Pressed & dried

Two copies of Saranac Review arrived today, with my poem somewhere in the midst of its 170-odd pages and 50-odd contributors. Initially it was a kind of a bitter-sweet feeling, finding oneself in the midst of such a huge lineup after such a long wait (nearly a year, in toto). It is, though, a glossy, lovely review... and it's a pleasure to see one's words in old-fashioned print. Other Canadian contributers I know: Barry Dempster, Brian Bartlett, Tom Wayman, + Louise Warren, a Quebecoise translated into English, whom I should know. The rest Americans I don't know, some with impressive credentials. I read a couple of poems with interesting imaginative leaps. Good company, in other words. I look forward to looking at their work over the next few days.

Today (now yesterday) I spent 4 hours or so cleaning house -- it was that rainy day we were waiting for after so many sunny days and scorchers. Then I spent about 6 or 7 hours going through online lists of Canadian poetry book publishers at the Canadian League of Poets website and at CV2's site, reading & copying their submission guidelines, paying special attention to whether they want whole manuscripts, samples, etc., looking at their author lists etc. and sorting them into an A-list, B-list, C-list and D-list according to prestige/desirability, + an additional category, Chapbooks & Alt. Formats. I actually got the whole job done: it's possible to cover this whole country in one long sitting. There are about 35 book presses in all -- just under one for every million of us, think of that! -- 20 of which got onto my A and B lists. For a break, I played some interesting 8-bar blues riffs I learned off the net. Right now, my back and neck are sore.