Newsletter Issue #85 September, 2018

Readers: While we are on hiatus, I thought, still, you might like hearing from us, as we use this time to transition to the new website, which will debut next issue.

Much news to come, which I will address more fully in the October issue (# 85). But, a sneak peek for you faithful subscribers:

First, the new website. Long in the works, it will retain the spare, “elegant” (as many have labeled it) look of the previous iteration, with the focus on the work, always. However, I think you will find the new Plume much more user-friendly – more easily searchable and navigable, with a complete archive, author profiles with biographical notes and photographs, easily identifiable icons for audio/visual material, and the like.

As for the print side of Plume: we have exited Plume Editions and MadHat Press, to strike out on our own. Many thanks to Marc Vincenz for all of his hard work in years past – but it’s time. We will publish under Canisy Press, and SPD will distribute. I have assembled a new design team, and we have acquired a new staff member to handle publicity: Amanda Newell, whose title is Associate Editor for Social Media.  Expect an upgrade in promotions and publicity: we hope to steadily increase our readership across all platforms, both online and print, in the next anthology – renamed to play to our strength, that all work is new and previously unpublished, unusual for an anthology. Henceforth the title will be Plume 7: New Poems 2018,and so on.  Month in and month out, year by year, Plume publishes some of the best contemporary poetry in the world, and we want to give the likes of BAP and Pushcart a little run for their money. The new anthology will debut at AWP in Portland, 2019, with Plume readings and author signings – I hope to see you there!

Also, with the addition of John Ebert as Editor of Video Productions, Plume will offer a more richly textured experience, with some poets reading their work, and extended video interviews with Featured Poets, as we began just recently with Gerry LaFemina.

Finally, this precis would be remiss if it did not announce, as well, our reinvigorated commitment to publish an even more diverse array of poetries. Issues and Featured Selections will include not only our usual rosters of established and emerging poets, but a greater range of voices.  Featured Selections comprising Poets Under 35, African-American Poets, Latinx Poets, LGBTQ Poets, Poets of Africa, and Contemporary Chinese Poets, for example, already are in the planning stages.

That’s it on these matters, for now. More to come, next issue.

Currently, we are in promotion, still, of Plume Poetry 6. Sales have been brisk, especially class/text adoptions, and we will schedule readings for the fall. One, in fact, is upcoming shortly. Much Gratitude to Plume contributor Suzanne Lummis  and her  crew for organizing this, at Beyond Baroque, 8 September. Quite a line-up!

And here is the book itself:

The anthology is available now at MadHat Press and on Amazon, in bookstores soon.

And now, as is our custom, a few notable new books from  our contributors:

Hélène Cardona       Birnam Wood / El Bosque de Birnam
Forrest Gander         Be With
Katie Ford                 If You Have to Go
Bob Hicok                 Hold
Ace Boggess            I Have Lost the Art of Dreaming It So

Our cover art – for this newsletter – comes from Astrid Kruse Jensen: Hypernatural #2. According to Aesthetica  Magazine, “Contrasts often produce stark photographic compositions: black and white, dark and light, and small details within a huge landscape. Danish artist Astrid Kruse Jensen builds her entire portfolio on dynamic oppositions; girls in dazzling red chase across black backdrops and glowing light highlights shadowed silhouettes. This concern with uniting spaces is also evident in the titles of Kruse Jensen’s collections, including Disappearing into the Past, Hypernatural and Parallel Landscapes. Her practice explores the technological capabilities of digital photography while continuing to access a poetic imagery that is one step away from reality. Asking hundreds of questions about the settings and protagonists captured in her frames, the shots are full of intrigue and mystery. This series of photographs is taken from Kruse Jensen’s The Construction of Memories and Imaginary Realities, courtesy of the artist and the Martin Asbæk Gallery, Denmark.”

Thanks so much — see you in October!

Daniel Lawless
Editor, Plume