Plan B: A Poet's Survivors Manual

by Sandy McIntosh

If you're a poet, how are you going to survive if you can't get a teaching job? In PLAN A POET'S SURVIVORS MANUAL, McIntosh offers the you need a Plan B if you want to put food on the table, wear shoes without holes in the soles, and stop living with roommates before you turn sixty. Taking us on a witty, fascinating, no-holds barred romp through his own experiences in the world of commercial writing and publishing, McIntosh reassures us that it is possible to have a successful career as a poet while holding down day jobs that make us better writers. "PLAN A POET'S SURVIVORS MANUAL is a wonderful book, an important book, a book aspiring writers of fiction and poetry should read. On page 50: "The best day job for a poet involves writing. Writing anything. . .will make you a better writer." I have said these exact words to many students, many writers, and have lived my life by this credo... My entire career, which strikes even me as improbable, illustrates many of your 'survival tips.'" --David Lehman, Editor, The Oxford Book of American Poetry . Series Editor, The Best American Poetry Literary Nonfiction. Poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Writing

121 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2017

About the author

Sandy McIntosh was born in Rockville Centre, New York, and received a BA from Southampton College, an MFA from Columbia University and a doctorate from the Union Graduate. After working with children for eight years as a writer in the schools he completed a study of writers who taught in the program and how their work with children affected their own writing. The study, The Poets in the Poets-in-the Schools was published by the University of Minnesota. He alternated teaching creative writing at Southampton College and Hofstra University with publishing nonfiction works, such as Firing Back (John Wiley 1997), and computer software, such as Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing! (Electronic Arts, 1986). He contributes journalism, poetry, and opinion columns to The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The New York Daily News, Newsday, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, American Book Review, and elsewhere. He was also editor and publisher of Wok Talk, a Chinese cooking bi-monthly and the author and editor of several Chinese cook books.

His first collection of poetry, Earth Works, was published by Southampton College in 1970, the year he graduated. He has since published 11 collections of poetry, four prose volumes and three computer software programs.

His original poetry in a screenplay won the Silver Medal in the Film Festival of the Americas. The New York Times’ published his poem “Cemetery Chess,” and an excerpt of his collaboration with Denise Duhamel appears in The Best American Poetry.

From 1990 to 2000 he was chairman of the Distinguished Poetry Series at Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York.

He was managing editor of Long Island University’s national literary journal, Confrontation, for more than a decade, and is publisher of Marsh Hawk Press.

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was flying to a gathering of poets. What a perfect book to read on the plane, I thought. I expected funny. I expected poetry. I expected real advice. But no. This is a self-indulgent wander through McIntosh’s various jobs. For me, it is not funny, poetic, or helpful, or even very interesting. But it is short.