Dear potential contributors,

We at LemonHound would like to invite you to submit to our How Poems Work section.

The idea for these guest posts stems from an appreciation of the How Poems Work column that the Globe & Mail ran a few years back. The posts were generally insightful and instructive, opening up poems and poetry not only to other poets, but to the uninitiated. Some of them became useful pedagogical tools. Some conversation starters. The column became an entity that often inserted poetry into conversations that otherwise would not have included them. It was also at the root of many non-poets announcing the purchase of this or that book of poetry. 

The purpose of the How Poems Work genre is simply to engage with the text, to query the inner workings, to tease out meaning, to wonder, yes, to appreciate too, but mostly to open up texts. Open, open.

The other thing that is exciting about this genre is that it models a way of reading. How we read is under-investigated. How does one approach a text when they have no clues as to what it’s responding to and why? What if there are no difficult texts, just texts that one hasn’t yet found a way to enter? Let these posts be points of entry.

Logistically, a How Poems Work submission will be a maximum of 1,000 words and will focus only on one poem. Entrances into collaborative poems are also welcome.

Should you desire more space, or wish to expand on an author’s work, you might consider submitting your piece as an essay.

The How Poems Work offerings are a very mixed bag of voices and styles. 

·                Nick Thran on Ashbery’s bridge

·                Amanda Earl on Catherine Owen

·                Sheryda Warrener reads Karen Solie

·                On Daniel Tysdale & Karen Solie

·                Chris Hutchinson on Jeramy Dodds

·                Erin Moure on Nicole Brossard

·                Erin Moure on Norma Cole

·                Emily Carr on Mary Ruefle

·                Erin moure on Andres Ajens

·                Katherine Parrish on Lisa Foad

·                Gary Barwin on Merrill Gilfillan

·                Erin Moure on Lisa Robertson

·                Lemon Hound on Anne Carson

·                Susannah M. Smith on Walter Benjamin

·                Erin Wunker on Sachiko Murakami

·                Michael Bryson on Fiction is Mystery

·                Jacob Wren on Carl Wilson

·                Sarah Dowling on Erin Moure

·                Virginia Woolf on K Silem Mohammad

·                Jordan Davis on Drew Gardner

·                Chris Piuma on Catherine Daly

·                Ryan Fitzpatrick on Katie Degentesh

·                Meredith Quartermain on Margaret Christakos

·                Brenda Schmidt on Kerry Ryan

·                Lynn Crosbie on Sid Vicious

·                Patrick Rosal on Robert Hayden

·                Annie Finch on Claude McKay

·                Carol Moldaw on Gjertrud Schnackenberg

·                Jason Christie on Ryan Fitzpatrick

·                a.rawlings on Donato Mancini

·                Gregory Betts on derek beaulieu

·                Christian Bok on Darren Wershler

·                Shawna Lemay on Brenda Schmidt

·                Evie Shockley on Ed Roberson

·                K Silem Mohammad on Elizabeth Bachinsky

·                Elizabeth Bachinsky on K Silem Mohammad

·                Marilyn Hacker on Gwendolyn Brooks, plus 5 Questions

·                derek beaulieu on Jordan Scott

 

Please let us know if you would like to add your own. You can send your submissions to Wanda O’Connor, How Poems Work editor, at[email protected]. Our next submission deadline will be roughly at the start of January, for the January 25th issue of LemonHound.

 

With thanks,

Sina and Wanda