A Poetry Anthology for Fanfic?

[Gavin Luper]

G'day everyone.

Well, this idea was just floating around in my head, so I thought I'd share it and see if we can get some support for it.

I'd like to start a sort of mini poetry anthology in Fanfic. Like, a literary poetry journal which would show off the very finest works that TPM's many (and often overlooked) poets have to offer. Anyone would be free to send submissions in (according to guidelines that would be set up in advance, such as length limitations, etc.) and the final entries would be decided upon by an editor, or perhaps a guest judge each time, or something.

What do we think? Would you guys be interested in helping to create and submit works to our very own online literary journal? I think we could even try to offer some kind of 'rewards' (suggestions as to what?) for writers who are successful in being chosen for publication.

Thoughts? Comments? Please discuss!

Cheers!

[Cadmus]

Sounds like a good idea. Poetry can take less time than a chapter of a story to write. Well, generally speaking anyway. That could be quite fun. As for the rewards, hmm, I am not sure what could be offered.

[Bulbasaur4]

I'd definately be interested! I find a lot of people aren't familiar with modern American poetry, so I'd gladly submit some of those styles along with my own creations! Bwhahaha!

It'd be fantastic to see what everyone submits!!

[mistysakura]

Sounds like a good idea. Poetry can take less time than a chapter of a story to write. Well, generally speaking anyway. That could be quite fun. As for the rewards, hmm, I am not sure what could be offered.

Hehe, maybe I just haven't written chapters for too long (wow... it's been a good two years since I've written a chapter), but I'd have to disagree there. Anyway, I think it'd be awesome to promote poetry at TPM, but Poetry Corner is already an anthology of sorts. I guess the anthology just formalises it and makes it look pretty For rewards... custom banners? Honour roll at the biannual Awards? Having your poem/other fic stickied for a week? Good old bragging rights?

[PancaKe]

Why don't you just do specific poetry awards or something like that? It sounds like a good idea, but it would be a shame to start something like this and then have nobody with the time to continue it ... you know? Maybe a poetry only awards would still showcase some of the finer poets of TPM or something? *shrugs* I don't know

[mr_pikachu]

Hmm, the idea of a contest could be integrated into the anthology. Let's say we do it every three months, or something. The anthology poster could choose, I dunno, eight submissions for the anthology issue and also highlight one of those as the "Featured Poem."

Or something like that. *shrugs* I believe a poetry competition was one of the original Fanfic Writing Contests, so there's always that option as well.

[Gavin Luper]

All of these ideas are good. I just thought it would be cool to celebrate TPM's poetry in some way. Either a collection or a competition, or awards, even, would all be great.

[Asilynne]

I dont step into fanfic much but I was in the neighborhood and saw this so Id like to say I love this idea please someone do it and prevent it from landing in the dust heap so many good TPM ideas end up in :<
EDIT: I actually write a lot of poetry but rarely post any of it or share it because well Id like to get feedback but no one ever seems to really pay attention so it kinda discourages me from sharing >.> but if there was something like this than maybe maybe the feedback would come o.o lol

[PancaKe]

Why don't you guys feature poetry in the E-zine every month? Just someone choose a poem that was posted in the last month in Poetry corner and feature it??
Yeahhh just an idea.

[Gavin Luper]

You know what, I'm thinking there's no reason we can't do more than one of these ideas. It seems like we're all passionate about our poetry. I love the idea of a monthly poetry spotlight in the e-zine, maybe with a short critique attached to it, or an exegesis from the poet detailing why they wrote it, what it's about, what worked for them and what didn't, etc. I'd love to read that each month, and it'd be a cool platform for our poets.

At the same time, I feel really strongly about making that anthology or something. Maybe a yearly or twice-yearly (or however frequently demand necessitates) edition. The collection could either be judged - and as such, be the cream of the crop of all TPM Fanfic - or we could do something like each and every member is able to submit the one poem that they think is their finest work, and all poems get published, thereby representing the cream of each poet's individual work.

*is excited*

[PancaKe]

Haha Gav - you're so cute when you're excited! Yeah I reckon totally start spotlighting a poem of the month. Maybe a short interview with the person who wrote it etc. That sounds brilliant!

[Asilynne]

Im totally feeling your creamy ideas rofl
You could put both anthology ideas together, and make the first section of all the cream of TPMs crop aka the best poems of TPM, and a second section is the cream of each persons crop aka the best work of everyone who wants to submit shit. Like have each person submit their best work like you said, and there be some people who judge which go into the first section, and the others go into the second. That way the best get recognised but everyone still gets their poem in there for people to see :> AND everyone who submits something also submits a short comment/critique about everyone elses submission, that way everyone gets everyones elses views on their poem too! It will be an epic undertaking and would shape up to be a very cool finished product that everyone on TPM can appreciate! So by goodness man get to it!!! XDDD

[Gavin Luper]

Whee! OK I shall get onto it!

*bubbles with disproportionate and slightly embarrassing excitement*

*doesn't care*

[PancaKe]

Yay! Sounds like a plan
Good stuff Gavin!

This motivates me to write more poetry haha

[mistysakura]

Mm, I really like the idea of everyone submitting their best poem, and everyone giving a critique of everyone else's work. Or even blurbs to introduce the poems, like in a 'real' anthology! Except people seem to shy away from poetry critique. Meh. Asi: do post up! I make it my personal responsibility to reply to every poem in Poetry Corner (I'm a bit behind nowadays, but I have good intentions...)

[Asilynne]

I actually did one yesterday but its a lil >.> sad I guess lol Idk :X I do have some happy ones though

[Bulbasaur4]

I like all the ideas that everyone has talked about so far. It'd be nice to see poems get a little bit more light shed upon them here! *grabs a spotlight and starts blinding people*

The only thing about critiques that are hard is doing them appropriately. A lot of stuff was 'opened up to me' when I took my writing classes and I found that it is important to know a thing or two about a poem style before critiquing them. So if we do critiques, then whoever does it should make sure they know the style of the poem and maybe a reference to the style (like a professional poem) so the critic knows what to expect? Like for me, I could never critique a rhyming poem (lame description xD) or something like a haiku. ^^;;

[Gavin Luper]

OK, I've contacted a well-known poet for a December E-zine edition of the poetry spotlight, so that's going ahead.

How would we feel about starting up some form of this anthology, or at least doing it once and seeing how it turns out? I'm happy to run it. Do we need to discuss a bit more what form it would take, ie. whether we go for a best-of-TPM option or a best-of-each-poet option, or a mix of both? I'm leaning towards us having a combination of both, with some discussions or feedback or something potentially added as well.

Maybe I should make a new poll for that so we can all vote? It seems that the vast majority of people want this to happen in some way or another, it's just the format that we need to sort out.

[PancaKe]

I vote for a new poll. With a comedy option.