Sharing Your Poetry and Getting Published
Literary Market Place
Once you have begun writing poetry, you will want to begin sharing it with others. The library has some great resources for finding a literary home for your work. Literary Market Place is a directory for all genres of Writing, but its subject index allows you to easily narrow your focus to Publishers of Poetry. Literary Market Place provides addresses, phone numbers, website, and emails for contacting publisher. It also includes some basic information about the publishers such as number of titles that are typically published annually. Besides publishers Literary Market Place includes information on editorial services and agents. If you are looking for contact information for publishers whose work you have enjoyed, Literary Market Place is a good place to look, however, it is always a good idea once you found a potential “home” for your poetry to do a bit more research on the publisher to familiarize yourself with them and learn more about submission guidelines. The library has a copy of Literary Market Place on the second floor next to the reference desk.
Poet’s Market
Another excellent resource, Poet’s Market, is also located near the reference desk. Poet’s Market focuses specifically on poetry and lists contests and grants in addition to journals, book and chapbook publisher. Entries include information on the type of writing that the journal publishes, contact information along with tips from the publishers. Poet’s Market is a good choice for those starting out since it also includes articles for beginning writers like mistakes to avoid when submitting your work and how to avoid scams. It will even give you useful tips like a template for writing a cover letter and how to calculate postage. The library has a copy of Poet’s Market on the second floor next to the reference desk.
The library subscribes to several writing magazines including The Writer, Writer’s Digest, and Poets & Writers. Poet & Writers includes along with insightful articles for writers, a classified section with journals and chapbook publishers looking for submissions. Sometimes publishers may be working on an anthology on a specific topic such as one publisher in the March/April 2013 issue that is searching for poems about superheroes.
Of course beyond publishing you may want to interact with other writers and readers in person. The Poet’s Market and Poets & Writers are also a resource for workshops and organizations. Although poetry is enjoyable on the written page it can come alive when read aloud. If you would like to read your work to a friendly audience, than you will enjoy the library’s Open Mics which will be beginning on May 18th at 2:00pm. You can contact Sacha at hobkref@bccls.org for more information about the Open Mics. The Open Mics take place in Church Square Park across from the library and are a great way to share your writing with the Hoboken Community. If you would like to discuss your work with other creative writers than consider joining the library’s Writer’s Group which meets one Thursday a month. Our next meeting will be on May 9th at 6:00pm. You can email us at hplwriters@gmail.com for more details about the Writers Group.
– Aimee Harris, Head of Reference
Hoboken Library Staff Picks 