Will Barrett (Poetry School)We are overjoyed to announce that Don Share, poet and editor of Poetry magazine, is coming to CAMPUS this December for a Live Q&A.
No wacky catchy byline needed – it’s Don Share, everyone. Don Share!
Don will be in discussion with Kathryn Maris, our Digital Poet in Residence, and they’ll be variously discussing: the differences between US and UK poetry (and the recent ‘British invasion’ edition of Poetry), Don’s recent jazz-backed performance of Squandermania for the Swindon Poetry Festival, polymath tendencies, what to look for in a poem and how to ‘make it new’.
As with all our Live Q&A’s, Don will also be here to answer any questions you might have, which must be submitted in advance of the event. If you’d like to ask Don a question, please post it below in the comments section.
Note: we’re expecting demand for this Live Q&A to be very high, so priority will be given to those who have asked a question.
Live Q&A with Don Share – Poetry Here & There
When? – Monday 8 December, 2pm GMT
Where? – CAMPUS
OPEN TO ALL
To reserve your place on this free Live Q&A, please RSVP: [email protected]
Don Share became the editor of Poetry in 2013. His books of poetry are Wishbone (2012), Squandermania (2007), and Union (2013, 2002). He is the co-editor of The Open Door: 100 Poems, 100 Years of Poetry Magazine (2012), and editor of Bunting’s Persia (2012) and a critical edition of Basil Bunting’s poems (Faber and Faber). He is the translator of Field Guide: Poems by Dario Jaramillo Agudelo (2012), Miguel Hernández (2013), and I Have Lots of Heart: Selected Poems by Miguel Hernández (1998), winner of the Times Literary Supplement Translation Prize and the Premio Valle Inclán for Spanish Translation.
Exciting news!!! The Poetry podcast for that issue is great too. Questions starting to buzz round already.
I guess the most obvious, and partly covered by that podcast, partly not, is what advice would Don give to a British poet wanting to submit to Poetry, or another American magazine? (I guess I’m think particularly here in terms of advice that would be different to advice for submitting to a British magazine, or general submission advice like read the magazine first.) Tying into that, why the need for a British edition of Poetry?
(To PS, not Don, is that tight-enough focussed as a double-headed question, while still giving wide enough scope for the answer?)
The questions look great, Sarah; no need for a fine-tune. Thanks for submitting something!
A few questions for Don:
– Which qualities do you tend to look for in a poem?
– What advice would you give a poet who wants to submit to Poetry?
– What do you see as the biggest differences between U.S and U.K poetry magazines?
– Do you think it is possible for a poet (someone other than a poet Laureate) to be truly successful in both markets?
Those are brilliant questions, Amy. Thanks so much.
Hi Don and Kathryn,
I’d like to know more about your experience Don as an editor. The decisions you have to make about submissions. What brief do you work to – themes, new writers? How do you manage the balance in an issue? Do you commission pieces? And how do you select reviews? I am very interested in how a magazine comes together. I see your March 2014 issue was a special portfolio with Langston Hughes writ large (just been reading him). Look forward to ‘meeting’ you both.
PS oops more than one question but all interconnected?
Thanks Maggie–great questions, nicely interconnected–and looking forward to meeting you too.
Thanks, Will. Looking forward to it, Kathryn, Don and everyone.
I’ve heard different advice:one is to find one’s own writing style, one’s own voice. Meanwhile talking to other poets they talk about being part of groups and dissecting between genres which affects which audience one directs one’s work to, which groups they may enter, and allows analysis of their work. Where would you balance between writing in a unique voice and writing to sell to others?