right hand pointing

T h e   N o t e

 

On a couple of occasions in the 10-year history of Right Hand Pointing (You're coming to the anniversary party, right?), we've experimented with a kind of cross between a chapbook and a regular issue, by offering several poems by a small number or writers. So, here's another offering along those lines.

 

One of the most valuable experiences we've had here at RHP was when we got "bombed" by the Submission Bombers. This group picks a journal, gives a very friendly and cheerful notice, and then bombs the holy crap out of it. This seemed to introduce a lot of fine writers to RHP, us to them, and some have been published here more than once. 

 

It also made me more conscious of trying to be more representative of gender when I'm curating poetry. I need to spend some time looking at the stats over a longer period of time. But, I just pulled up the last 28 acceptances on Submittable in poetry (that's the number shown per page) and, believe it or not, 14 are women and 14 men, if I'm correctly guessing gender from names. (Hi, Pat!) Frankly, that even split isn't by design and I doubt it will hold up if I look further back, but still. Cool. Furthermore, among the last 48 rejections, 29 were women. Not nearly as desirable a mix, but I can live with it.

 

I had the idea for this issue, which has been ably guest-edited by Sara Biggs Chaney. We would present six poems by three women poets. This process went well, if you don't count Sara's having to reject so many excellent manuscripts, which I know was painful. Furthermore, Sara refused my directive to select only 6 poems from each writer. Shame on you, Sara, I said, and then I looked at the poems and said, sure, fine, we won't limit these to 6.

 

It would be ridiculous for me to say that I admire Right Hand Pointing, because I made the damn thing. But, what I admire is how we put out calls for submissions, regular issues and special issues, and I just get knocked out, over and over, by what comes in. By what we have to reject, not to mention what we take.

 

My thanks to Sarah J. Sloat, Mary Buchinger, and Lauren Gordon for sharing their work. I thank all the other poets who submitted. Please do again. Special thanks to Sara Biggs Chaney for her hard work on the issue. 

 

And a special welcome to our friend Laura M. Kaminski, who has joined us as an editor. She'll help us with all the usual stuff and will also take a lead role in some special projects. 

 

Enjoy the issue!

 

Dale