Modern Authors Guide

Jerome Bahr’s stories of stark small-town life with hard-drinking morality and innocent desperation capture the moody weather and seasonal sullenness that overcast the Wisconsin consciousness.

Jerome Bahr was born under that cloud in Arcadia, Wisconsin, around 1909, and he studied at the University of Minnesota before working at several Midwest newspapers.

Bahr later moved to New York, and his first book, “All Good Americans,” appeared in 1937 when Earnest Hemingway introduced him to the American reading public.

Wisconsin Tales was published in 1964, but some of the stories first appeared in The New Yorker, Mademoiselle, Woman’s Day, and Story Parade.

The characters in Wisconsin Tales show both the self-destructiveness of their behavior and the quiet fortitude of the landscape that surrounds them.

In “And the Fishes Were Beautiful,” a drunken fury leads a man to drag a woman to the edge. “The Grudge” shows how anger can eat away our sorrow. The subtleties of racism in the North are explored in Ebony Intermezzo.

Jerome Bahr may have left the Midwest for New York City, but his heart still lived in the hills of Wisconsin, and his writing always reflected the will of Wisconsin’s people.

This will is reflected in this passage from “The Grudge”:

August stared out the window. The sun had begun its descent, offering surcease to the baking hillside; and along the banks of the river, tree-shadows spread and cooled the shallow stream. The entire countryside was relaxing. Only August, grim and determined, seemed to oppose the day’s decline…

Stories in Wisconsin Tales include:

The Grudge
And the Fishes Were Beautiful
Whisper in the Night
Canny Fanny
Ebony Intermezzo
The Correspondents
Olga’s Revenge
The Word Passer
The Baker’s Triumph
Bannon’s Pavilion
The Grandmother

Jerome Bahr’s Wisconsin Tales was published by Trempealeau Press in Baltimore, Maryland.

In Wisconsin Tales, Jerome Bahr speaks of what is small-town in us all, our dreams to expand, and the struggle between who we want to be and what we become.

Check out Jerome Bahr Books on Amazon.com.

Review by The MAG Zine.

Every writer who encloses their words into an envelop and sends them off to agents, editors, and publishers must learn to face the eventual return of a rejection letter.

Rejection letters come in many shapes and sizes, but they are mostly form letters with little personality, which is wise, as there is danger in treading the emotional waters of rejection.

If an editor ever chooses to grace your rejection letter with actual handwritten words, or if the gods are willing, a bit of inspiration or encouragement, then you must not consider that to be a letter of rejection, as human contact within a rejection letter is actually a form of victory.

However, most rejection letters are short and apologetic, and they usually point to the massive influx of new authors they receive every day as the reason your work could not be considered, which is really disconcerting if you understand that to mean that there are just too many people with more talent than you.

If you think about it, the very idea of the rejection letter is unique to writers alone, as other unknown artists are simply allowed to go unnoticed and are not directly subjected to a written form of deliberate rejection.

Not many budding rock stars would jam in dimly-lit bar stages if they knew they would actually receive a direct rejection from the audience after the show and not just be ignored, although it’s true that writers don’t usually have to worry about beer bottles flying at them while they’re writing.

How you handle your rejection letter is the most important aspect of the publishing process, as it could easily discourage you from otherwise pursuing your art.

At first glance, it’s easy to feel slighted. I mean, you spend years putting together your novel of over 400 pages, you slave over the crafting of every sentence exchange until the words bleed into your eyes off the page, and then you take the care to send a perfect copy to an editor or agent, only to have it dismissed summarily without so much the decency to even sign a name onto the rejection letter.

It’s enough for any writer to want to self-publish their work, but we must dismiss rejection letters as easily as they dismiss our work, because it’s just business.

It’s a numbers game, and it’s the writers job to submit our work to as many valid markets as possible, and it’s the publishing industry’s job to filter out what is viable for publication.

Of course, we may not agree with their opinion, but it’s how you disagree that makes you stronger.

Don’t write your editor back denouncing their knowledge of literature or demanding they reconsider your work. First of all, that’s crazy behavior, and second of all, maybe you didn’t deserve consideration at this time and you need to look further into your writing.

Just keep writing and accept your rejection letters for what they are, an initiation into the secret society of people who tell stories in isolation and invite others to listen.

Rejection letters are a symbol of your loyalty to your art. They are as important as your writing itself, because without them, you are only a diarists.

So keep writing, work harder, and continue submitting your work for approval, because without running the risk of receiving another rejection letter, you are removing the possibility that you will one day be published.

Article originally published by The MAG Zine.

On a major network special covering the effect that global warming is having on the melting Andean glaciers, a local farmer was quoted as having asked the following question:

“Why are the mountains crying?”

His metaphor is poignant, comparing the melting glacier waters rolling down the mountain slopes to human tears, inflicting the sadness and frustration that often results in crying.

In a detailed program that revealed all of the facts and figures of global warming and the retreating glaciers, which threatens the water supply of this region, this single metaphor was more powerful than any image, interview, or scientific evidence.

It may only be that as a writer, I am more open to accepting the emotional significance of a metaphor than others who were watching this program, but in a very real sense, I believe it represents the power and influence of poetic language in our modern society.

With all of the statistics, survey results, scientific theories and their rebuttals floating about, it’s sometimes hard to understand the meaning of our world from an emotional perspective, which is really the mechanism by which motivation is inspired and change eventually happens.

Raw human emotion purified into palpable communication is the essence of poetry, and in that sense, poetry is alive and prospering in the words we hear every day, despite the meager sales of poetry chapbooks in local bookshops.

Whether it be Barack Obama’s eloquent words on racism that serve to inspire our country or the manipulated fragments of advertising copy that internalizes our unknown desires for products we didn’t know existed, poetry is everywhere, even if it goes undetected, and it’s as important in the world today as ever.

Originally published by The MAG Zine (themagzine.com).

If you know a local library professional who makes your life a little easier and loves their job, then take the time to nominate them for the 2008 Spotlight Award.

The Spotlight Award winner will receive a $2,500 prize as well as $250 for their library.

Any current public library employee is eligible to be nominated, so if you know of any employee at your local library who deserves a little extra attention, then make sure to nominate them for this award.

The Spotlight Librarian Award Nomination Form can be submitted online or by mail, but all entries must be received by May 15, 2008.

Librarians are the modern gatekeepers of our collective knowledge, despite what all of the Wikipedia worshippers write, and they deserve our recognition for the services they provide.

Nominate your local librarian today.

Current poet laureate Charles Simic announced today in verse that the National Poetry Month has been canceled due to a general lack of interest.

Although relished by poets as a month to be proud of who they are and their right to exist as citizens of the United States, a general disagreement with this notion by everybody else motivated President Bush to order National Poetry Month canceled.

While introducing Simic to the media, Bush indicated he had hoped to cancel the month of April altogether, but his advisors notified him that wouldn’t be possible.

Simic spoke eloquently of poetic rights and the struggle poets have long endured in America, although his words were basically ignored as they were delivered in a sonnet, which most members of the American media assumed was Canadian English.

Although all National Poetry Month events in April have been canceled, Simic encourage poets to “keep writing, even if other poets in your creative writing class are the only ones who will ever read your writing.”

His words were met by enthusiastic snaps from the mostly melancholy crowd.

The cancellation of National Poetry Month is a sad day for poets, and to cheer themselves up, President Bush suggested they go see a movie and support the economy in Hollywood.

In the end, it was an exciting day for poets, who admit they are used to being ignored, and all of the attention created by canceling their month was quite exhilarating.

The United Poetry Front, a rogue poetry militia group on permanent writing retreat, threatened a poet strike that could cripple the greeting card industry, but Hallmark insiders indicated monkeys had actually taken over writing greeting cards long ago.

President Bush was delighted by the news of the monkeys and threatened to veto any attempts to cancel National Monkey Month.

Enjoy April Fools’ Day from The MAG Zine.

Every poet should subscribe to as many poetry magazines as possible to read current poets and be involved in the poetry community, not to mention supporting the magazines that may one day publish your poetry.

The more poetry magazines you subscribe to and the more poetry you read, the more you’ll learn and your own writing will improve.

A good rule to follow is to read more than you write, and write a lot.

It’s not always easy to take time in the chaos of the day, but having poetry magazines scattered around the house will make it easier, plus it will serve as a constant reminder that you are a poet, and not whatever everybody else wants you to be at any given moment.

This is a list of the best poetry magazines that are essential for poets of any stature, whether you pick one up at your local book store or subscribe for home delivery.

Poetry

Poetry magazine has been published in Chicago since 1912, and it is one of the leading monthly poetry magazines in the English-speaking world.

They receive about 90,000 submissions a year and print roughly 300 poems with a circulation of about 30,000.

Subscribe to Poetry at Amazon.com

American Poetry Review

The American Poetry Review is an American poetry magazine published every other month.

It was founded in 1972 and has a circulation of 17,000.

Subscribe to the American Poetry Review at Amazon.com

International Poetry Review

The International Poetry Review is an international poetry magazine founded in 1975 that seeks to make the world a better place by crossing the language barrier to publish the poetry of foreign languages.

They publish poems from contemporary writers of all languages with facing English translations, and a portion of every issue is dedicated to poems originally written in English.

Subscribe to the International Poetry Review at Amazon.com

Poetry Northwest

Poetry Northwest was founded in 1959 and publishes some of the best contemporary poetry in America today.

They have published poetry by Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Pinsky, Jorie Graham, Anne Sexton, and many other great poets.

Subscribe to Poetry Northwest at Amazon.com

Poets & Writers Magazine

Poets & Writers Magazine is great resource for poetry and fiction writers, and it is an essential magazine for modern authors.

Subscribe to Poets & Writers at Amazon.com

These are 5 of the best poetry magazines, and they are all excellent resources for poets.

There are many other Literary Magazines available for all types of creative writers, so make sure you pick one that fits your particular tastes.

The most important feature of any poetry magazine is that it inspires your own craft, so review various magazines and subscribe to ones that publish writing you love.

However, with these 5 essential poetry magazines, you can’t go wrong.

This is the first poem in The Daily Poet, a column dedicated to modern poetry having an influence on the cultural expression of our society.

The Daily Poet publishes poems that attempt to reflect our personal experiences within the perspective of their greater cultural meaning as influenced by the constant changes of our modern times.

This first poem takes a more personal approach to look at one aspect of this experience.

In Midwinter

In midwinter we purchased multicolor-splashed canvasses
To dull the white walls of our rental home from reflecting the snow.

We hung them all together in the living room facing each other
Where we would see them the most as we sat on our separate couches.

They made our old framed posters look dreary and outdated
But we kept them hanging around to fill the empty spaces.

The plush couches we had bought new a few weeks before
When the comfort of our previous hand-me-downs had worn out.

Yours stretched far enough for three but you were perfectly comfortable alone
And I could sleep from head to toe on those nights when we wanted space.

We made our home picturesque and when the landlord held open houses
We were the perfect model couple to show potential buyers.

Young, a little artsy, modern, everything that influences unusually hip college graduates,
They asked if we were married yet and if hardwood floors were beneath the carpet.

The snow came in record numbers that winter as we watched it on TV
We observed it come down out the window and shoveled it away the next day.

In summer, our lease would end or maybe the house would sell
And we’d move on to find some as of yet unknown rental home.

Written by J.F. Oliak

The Daily Poet column welcomes submissions for consideration for publication in The Daily Poet and elsewhere on The MAG Zine. Please review our Submission Guidlines for details on submitting your writing.

The Daily Poet is a regular column dedicated to the poetry of life as it occurs on the timeline of living.

The Daily Poet column publishes a poem a day, or as many days as possible, which reflects our moods and feelings through the observance of the ever-changing world around us as related to our personal lives, the natural order, or the broader scope of society.

These poems are not necessarily about current events, although they could reflect them, but they do hope to capture some essence of a moment of time that is lost forever when observed in the annals of our memory.

The poems for The Daily Poet are plucked from various sources and can be written by anyone, published or unknown, as they are not as much a work of the artists as they are a representation of a reality once lived.

They can be humorous, reflective, melancholy, or desperate, but will probably be most poignant when they are all of the above.

Please feel free to Submit Your Poetry for consideration for publication in The Daily Poet column or elsewhere on The MAG Zine.

The MAG Zine – a Modern Authors Guide

As We Are was waiting in the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul thrift store on Williamson Street in Madison, Wisconsin, which claims to have one of the biggest used book collections anywhere in the country.

I found it amongst the tailored book shelves that march in strict rows like those you’d expect to find in a community college library, but not in the usually disheveled disorder of second hand stores, where no librarian is available to oversee their arrangement.

The dull black hardcover looked more like a reference guide and immediately signaled it was from a bygone era when book covers were more a design of protection then adorned with pictures of somber authors and graphic images that hope to grab the attention of coffee grind browsers.

It was small and stout, the size of a zine, the perfect size for a book, easily held in your hands on a bus seat or when you slide into your couch, something that could be stuck into your trench coat pocket while moving through the city.

The book I slid off the shelf was a first edition published in 1923 by Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc, printed by The Quinn and Boden Company of Rahway, NJ.

I immediately thought of how many grimy hands had turned these pages in the dirty streets of New York City and how it made its journey to the Midwest like so many immigrants coming through Ellis Island in the early twentieth century.

As We Are, a collection of short stories by Walter B. Pitkin, are stories about the way life was and the way people lived at that time, written expressly for the purpose of introducing realism into the conscience of our American nation and to avoid falling into the illusory pitfall of fiction.

As Walter B. Pitkin puts it, “They have not been written to entertain, still less to please the smug or the lazy-minded.”

They are real pictures of American life, based on real characters and true to the values of those characters.

All of the stories in As We Are except two were written expressly for this book and represent a first attempt by the authors to draw scenes from one particular passage of the American journey.

These stories include:

Shif’less by James Boyd
Railroad Tracks by Emanie N. Sachs
Natural Selection by Elizabeth Irons Folsom
Excelsior by Arthur Collard
Mirage by Elaine Sterne
Masters of Ourselves and Ours by Walter B. Pitkin
The Harp and the Triphammer by Paul Rand
“It’s Me, O Lord!” by Alma and Paul Ellerbe
Berghita and the Americans by Rolla Prideaux
“Colonel, Meet My Mother” by Alma and Paul Ellerbe
The Mask by Worth Tuttle
The Monument by Vara M. Jones
The Case of Doctor Ford by Clement Wood

Walter B. Pitkin also writes an introduction to the book that touches on literary realism and the state of the modern writer, which rings even truer today then it did it the early 1920s.

Here’s a passage from Railroad Tracks by Emanie N. Sachs:

He came forward, a trifle timidly. Linda laughed again, a note which caught and flatted. He followed as she turned back towards the railroad tracks. She glanced over her shoulder and her eyelids went through the motions of a long, slow smile. Her eyes had magic when she wanted to turn it on, and she would turn it on, frequently. She wouldn’t, couldn’t be always alone. He kept on following, as she had known he would. And Linda stumbled slightly on the tracks, so that he stepped up quickly and took hold of her arms. She had stumbled because she wasn’t looking ahead. She wasn’t and she never would again, for it didn’t pay to look ahead.

End passage.

In a time when the idealized themes of the Victorian-era novelists and poets were still widely considered to be the canons of polite society, As We Are sought to tell the truth about who America was then, and with that historical clarity, succeeds at speaking the truth about who we are now.

Multiple meaning words spread throughout the English language reeking havoc on the substance of sentences.

Homographs, or words that are spelled the same but have different meanings, may or may not have different pronunciations, which adds even more madness to the mayhem.

Are English speakers just too lazy to invent new words, and if not, why do we settle on saying the same thing for different purposes?

Actually, we haven’t stopped inventing new words, and it is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year.

In fact, the English language may have more words than any other language. Putting an exact number on the amount of words is difficult, but the Oxford English Dictionary includes over 600,000 definitions.

Not including the various parts of speech and other variations, there are about 175,000 words in current use and about 50,000 obsolete words.

Words with multiple meanings are also not just an English phenomenon, as all languages have multiple meaning words, and many of the tonal languages such as Thai use multiple meaning words extensively by varying the meaning of the word through the tone of the pronunciation.

However, you’d think with all of the new words being invented each year and the vast vocabulary of the English language that we would eliminate some of these multiple meaning words.

I don’t mean to be mean, but let’s consider the irony of some homographs.

Hippies long to wear long overalls and burn incense, but problems never incense their overall mood.

Living in the present is no minute present after you die, but rolling the die each minute is easy when you’re young and not worried about making a living.

It’s easy to spot the point of this article, but difficult to point to the spot where the point was made.

With so much confusion caused by these forged double meaning words, it’s time we forged ahead with inventing some new words for the English language.

If we can’t agree on new words to replace the most common homographs, let’s just eliminate using either of their meanings altogether.

For instance, I propose that we eliminate the word console by putting our electronic equipment on a shelf and comforting our loved ones in times of crisis.

In addition, instead of desert, I suggest we simply abandon our dreams and ambitions and refer to an endless beach with no surf, where you obviously won’t be able to surf, but at least you’ll know where you stand.

Homographs may have their place in the English language, but that place seems to be molded by deceit and confusion, and it’s time to disregard the laziness of our English-speaking predecessors.

Double meaning words, homographs, or indolent sloths, whatever you choose to call words with double meanings, can only cause confusion in a world that is becoming ever more specific in its communications while at the same time less detailed in its meaning.

Originally published by The MAG Zine.