley at all sorts of venues and we conduct business on the fly. Sometimes we even meet dancing!

OH! The Company She Keeps

2023-03-02T12:07:00.000-05:00

Karren Alenier, a.k.a. the Steiny Road Poet, says don’t go into the Steinian woods alone and so the literary community is paying notice to her new creation From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons.

From ModPo Professor Al Filreis:

https://web.sas.upenn.edu/afilreis/2023/03/01/blurb-for-new-edition-of-poets-responses-to-steins-tender-buttons/

Al Filreis’ blurb on the back cover means that this online endorsement has been announced to thousands of people who have been reading Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons thanks to this professor’s MOOC Modern and Contemporary American Poetry course that has been running every fall for 12 years.

Distribution of From the Belly:

https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781944585617/from-the-belly-poets-respond-to-gertrude-steins-tender-buttons-vol-i.aspx

Find the book for sale at Small Press Distribution (SPD)

The Word Works is the publisher of From the Belly:

https://wordworksbooks.org/

Learn about the collection of brand new titles that From the Belly is being launched with at AWP Seattle.

From the Belly Launches in March

2023-01-31T14:35:00.004-05:00

It’s official—From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons Volume I will launch from The Word Works in March. See it first at AWP Seattle, Table 411.

Who is in it? Here are the poets who ventured into the Steinian woods: Karren Alenier, Indran Amirthanayagam, Rae Armantrout, Mary Armour, Carrie Bennett, Margo Berdeshevsky, Julien Berman, Andrea Carter Brown, Susana Case, Grace Cavalieri, Nikia Chaney, Roberto Christiano, Henry Crawford, Michael Davis, Denise Duhamel, Amy Feinstein, Barbara Goldberg, Harold M. Greenwald, Don Illich, Jacqueline Johnson, Hiram Larew, JoAnne McFarland, Kevin McLellan, Nils Michals, Brad Richard, Margery M. Ross, Martha Sanchez Lowery, Roger Sedarat, Lisa Sewell, Margo Stever, Miles Waggener, Lillo Way, Nancy White, Carolyne Wright, Bill Yarrow, Burgi Zenhaeusern, and Jason Zuzga.

What’s the value of this anthology? It teaches the reader how to think outside of the box and to enjoy Gertrude Stein’s most enigmatic poem. And the reader is invited to treat this book as a workbook where the reader can write their own response poems!

Reaching your Reader

2022-12-30T11:59:00.001-05:00

Among the things the Steiny Road Poet is grateful for in 2022 is how she learned about the big publishers’ process for getting books reviewed.

For example, how does a book get considered by Publishers Weekly these days? The answer is get the book accepted in PW’s GalleyTracker, an online system. What this involves is having the book’s publisher go to the effort and expense to publish an advance reader copy (ARC). Fair Warning: be sure to print across the half-title page:

THIS IS AN ADVANCE READER COPY.

This book is scheduled for [month year].

Please send your review to [publisher email].

If a publisher doesn’t put this notice on the front page, then Amazon will start filling orders immediately which blows the publisher’s credibility with the big review entities.

This process is what lit the fire under Steiny to seriously circulate From the Belly:Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons, Vol. I. Oh, and don't forget to keep track of where you send your ARCs!

Highs and Lows of an Opera Workshop

2022-11-21T22:02:00.000-05:00

The Steiny Road Poet and her collaborating composer went to an opera workshop in Washington, DC recently because we always learn something from these productions, and we want to know what else is out there.

First Steiny will preface this discussion with an admonition from our opera theater director—workshops should NOT be reviewed. The purpose of spending the time and money to hire a venue, singers, musicians, and music director is to see what happens when all the parts are put together. What works and what doesn’t. The audience is supposed to help by making comments.

The audience was told up front that the event, a two-act opera, was scheduled for three hours. About 45 minutes in, Steiny passed a note to her composer saying I can’t understand a single word, can you? This was an opera based on a Hemingway novel, which in Steiny’s mind means every word should be easy to hear since Hemingway’s writing is known for its simple word choices. Steiny’s seatmate’s answer: nope and for that matter, is it in English? She was being facetious.

Steiny found the music beautiful and accessible, but one number blended into the next without differentiation or emphasis. Her partner’s response—very monochromatic, lack of variety, too much ensemble singing and little in the way of emotional high points which are usually created by a single voice singing an aria.

Moreover, the highly talented singers had been placed behind the orchestra (clarinet, 2 violins, viola, cello, base, piano). This made it easy for the music director to cue the singers but then the orchestra overpowered their words. This raises the question where was the opera theater director in this lineup of players? Oops, the printed program listed the composer, librettist, music director, and dramaturg but no opera theater director who would have never allowed the singers to be placed so far away from the audience. For that matter, opera workshops are normally done with piano only.

While the church had good acoustics for a musical program, the wooden bench of the church pew got harder and harder to sit on. Steiny and her partner also realized that not only was Act I too long (running 90 minutes), but the summary (available through a QR code) didn’t reveal any action on the stage beyond the main character walking in and out of cave. Yes, there was a love story and some shouting but that didn’t provide enough excitement to forget their aching backsides. While some comments were written out for the composer and his colleagues and left with an usher, the QR code provided another easy way to send them feedback. Steiny and her partner left at intermission. Both learned a lot and plan to keep these lessons close as they work on their opera.

Launching an ARC

2022-11-01T11:47:00.000-04:00

What is an ARC? Some kind of rescue boat in the hungry mouth of a flood?

Well, yes, sort of.

An Advance Reader Copy or ARC is an early peek at a book that a publisher is trying to float above the deluge of other new books. The publisher is fishing for a review. More specifically, a review from a big reviewer like Publisher’s Weekly or Library Journal.

Getting reviewed by the Big Guys of publishing often means the book will be bought by libraries and teachers. This means the author’s book gets wider distribution.

The big drawback for a small press (usually meaning limited resources—financial and editorial) is that the book needs to put its best foot forward (with as few errors as possible) and it is NOT for sale. It’s another case where you cannot go fishing when you are hungry.

When Poems Get Legs

2022-09-20T18:48:00.000-04:00

Getting a single poem published in a literary magazine whether in print or online usually requires effort, time, and lots of patience. Recently I was published in licketedy split time, putting in minimal effort.

How did this happen?

A friend with many connections, working informally on behalf of a magazine editor, sent out an invitation to send poems within 10 days on the theme of teeth. This editor—Taku Chikepe—is a man from Zimbabwe who is currently a divinity student at Duke University as well as the founding publisher of The Sailors Review. Apparently, some people’s endorsement is enough to merit publication.

I sent my poems on September 1 and by September 18, “Kabuki Dragons” (see page 29) was in beautiful page layout presto change-o. And there were others I knew published there such as Anne Harding Woodworth and Diane Wilbon Parks. That we were published came as a surprise, a pleasant surprise.

The Prize Winner

2022-06-29T15:21:00.000-04:00

What makes a poetry manuscript a prize winner?

As a small press editor with over 40 years of experience, here are some of the things I expect when reading a manuscript for The Word Works Washington Prize:

— The manuscript conforms to such standards as easy-to-read type like 12 point Times New Roman on 81/2 X 11 pages with a table of contents and page numbers.

— The contest rules have been followed. For example, the Washington Prize is read blind which means the manuscript must not include your name or acknowledgements that list where individual poems have been published.

— The poems demonstrate a mastery of poetic craft. I do not consider lineated text to be poetry. Free verse should demonstrate inclusion of lyricism, rhythm, metaphor, something that indicates the words selected are sensitive to language.

— The manuscript has poems that “talk to each other.” This might mean subject matter, poetic form, stylistic elements. And the poems seem to work well with each other.

—Selected poems address the human condition. This might mean addressing big life events like birth, death, love, marriage, war, political struggle, domestic abuse.

—Individual poems or the overall manuscript teaches the reader something new.

—The poems exhibit that the poet is taking a calculated risk which might be in form or subject matter.

The bottom line is what makes this manuscript different? What makes this manuscript memorable?

NYC Reading at the KGB

2022-05-03T09:44:00.005-04:00

The last time my work was public in New York City occurred June 2005 Symphony Space Thalia Theater for the world premiere of Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On, my opera with Bill Banfield and Nancy Rhodes. So, reading at the KGB Bar on April 25, 2022, in lower Manhattan with Susana Case and Margo Stever (the organizers of this event featuring Broadstone Books authors) as well as Myra Malkin and Mervyn Taylor was a long overdue treat. The 2^nd floor bar where the KGB Monday Night Poetry events occur was full up, including a couple of forthcoming Broadstone authors. The KGB organizers also had fired up their Zoom platform allowing remote audience to attend the event and that’s where my friends had assembled.

I dedicated “Wunkirle, Most Hospitable Woman,” my opening poem to all the people who are opening their homes to the refugees of Ukraine escaping former KGB agent Putin’s war. Wunkirle refers to the sacred ladles sculpted by the Dan people of Africa and is a poem from my first book of poetry. Often these ladles as works of art have legs. Here’s the poem:

WUNKIRLE

(Most Hospitable Woman)

After you receive your guests,

come to me, Spoon Mama

on those supple legs—

muscles flowing like milk

and scoop the agony from my gut.

I have got a lot

but your bowl is large

as your reputation

and though the invited

came for rice

give them each

a portion of pain

and let them then

as I will do

thank you

for your generosity.

2022 AWP Writer's Conference & Book Fair

2022-03-30T14:38:00.001-04:00

What is the purpose of going to a writers’ conference? It depends on who you are. The Steiny Road Poet recently attended a couple of days of the AWP Conference & Bookfair. She had a few reasons for going and the introduction found on the AWP website is a good place to begin answering the question about why a person might go.

“The AWP Conference & Bookfair is the annual destination for writers, teachers, students, editors, and publishers of contemporary creative writing. It includes thousands of attendees, hundreds of events and bookfair exhibitors, and four days of essential literary conversation and celebration. The AWP Conference & Bookfair has always been a place of connection, reunion, and joy, and we are excited to see the writing community come together again in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2022.”

Steiny is a writer—a poet as you, Dear Reader, know, a publisher—co-editor-in-chief of The Word Works, and perpetual student—always ready to learn something new. As a poet, Steiny has a book published in 2021—how we hold on—that had not one in-person reading or opportunity for a public book signing.

As a publisher, Steiny could support some of our authors. The Word Works had a table registration carried over from 2020 when the Covid pandemic shut everything down and there were 2022 Word Works authors Chloe Martinez and Cheryl Clark Vermeulen to meet and one author Henry Crawford and one translator Andrea Jurjevic whose books were published in 2020 but had not been feted publicly. Steiny put on her Poet hat to help them sell books. One discovery was, by using Venmo, publishers could beat the problem of swiping buyer credit cards which are slow to process in a big convention center without buying into communications services.

Steiny also attended several panels, one led by Word Works author Chloe Martinez on ars poetica, another on fair use and copyright with participation from a hometown confrere Richard Peabody who talked about how he was sued by Mattel for his anthology on Barbie dolls, and an Alice James Books tribute to the late Jean Valentine moderated by Anne Marie Macarie. So always something to learn at AWP.

However, more important than selling books or seeking out stimulating panels is meeting with writers known or first met. That is the joy of attending a writers’ conference. 2022 was a small conference with registration counted at 8,000 and it felt like there was lots of time to feel that joy despite wearing masks!

Photo: Emily Holland of Poet Lore talks with Word Works author Henry Crawford.