Editor Interview: Blue Light Book Award Competition

Poems that push the edge

Glass Lyre Press has a similar vision to Blue Light Press. We love what they publish.
We are major fans of Rilke, Neruda, Rumi, W.S. Merwin, Mary Oliver, Jane Hirshfield, Stephen Dunn, and too many others to list.

Rilke, Neruda, Mary Oliver, Jane Hirshfield, Stephen Dunn, W.S. Merwin -- too many others to list.

We publish poems that are visionary, where the language is beautifully crafted, poems that make you grateful to be alive. We like poems that speak to body, mind, heart and soul. We also look for poems where every line delivers. To read poems that we deeply admire, I suggest reading River of Earth and Sky: Poems for the Twenty-First Century. It's like a box of chocolate for poets, and if you like what is published here, we may be the right press for you.

Send us your best work. To see if your work tunes with our press, get a copy of River of Earth and Sky: Poems for the Twenty-First Century and see if you like what is published here. If you love this book, we may be the right press for you. Before submitting, proofread your ms. one more time to make sure every line delivers -- no word clutter, line breaks at the best place to frame your language, organic stanza breaks. A book is ready for publication when you are proud of every page.

Elegantly crafted poems with depth and vision. We love every poem on every page, and as we progress through the ms., we continue to love your poems. Every line delivers. We especially look for poems where the vision is larger than the poet who wrote it. A poem can be very personal but at the same time speak deeply to a larger audience. We like poems that let us see the world in a new way.

Not knowing the kind of poetry we publish. For example, some poets send rhymed poems, which shows us they don't know anything about our press. We ask for a SASE with the manuscript, and some poets don't include it. Since we like to respond to what we read in a personal way, often with handwritten notes, we really need the SASE.

We like to know about the poet, where they have published, previous publications, and something about them not related to poetry.. That way, it's a warmer experience to read the poems. If the poet is personally known by anyone on our 5 poet editorial board, that poet will not be their first reader. With this said, we go by the quality of the poems only. If a poet doesn't include a cover letter, we're still happy to read the ms. Although we are curious about previous publications, we have published first books for poets with no previous publications. The main thing -- we want to be amazed and delighted by what you write.

We can usually tell if a poet isn't right for us by reading 3 or 4 pages, but we often look other places in the ms. Best advice: put your strongest poems first. If we like what we read up front, we'll put you into the 2nd round and do an in-depth reading. From the 2nd round, we choose 4 to 8 manuscripts for the final round. Out of those, we publish the one that we all love best. Some years we more than one winner, if we have the budget.

We have 5 poets on our editorial board. When a poet gets to the final round, I email the poet to make sure the ms. is still available and if the poet is open to small edits. We hope to publish books that don't need editing, but if the poems are amazing and a few small edits will make them even more amazing, I like to discuss this with the poet. We would never make a change without the permission of the author.

Blue Light Press is a labor of love, and all of us have other jobs. I teach at San Francisco State University and Dominican University. I also direct the Blue Light Press On-Line Poetry Workshop (information on our website). We start our ms. selection process with a poetry potluck, where we share wonderful food and each other's company. Then we start reading our stack of submissions.

We prefer a book that does not need editing. If a book is outstanding but needs some tiny edits, I will talk to the author about it. Blue Light Press will never make edits without the author's approval. The author is responsible for proofreading, and we do not allow additions to the ms. after the book is accepted for publication. We also rely on our authors to promote their books, do readings, and do everything they can to publicize their books.

We do Pushcart Prize nominations every year. We also have books we have nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, but we don't often do this.