Rhina has just--the same week!--won the Word Press Prize for another book. The gods are alive and well, it seems!

Deborah, this is wondrous good news! Thanks for announcing it. And Rhina, let me be the first here to say a hearty, hearty congratulations, ma'am. I understand that Dr. Walzer has impeccable taste in authors http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/wink.gif

Jennifer

Allow me to make one small correction: the contest in question is David Robert Books, not Word Press (DRB is an imprint of Word Press). But, the news is otherwise correct...we are very fortunate to have Rhina's wonderful manuscript.



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Kevin Walzer
http://home.fuse.net/walzer

rhi-NA! rhi-NA! rhi-NA!

*grin*

Thanks for the clarification, Kevin.

Wow! Another prize, another book! There's just no stopping this wise woman's muse!

Rhina:
You're accumulating accolades faster than I can keep track, but don't let that slow you down. If in my tallying I'm a little behind, well, that's what my brother always used to tell me I was anyway.
Congratulations. This is good for you and it's good for poetry.
Richard

It is wonderful that Rhina has two more books forthcoming. Lucky us. Lucky little houses that honor themselves by publishing her. BUT, it's a sad comment on the state of affairs that a poet of Espaillat's stature has to enter and win book contests. Whatever happened to the good days when a Tony Hecht was taken on by Knopf, a Wilbur by HBJ, for life? I had hoped to have such a relationship with Story Line, but it was not to be. Nonetheless, three loud cheers for Kevin Walzer and his brave enterprise!

Rhina

Congratulations on the DRB Prize! We need to weave you a wreath of laurel and place it on your head. It is an affirmation and a delight every time a prize goes to the deserving Rhina Espaillat.

Tim, most important point re the publishers. Your news re Story Line is disappointing, but your name as a poet is on an upward arc. Good to see you back again!


Terese

You go, Girl!

Tim,

I think you answered your own question in a thread posted a long time ago--as a venture capitalist, you wouldn't touch poetry publishing. If one isn't rich (and I am not), a small press publisher has two business models to choose from: contests or non-profit status. Each has risks. Contests risk perpetuating a system that isn't really very popular with authors, while non-profit status insures an endless paper chase for grant funds. Nonetheless, in large part because it is more stable, we have chosen to focus on contests.

By the way, we have invested in titles outside of contests, and we do not require authors who have already published with us to re-enter contests. We would like to develop relationships with our authors so they do not have to run that gauntlet again. But even these projects are supported indirectly by the funds that contests generate.

I'm very sorry that you are not able to continue your relationship with Story Line. I've heard some tales about what's going on with them these days, but nothing reliable since their board changed a couple of years ago. Are they even still in business?

Kevin

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Kevin Walzer
http://home.fuse.net/walzer

Holy cow, Rhina, you're writing books faster than I'm writing poems!

Congrats, again.

I'm sorry, Kevin, that I gave the wrong name for the contest sponsor: too much excitement in too few days!

Paul, it's not that I write them so fast but that I've been doing it for so long! What I find wonderful--in addition to publishers who like formal verse!--is the fact that the excitement never wears off, whether it's the joy of sensing that you have a poem nagging at your consciousness, or the other joy of having it appear somewhere to nag at somebody else's. I've been very lucky, not least in the group of poets I've come to know: remarkable, as people and as poets.

You know, Rhina, if they just gave you all the prizes as soon as you let them know your book was finished, it would save them all that bother of having to read other manuscripts. Congratulations!

J. Bottum

Congrats, Rhina. It's good to have more of your work out.