Editor Interview: The New Verse News

Current-events poetry

Sharon Olds, Li-Young Lee, Adrienne Rich, Naomi Shihab Nye, Louise Glück, Rae Armantrout, Ron Padgett, Marie Ponsot, Allen Ginsberg, Stanley Kunitz, Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, and the poets we publish.

We try to be as timely as the day's headlines. This means that sometimes a poem we use may be in progress—raw and passionate—and published within minutes of its submission! Sometimes a poem is updated and revised subsequent to its first publication in The New Verse News. We allow for that; we relish that. Of course, we also use finely-crafted work a poet may have written a while before submission, but one that is relevant to a current issue or event.

Do not confuse an essay or diatribe broken up into lines to be an appropriate poem. To win our hearts, a submission must work as a poem and have relevance and a perspective on a news event of the day.

Do not confuse an essay or diatribe broken up into lines to be an appropriate poem. To win our hearts, a submission must work as a poem and have relevance and a perspective on a news event of the day.

To win our hearts, a submission must work as a poem and have relevance and a perspective on a news event of the day.

Most submitters get it right, but a few do send poems attached rather than in the body of emails. And some just don't seem to understand the very special niche we try to maintain for The New Verse News: politically progressive poetry on current issues and events. Rants, even those with which we agree, do not appeal to us as editors unless they are wonderfully written rants. Neither do sincere poems espousing peace and justice and human rights and the environment in general. We search for poems tied specifically to the day's headlines that do not merely repeat those headlines, but provide a poetic point of view that enlightens us further.

Cover letters? We can take 'em or leave 'em. We do request a brief bio that we can use if a poem is accepted. Otherwise, the poetry is the thing.

We can generally tell if the piece isn't right within the first few lines, but we do read every piece to the end. We can afford to do that with poetry.

If it is not time-sensitive, it will be re-read and re-read and held for an appropriate news day.

We rarely edit, although there are times we ask the author for clarifications or reconsiderations of words or lines. We do silently correct as we proofread. We work fast, and so the poet does not get to approve the final draft prior to publication. However, we can and do correct and update, in conversation with the poet, the version posted online.

Pushcart Prizes, yes. We have had one winner ;-)