Some of you will remember that we did this last year, an organized trade of poetry chapbooks. The idea is pretty simple, it involves the exchange of chapbooks of any format or style with other participants primarily so poets can get to know the creative work of others and develop relationships based on the connections. ALL POETS WELCOME! ALL FORMATS WELCOME!
There are a few changes this year based on feedback and suggestions so if you are interested please note the details below.
There is a discussion about this at the Outsider Writer’s Community Site, here.
Last year, every participant got a list of the other participants and sent a chapbook to each, and should have received chapbooks from the others. Because of the number of people, this was a concern for some who thought it was expensive to mail out so many packages or who simply did not have enough chaps on hand.
This year, you will get a list of participants but you will only be asked to send to the three people beneath your name. If you are near the bottom jump to the top. If this works the way it should, everyone will get three and mail out three.
If a person wants to, they can send to more. But that is not expected nor required.
The other new element this year is the “group chap”, which means that participants in this swap will be welcome to submit a poem or two of their choosing for a collaborative group chapbook that I will put together and mail to each person on the list. This is optional and poems must be received by the deadline to be in it. Previously published or posted poems are ok but if applicable please add a note if a credit is due.
A bio is also an option, and small photo. The photo will be converted to black and white and should be easily scaled down if necessary without too much distortion.
If you have a question, email Lynn Alexander at llalexander@ymail.com or use yahoo messenger with that id.
Sign up by email. Provide an address. Look for a confirmation to make sure I got it, just to be safe.
**Sign up by April 1 with a mailing address
**Mail your poetry for the group chap if desired by April 15
**Make sure you get your list by April 20 or so and make sure I have a bio or other material if necessary
** Mail out your chaps around May 1 2010
Please share this with your friends. ALL POETS ARE WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED. If you need help putting something together please do not let that stop you, we can get it done.
This is about the poetry- they do not have to be posh perfectly glued collections with embossed covers. They can be self published, indie, a collection of poems just for this swap… this is flexible, and open. Thank you.
I love this idea. It makes me wish I had more poetry chaps to trade.
Throw one together, Caleb!
Great idea! – Good way to help build community-