So I’m Planning A Chapbook

I have this group of poems that I wrote during my pursuit of my MA and then my MFA that I’ve been sending out religiously for the past few years. This past fall/spring must have been my time because after many polite and encouraging rejection letters, I finally managed to find many of these poems homes in a series of lovely journals. This gave me a boost of confidence but it also got me thinking about what to do next (beside write more poems, duh). This group of poems totals between 20-25 and comes to about 20-25 pages. This isn’t enough for a full length book but I feel the weight of having this finished work and wanting to get it out there into the world, so I’m thinking it’s time for a chapbook.

I’ve researched chapbooks and I think it is a good fit for this particular group of poems for the following reasons:

1. The length is right in line with what most contests/publishers are looking for

2. This group of poems definitely has a theme running through it

3. From what I understand, you can publish poems in a chapbook and then if later you want to include these poems in larger piece of work (a book) that’s fine.*

4. There are some really excellent publishers/contests for chapbooks out there in the world

*If this isn’t true, please let me know. I can’t find anything that says otherwise, but I could be wrong.

So I’ve begun working on this manuscript and researching possible places to send it. There are some absolutely gorgeous chapbooks out in the world, and it makes me excited for the possibilities.