Jessica Piazza's Blog

The Poetry Has Value Project
Recently, I was inspired by the poet Dena Rash Guzman's personal challenge to send her poetry to paying markets in 2015. I was so inspired, in fact, that I decided to spend the next whole year submitting poetry ONLY to paying journals and markets, and recording what happens in this blog. I also decided to use this space to simultaneously explore deeper questions of poetry's value and worth (monetary or otherwise.) 
Luckily for everyone, I won't be doing it alone. Here you'll find posts about my experiences over the year, but also lists of paying markets, interviews with and advice from editors and publishers who pay poets, and essays by esteemed friends and colleagues who have opinions on the subject or are participating in this experiment themselves. 
I think it's worth it to spend a year thinking about the system and figuring out what's broken and how we can fix it. I think it's worth it to ask what poetry is worth.

Follow this project, and contribute your ideas, at www.poetryhasvalue.com.

This is the best interview I've read so far of Interrobang.  Insightful, well-written, full of clever analytical catches regarding content.  I couldn't be happier that I have readers like Erin Watson.

http://thevoltablog.wordpress.com/201...

Sarah Dravec wrote this awesome review of Interrobang (Red Hen Press) at Barn Owl Review, and I'm pretty damn psyched about it. 

Sarah wrote that she was "moved to the deeper level of thinking" when she read it, which is incredibly humbling and wonderful. (Especially if she had fun reading it at the same time!)

Read it here...

I'm beyond excited to report that my poetry collection Interrobang has won the prestigious 2013 Balcones Poetry Prize.  There were almost 200 published poetry collections nominated for the award, and it is an incredible honor that the judges decided my book deserved to win.
Past winners include Mark Jarman, Natalie Diaz, Chase Twichell, Dana Levin, Michael McGriff, Aimee Nezhukumatahil and Lorna Dee Cervantes. 
Read more about it here:
http://acccreativewriting.com/blog/austin-community-college-announces-the-winner-of-the-2013-balcones-poetry-prize-interrobang-red-hen-press-by-jessica-piazza/

Hi all!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be doing an online poetry workshop this summer.  It's going to be a blast, and will definitely keep everyone on a writing schedule as we hone our poetic craft!

All the info is below.  Join us!

ONLINE POETRY WORKSHOP WITH JESSICA PIAZZA:
6 week workshop June 2 to July 14
$199

Sign up here: http://www.barrelhousemag.com/?page_id=235#jess

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:

A 6-week summer online poetry workshop with an emphasis on poetic craft. (You don't have to be in a specific location at a specific time; you can access the class info at your convenience.) We will examine the many approaches, voices, forms and tools of poetic craft, breaking them down and discussing them as possibilities for broadening our own work. Everyone is welcome, as our goal -- more than anything -- will be to write amazing poems.

WHY THE EMPHASIS ON CRAFT?

None of us would be here if we didn't have something to say. The question is, then -- and has always been: how will we say it? Paying razor sharp attention to how the tools of poetic craft can transform, manipulate and enliven subject is a starting point into answering that question. From the simple line break to the more intricate questions of form, meter, rhythm, space and voice, we will consider a different poetic tool/style each week. Through discussing poems both contemporary and classic alongside our own work, we will hopefully find inspiration; new jumping off points to present our visions.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The workshop uses the Moodle learning management system. Participants do not have to be in a certain place at a certain time, but will log into the workshop space throughout the week, whenever is convenient for them.

The class is limited to 15 people. Each participant can hand in a poem each week to receive detailed feedback from the instructor, and all participants will have the opportunity to workshop several poems with the group. Each participant will also have the opportunity for a phone or online video conference with the instructor at the end of the workshop.

We workshop poetry every week. In addition, we will consider various readings (lectures on craft, interviews with writers and editors, sample poems, etc) to jumpstart a weekly discussion. Each craft discussion will feature online resources: i.e. poems in literary magazines or collections, lectures from the instructor, videos of readings, interviews of authors from Poets & Writers and other publications, etc. All the supporting materials will be free--participants won't have to buy any books or other materials.

HOW MUCH?

The workshop is $199. For that amount, you'll get critique on six poems, writing prompts, materials for consideration and a private conference with your instructor. And, you'll be supporting Barrelhouse

AND WHO IS JESSICA PIAZZA?

Jessica Piazza is the author of two poetry collections: "Interrobang" (Red Hen Press) and the chapbook "This is not a sky" (Black Lawrence Press). She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California and is currently a contributing editor for The Offending Adam and a reader for the National Poetry Series. Her commitment to fostering writing communities wherever she lives led her to co-found of Bat City Review in Austin, TX, Gold Line Press in Los Angeles and Speakeasy Poetry Series in New York City. Learn more at www.jessicapiazza.com.

Sign up here: http://www.barrelhousemag.com/?page_id=235#jess

Sara Johnson, a brilliant poet in her own right, wrote a very special review of Interrobang at Tikkun Magazine.  Thanks to her, and to Joshua Bernstein for publishing it!



The Muscular Song

Hey all!

If at any point you were interested in procuring a free copy of my poetry collection Interrobang (which, well, of course you are), then this week only you can enter to win one of three free giveaway copies with a single click at Goodreads.

Click here to enter!

Poetry contests are expensive.  Often, the small presses/entities running those contests need the revenue to survive.

Those two statements are equally true, so I realize it might be an unpopular approach for me to grouse about the contest system, and for the most part I don't and don't want to.  But--and this is a big deal for me--I do see a huge problem with the cost of poetry contest entries (poem publication prizes, that is, not book contests) vs. the potential reward.

Lately I've been seeing prizes asking for $20 fees, with rewards as little as $500 and publication in a journal.  I'm not sure how this is a feasible system for poets surviving on the pittance we usually bring in from our adjunct gigs, press jobs and graduate student fellowships.

Certainly, for book contests, a generous fee is necessary.  After all, when the contest is over the winner is not only awarded a decent sum of money, but the press itself must them continue on to *publish a book.*  There are costs associated with that, and almost no likelihood of getting a decent amount of money back from sales.  On top of that, contest readers and judges are reading whole books, which can be a gargantuan task; giving those books real attention takes time and energy most magazines and presses don't have the resources to offer under normal circumstances.  Most importantly, right now there are damn few ways for a first book poet to get published besides contests.  Like the system or not, it's one we have to at least consider participating in (and paying for) if we want to be in this field.

But plain old publication contests?  I don't get it.  The magazine running the contest is going to publish an issue anyway.  They're going to read submissions to the magazine anyway.  It's nice to award something to the poet who does outstanding work, sure, but in general the contest system isn't that far off the everyday journal system.  That's one of the reasons you often see "all poems will be considered for publication" in the contest rules: it's another way of getting submissions.  And if you're good enough to win or place in a contest, likely you're good enough to get published in the journal anyway.  (Though, I know this isn't always true.  Since you're only up against other people who have paid, as opposed to every submitter, there might be a slightly better chance for you to get published via a contest than just regularly.  I do think it's negligible, however.)

Anyway, to be fair, I do agree that a fee system is a good idea.  We live in a world of tiny readership vs. a huge supply of poems from writers who don't bother to (or can't) support the journals to which they submit.  So five bucks, ten bucks...a little something for the editors' trouble to read some extra submissions and a little extra support for the places who keep poetry alive.  I get it.  I'm happy to kick that in, and I wouldn't begrudge support for my fellow writers and those who give us a place to shine.

But seriously, so many of us can't afford these contests anymore, which is sad.  Our industry is floundering in so many ways, and I know none of us are happy with the vicious cycle of poets paying presses to publish poets who don't read what the press publishes.  It's a mess, but I'm really hoping we can figure out a better way.  Because we're stretching ourselves really thin, and maybe that can only last so long.

I'm so excited that the Interrobang galleys have shipped, and are already arriving into reviewers' hot little hands even as I type this!

I'm really looking forward to reading the reviews, too.  Good or even not so good, it's just an honor to have people read the work and think about it.  (I sound like an academy award nominee, I know.  But it's sincere.)

Anyway, this is my dream coming true.  So every step is pretty exciting.

A big day, all!

My poetry collection Interrobang is finally available for pre-order. 

You can order directly from Red Hen Press or from Amazon. 

Some reviews:


“Jessica Piazza’s brilliantly conceived debut collection, Interrobang, is a stunning sequence of (primarily) sonnets that unfolds with both a mature formal acuity and a profound philosophical sophistication. It is an absolute tour de force. These poems emerge as reflections of a kaleidoscopic self as they interrogate those fears and desires that drive and haunt us. Whatever the answers might be to these exclamatory questions, the speaker of these beautiful and troubling poems knows she has only one response available to her—to continue regardless, and to persevere.”—David St. John 

“Jessica Piazza leaps fully-armed from the head (and heady tradition) of linguistic-trickster poets like Father Hopkins and Heather McHugh. Interrobang hits the ground running, lobbing bolts of syntactical lightning, taking the reader hostage to the most dazzling radical harmonies—a word-music that shakes us awake, powers new insights—stands us on the very edge of a rock ‘n’ roll minefield, waving a white flag. We give in! We got it! This is great poetry!”—Carol Muske-Dukes 
“What an ear, here! Jessica Piazza’s poems are such etched, alive word sculptures, crystal prism poems of love and longing and punch.”—Aimee Bender
“Jessica Piazza is an heir of Hopkins, a poet engaging generously in metaphysical struggle. In this unusually deft book, she sets out to offer her voice on the altar of iambic pentameter and shares the fears she encounters there with quirky, firm metrical dexterity and breathtakingly succinct wit. Interrobang is a serious accomplishment.”—Annie Finch 
“Interrobang thrums gorgeously—each page is full-throated and sexy. It’s a yearning yo-yo, a gemlike cutting through our loves and fears. It is a book rabid with life. Piazza’s razor-sharp collection weaves and knots the unknowable with a jubilance and wit too rare in contemporary poetry. Interrobang is fantastic debut collection.”—Alex Lemon, author of Happy: A Memoir and Fancy Beasts