Able Muse Anonymous

This is a progress report for those of you who all who submitted late, or early, and are still waiting for a decision for inclusion in the inaugural print issue of Able Muse.

First, the last-minute flurry of quality poetry submissions for the inaugural issue in response to the last-minute call for (additional) submission is much appreciated. We're now considering them (as well as several others that came in much earlier and throughout the submission period for the new issue).

But here comes a new twist. This time around, I've introduced an additional anonymous process to foil any (sub)conscious bias I might have for specific poets (I know a great deal of you!), or themes or styles. Thus, I've enlisted three (and there might be more) distinguished poets for their opinion about the rather generous anonymous shortlist of finalists I've put together. The final tally is about 52 poems out of about 4000, total, received through the length of the submission period for the new issue. I've tried to remove my personal bias for (or against) acquaintances, styles or themes by also including poems I'd not ordinarily pick. Thus, I believe it's a generous shortlist. The only instructions I've given for the blind selection process is to choose only the absolute best from the list, and, that the pick won't be considered too small even if less than a handful survives. So, less may be accepted, but with greater fairness! Note that this only applies to the poetry section--the selection process for fiction, nonfiction and art is unchanged.

I'll start responding to those who didn't make it in the shortlist in the next few days. Those in the shortlist will have a longer wait to hear back from me and I expect it'll be in the next couple of weeks.

Stay tuned for more tales of the Able Muse, inaugural print edition!

Cheers,
...Alex