Manuscript Organization

As the publisher and editor of Terrapin Books, I see a number of manuscripts each submission period that include many outstanding poems; however, I often have to say no to these manuscripts because they are not yet ready for publication. What's missing? Good organization. That's a simple and honest answer, but good manuscript organization is by no means an easy project. We poets all wrestle with it. We lay out our poems on the bed, the floor, the table. We go away to retreats or hole up in hotels, wrestling with those pages and hoping to find the right plan. That right plan can be very elusive.

Many poets, especially those working on a first manuscript, fall prey to the topical arrangement. That is, they put all related poems in the same section—a section for poems about birds, another for poems about vegetables, another for poems about dogs, and so on. So what's wrong with that? It's tedious for the reader, for one thing. Such an organization deprives the reader of one of the greatest pleasures of reading a poetry book, i.e., surprise. The topical arrangement results in predictability and monotony. After I've read 3 or so bird poems, I'm pretty sure that when I turn the page, there will be another bird flying around. My attention to the poem disappears, my interest disappears, my excitement disappears. All flown away. This topical approach does sometimes work, but more often than not it doesn't.

What does work? Here is a list of four excellent discussions of manuscript organization that you might find useful as you wrestle with your poems trying to find a pleasing plan, one that will turn a bunch of poems into a collection of poems, a work of art.

Thinking Like an Editor: How to Order Your Poetry Manuscript
by April Ossman

On Making the Poetry Manuscript
by Jeffrey Levine, publisher of Tupelo Press

Dynamic Design: The Structure of Books of Poems
by Natasha Saje

Putting Together a Manuscript of Poems
by Marilyn McCabe


I'm posting this list now as Terrapin Books will reopen for submissions on January 22 and will remain open thru February 28, 2018. So get your manuscript in good order and check out our Guidelines and our FAQs.

Yes, Virginia

Each Christmas I like to revisit the following essay from the The Sun. My grandmother read it to me many years ago. I've always remembered it. If you don't already know this piece, I hope you'll enjoy it. I also hope you'll have a Merry Christmas or whatever you're celebrating this year. And I hope you'll have a wonderful New Year. Thank you for being a Blogalicious reader.

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's The Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial on September 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

Here's Virginia's letter:

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.

"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'

"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

Here's the reply:

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Pass the Donuts!

I'm happy to say that The Book of Donuts, the second anthology published by my press Terrapin Books, has been getting some really nice attention. Thanks to Jason Lee Brown and Shanie Latham for being such great editors and for doing some fine pr for the book. Please allow me to brag a bit.

First. in November we had a really nice review by Gale Walden in Smile Politely, an online newspaper. Walden said of the collection:
Some of the poems see the donut as an antagonist, a foil against thin bodies, healthy lifestyles, and then there is the poem "Rationalization" by Betsey Cullen, who finds a way around that kind of castigation: “Loosen up/ Krispy Kreme rhymes / with dream. Go ahead. Wallow / in a carrot-cake donut, call it a vegetable.”

A second review appeared in Midwest Quarterly Review, this one by Matt Geiger who made this comment:
For all its Bismarks, gulgulas and bombolones, the collection is far more human than pastry. The poems are really about family, international terrorism, anguish, love, and an array of other topics. The book is brimming with memories of mothers and grandmothers, glistening with perspiration as they tend crackling pots of oil. It's full of those who lose the ones they love and turn to trans fats for temporary but palpable comfort.

Jama sets a lovely table

The book also had a beautiful feature at Alphabet Soup, a food blog hosted by Jama Rattigan. The feature includes contributor Martha Silano's wonderful poem "What can I say that hasn’t been said." When you visit the feature, bring a bib with you as Jama includes some wonderful photos.

Another terrific feature appeared in Nicole  Gulotta's food blog, Eat This Poem. Nicole is also the author of a wonderful and unique cookbook, also titled Eat This Poem. The cookbook includes poems about food and recipes. This feature includes the poem "5 World Trade Center," by James Penha, and a commentary about the poem. Of this poem, Gulotta asks:
How many donuts have we eaten in our lifetime already? I've certainly had my share, and now I may never eat another without remembering these words or the image of dusty confections, trays of them, never delivered, utterly symbolic of the lives of men and women who perished, lives never fully lived.
The poem is followed by a recipe for Apple Cider Donuts.

Nicole models the book

Then we just had a poem featured by Verse Daily. They chose Nicky Beer's wonderful "Most Bizarre Beauty Queens of the 1950’s" as the feature for December 6.

If all this talk about donuts has stimulated your appetite for more and if you're looking for a good gift idea, here's one from editor Shanie Latham:
GIFT BAG IDEA: The Book of Donuts, a pound of fancy coffee, and a coffee mug featuring a snarky epigram (or a sweet one—if you're into that sort of thing).

Of course, we're into that sort of thing!