The latest issue of Poets & Writers is now in bookstores.  For anyone interested in strengthening their writing and learning more about the poetry business, this magazine should be a standard. But I think the current issue is a little more special than others. It features the 6th Annual Debut Poets Roundup, meaning it contains blurbs on several poets who released debut poetry collections recently. Each featured poet also provides advice on writing/publishing.

Unforutnately, Poets & Writers’ content is only available in print, so I can’t post a link to the section, but I will share some helpful advice .

J. Michael Martinez, author of Heredities, published by Lousiana State Unviversity Press, says, “I’d recomend poets focus on the actual act of writing. It is easy to get preoccupied with the fetishizing of publication and lose sight of why we do what we do.”

Here’s some good advice on publishing from Keetje Kuipers, author of Beautiful in the Mouth, published by BOA Editions.

“Good poems are good poems, and they’ll find a home somewhere. But when you’re sending your manuscript out to contests and publishers, you know that your work is going up against a whole lot of good poems. That’s why structure and order and cohesion of a collection are all so important.”

Finally, I’ll end with some advice by John Murillo, author of Up Jump the Boogie, one of my favorite collections of the last year.

“Take as long as you need to write the best book you can, work hard until you are generally satisfied. Then send it out and hope for the best. Second, know that what’s meant for you will find you; what isn’t, won’t. It’s a waste of both time and energy worrying about where this person publishes or what this person wins… Don’t hate, hustle.”