etiquette on short(er) manuscripts

Dear All Poets, Readers, and Others -

I have a question. A few of the fall contests request manuscripts between "60-90 pages." My manuscript comes in at a compact and tight 54-55 pages, depending on my mood. What's the etiquette here? Do I avoid sending to these contests? Am I automatically disqualified if I do send? Are the guidelines pertaining to manuscript length, unlike many of the other guidelines like reading fee and ethical concerns, more likely to be ignored or taken less seriously? Does it have something to do with printing costs or layout issues (books must fall between a certain length in order to get the best "bang for the buck" from the printer, etc)... is it lame of me to suggest such a thing?

Any and all help greatly appreciated.

Love and Peace,

Gary L. McDowell

"What a nice chap, that guy!"

So I'm currently in the market for some fall/winter chapbook contest/general submission deadlines. Any thoughts? I've been so absorbed with the full-length contests that I've fallen out of the loop on the chapbook market. Help me out, folks. I'll thank you somehow, some way. Promise.

Commedia, writing "pomes," enjoying weather

Gosh, what a beautiful day today!

I'm actually writing today. Sweet. I've written two poems, both of which have been swimming around in my head for days. Still a bunch of reading to do, but I'm in good spirits.

Bears vs. Eagles tonight in prime-time. Thank God, I finally get to watch my Bears. My prediction: Eagles 31, Bears 17. But I'll get to watch them lose instead of seeing the score flash by on the bottom of the screen while watching some game I don't care about.

Auden slept a lot last night. Two 4-hour stretches! The night before he only slept for an hour at a time... and those times were spread thin. It's not fair for me to bitch though. I rock him to sleep initially (though it doesn't always work) and M watches over him in is bassinet, checks on him when he cries, rocks him back to sleep should he wake. We're a team, but it took a bit of bickering last night for us to come together again. This parenting is hard work. Work.

I want to buy this.

Have you checked these guys out yet? A new journal down in Knoxville, TN. Send your work, support them!

I've never cared much for e.e. cummings, but I adore this poem, "my father moved through dooms of love."

I'm a link freak!!

Back to the Commedia.

Touchdown!

This is Auden's favorite way to sleep. I think it's hilarious. Touchdown!

Been really busy lately. Had a couple poems picked up by Front Porch. They'll be out in October, in Issue 8. Excited by this. Also have a poem forthcoming in the next issue of Controlled Burn. Also exciting.

Reading, and loving, Dante's Commedia. I'm reading the Allen Mandelbaum translation. Outstanding. Simply beautiful.

Going to the Post Office tomorrow. I'm prepared to meet the September contest deadlines. Sigh.

Auden is okay, but he has to see a Pediatric Surgeon next week though. Kinda scary, but nothing's for certain yet. We'll know more, as is customary, after the surgical consultation.

My Cubbies are in fine form. God willing they'll end the 100-year drought this year... but I'm not holding my breath. I'm just gonna cheer and pray.

Back to work: Charles Wright, Roethke, Dan Beachy-Quick's A Whaler's Dictionary. Sweet.

haven

Mommy and Auden at the doctor's office yesterday. I'm no photographer, but I thought the big ole mirror lent itself to a cool shot.

We took Auden to South Haven today. It was his first roadtrip. He slept through the entire thing... perfect! M and I got some lunch at a little cafe and went to an old, dusty used bookstore, then walked the boardwalk down to the shore. It was beautiful outside.

I'm still having trouble feeling guilty about needing to leave the house to get my work done (and by work I mean my writing... I've been getting course work and teaching prep done at home just fine, but I can't seem to find any groove at home for my creative work). M's an extraordinary mother... the best, really. But I still feel like I shouldn't be leaving her alone too often... and I really don't. I'm not gone much. But I need to get my ass in gear. I think M and I will set up a schedule so that I can have 5-10 hours a week out of the house solely to focus on my writing. She's cool with this idea and so am I. She wants me to write in the mornings, so I'm home in the evenings... boooo. I'm a night writer. Not anymore though. Time to compromise. And I will.

I've been reading Charles Wright lately... a lot. Trying to study him systematically. I'm interested in pursuing some critical writing about him, though not right at the moment. I find his use of line obliteratingly genius.

Also thinking a lot about getting my first manuscript published. It's such a fucking hard thing to live with, the sending out of the book, the waiting, the cost, the competition. I wish I could just snap my fingers and hear some good news, but there's also something alluring about the hunt, the stalking and preying/praying. It's carnal. And I like carnal.

Publications Using the Submission Manager (sub heading: do you like the sub managers?)

The list gathered thus far:

Third Coast
AGNI
Poetry
Front Porch
Columbia: A Journal of Literature & Art
West Branch
Puerto del Sol
Drunken Boat
Ploughshares
The Baltimore Review
Crazyhorse
Memoir (and)
Blue Earth Review
Quarter After Eight
New Madrid
Sphere
Opium Magazine
Reed Magazine
jubilat
Many Mountains Moving
TIFERET
The Hollins Critic
Quarterly West
PANK
New York Quarterly
Barrel House
DIAGRAM
A Public Space


These guys use an online sub manager, but not the one shared by all the above mags:

Virginia Quarterly Review
42Opus


And finally, let's take a poll. Do you like submitting to journals using the online Submission Manager? Why or why not? Discuss.

HELP: who's using the Submission Manager?

So far I've found that the following journals are using the online Submission Manager:

Third Coast
AGNI
Poetry
Front Porch
Columbia: A Journal of Literature & Art
West Branch
Puerto del Sol (so they say...)
Drunken Boat
Ploughshares
The Baltimore Review
Crazyhorse

Are there others I'm missing?

Help me out here, folks!!

coin fountain

It's time for the fall manuscript submission season to begin. Will I waste another $400? Or will I hit paydirt and finally win one? Only time will tell. Best of luck to all you other poets out there... though I hope to beat your asses. ;)

M is home. Thank God. Auden is awesome. I will be reading and writing and watching movies all rainy weekend. My mother-in-law (who was the absolute best this week while staying with us) is going home tomorrow morning... I'll miss her help, but it'll be amazing with just the three of us (me, M, Auden) in the house.

Okay, back to Iron Chef.

what you lookin' at!?

Priceless! He's probably pooping himself, but it's still a damn funny photo.

My eyes! My eyes!

Metallica's new disc comes out tonight. No way I'm making it to the midnight release, but in my younger days I'd have been there for sure.

Reading Charles Wright in-between Auden's diaper changes and feedings (the boy eats like a horse).

M's in the hospital. Has been since Tuesday. Her blood pressure is sky high. There's a name for it, for high blood pressure after pregnancy. It was 190/140 when she went in on Tuesday!! The docs were worried about her having a stroke. So I've been playing Mr. Mom the last few days... though without my mother-in-law (whom I adore) here this week, I'd be in WAY over my head.

Until today, I don't think I've ever actually been *exhausted*.

Gonna try to sleep... Auden finally is.

caffeine, Death Magnetic, and Randall Jarrell

We caught a nap half-way through Dante's Vita Nuova. Reading is exhausting. Notice the blue glow on Auden's back... the BiliBlanket! We're done with that now though.

The first good shot of Auden's eyes. They're blue. This (as are all the pics here at The Tongue is an Eye) is a camera-phone shot, so it's not very clear.

Anyway, parenting is exhausting, but it's also such a bizzaro-world experience. I never thought I would go to bed one night and wake up the next morning completely and utterly head-over-heels in love with someone I'd never met. Honestly, it's the most surreal and overwhelming feeling. I think the exhilaration of looking at Auden, kissing him, touching him, soothing him is more exhausting than the late night feedings or the many, many loads of laundry and dirty diapers, etc. The most tiring part of being a father? It's the pure, incorruptible sublimity of the experience.

I've been drinking a lot of caffeine. Honestly, all it does is make me shaky. Any parents (or insomniacs or other late-night dwellers) have any remedies for being tired all day? It's awfully hard to focus these days, and Dante and Jarrell and all the other reading I must do for class isn't going to get any lighter!

Reading Poetry and the Age by Randall Jarrell for workshop. Wow. Some really great stuff. And his prose is so easy to read. I love it.

Metallica's ninth (and last?) studio album hits the shelves on Friday. Hell yeah! It's titled Death Magnetic. Holy hell I must buy it at midnight! I'm not necessarily proud to be a huge Metallica fan, but I'm sure as fuck not embarrassed by it either. Rock on, bitches! And the first single ("The Day that Never Comes") is so great. Loud, fast, and angry. It helps me through the rough days.

Back to reading, prepping to teach, Auden watching and playing, etc.

ring of fire

Got an acceptance from Controlled Burn today. That's nice news! My manuscript, formerly known as Young Teeth, has a new title, a new look, many new/better poems, a leaner frame, and a helluva good chance this fall if I do say so myself. Look out world, I'm confident.

Auden is amazing. He's a miracle, a blessing, and the coolest dude I've ever met. His little eyes, his feet and hands, and that head of hair! He smells like the cleanest cotton ever woven.

More later.

On September 1, 2008...

Mommy and Auden in recovery. The two most beautiful, brilliantly strong people I have ever met.

Daddy and Auden right after birth. His first picture.

On Monday (Labor Day, ha), September 1, 2008, at 7:37pm, we welcomed Auden James McDowell into this world. At 20-inches long and weighing 7lbs 10oz, our beautiful boy entered the world au naturale (the epidural didn't work well and then wore off completely toward the end... ouch). He had some trouble breathing, but an hour in the step-down nursery fixed him right up. Mom is healthy and happy; Auden is spectacular. I am exhausted. I'm literally seeing two computer screens right now. Anyway, Auden has to have a Bili Blanket (he's a bit jaundice) for a couple days, so that's making diaper changing and feeding sort of difficult, but he's so adorable that we kinda forgive him... ;)

I'm a dad now and I'm so scared. I can't believe it. I pray, M and I pray, we pray with/to Auden: for strength, faith, patience, and love. We are a family, and we are proud.