Editor Interview: The Poetry Cafe

Poetry Chapbook Reviews

Regarding online sites that publish reviews of poetry books, I am particularly drawn to River Mouth Review (where I am the reviews editor); Adroit; Cultural Daily, The Rumpus, American Microreviews and Interviews (AMRI), Los Angeles Review of Books, Lambda Literary, and Rain Taxi.

I write poetry. My favorites of course change from day to day. Some recent poets whose work has wowed me include Daniel Lassell (SPIT); Yun Wang (The Book of Mirrors); Skirted (Julie Marie Wade); Bloodwarm (Taylor Byas); Diane Seuss (Frank:Sonnets); Jason Schneiderman (Hold Me Tight); Kaveh Akbar (Pilgrim Bell). Writers that I return to again and again include Emily Dickinson; Arthur Sze; Sylvia Plath; Audre Lorde; T.S. Elioit; W.H. Auden; William Carlos Williams; Jane Kenyon; Terrance Hays.

The Poetry Cafe Online is the only online site that I am aware of that solicits and publishes reviews exclusively of poetry chapbooks.

Anyone can submit. There is a listing of books that are awaiting reviews to choose from, or you can pitch me a book to review. I provide the guidelines to follow and will work with new reviewers to create a review they can be proud to see published.

I love to publish reviews that reveal how the reviewer was moved or changed by reading the work; how they came across it; what they learned from it. Ideally a chapbook review should be short (under 1000 words; select great quotes from the book that can stand alone; synthesize the main themes (rather than plod through each poem or section), does not pitch the book like a blurb; and describes the poet's craft in terms of both strengths and weaknesses.

The process is pretty straightforward, however the idea should be pitched, rather than send me a completed review.

I will check out reviewers online, and always request a bio, to be included with the post. If a reviewer has a history of publishing book reviews, that is helpful. Describing the book or the poet in detail in a cover letter is generally not needed.

I not only read every review from beginning to end, but I will work with the reviewer to edit a review that needs revisions.

I generally try to answer queries on Wednesdays and post one review every Sunday. In all, I spend about 8 hours/week on this project. Aside from those tasks, I read chapbooks that are sent to me requesting reviews and list them on the site with links to where they can be purchased. I write reviews for the site too, usually about one every 6 weeks or so.

I assume that I will have to copy edit and style every review. If I'm not able to publish a review as received, I query the author to see if they want revision suggestions. If so, I'll work with a reviewer to bring forth a publishable review, as described in my guidelines. I have declined to publish only a handful of reviews that really did not follow the guidelines and where the author did not want suggestions.

Nope. I'm not aware of anywhere I could submit chapbook reviews for an award.