[Tim Murphy]

I've sent Historian, To the Dean, and Seven Veils (over at the DE now,) to Hudson. I've sent everything else to Jennifer and Bill Carlson at I and T. They can take what they wish. It appears my New and Selected will come from New Rivers Press shortly. It's a big book. Alan threw out 100 poems and still ended up with 190. New Rivers was acquired by Minnesota State University Moorhead (Mason's first college) about two years ago, and I hope to build the press by creating an endowment and steering first rate manuscripts to it. We want it to fill the void left by Story Line.

[Marcia Karp]

Tim,

Does this mean that you don't want criticism on "Seven Veils"?

Marcia

[Tim Murphy]

Marcia, it takes about a year for Hudson to publish, so sure, any improvement that can be made will be gratefully welcomed.

[Marcia Karp]

Ah, I see why I was confused. I submit only poems that I stand by and no matter the time from submission to reply would not plan on revising a poem I'd submitted. I suppose I might gain wisdom about a poem and wish I hadn't submitted it, but unless I think it ready for the world, I don't ask an editor to spend time on a poem. I see that we differ in this matter. Thank you, Tim, for your reply.

Best,
Marcia

More thoughts:

Knowing when a poem is finished (both ended and well-formed) has to be a important part of the poet's work. (I can't remember the details now of Thomas Gray's letter to a friend about the difficult differences between being done with a poem and it being finished.) Else, why post submissions under "The Accomplished Members" if the accomplishment isn't that you've finished your poems? True, it is a bit of work to send poems out, but not an accomplishment per se.

[This message has been edited by Marcia Karp (edited October 08, 2006).]

[Richard Wakefield]

Tim:
How about including an addendum to New and Selected in which you include many or all of the discarded poems, or how about publishing a second volume called "Almost Made It"?
I hope the publisher can make the larger contribution you're aiming at. We need not just one replacement for Story Line, but many.
RPW

[Tim Murphy]

Marcia, I often revise after acceptance. It so pisses off Dr. Tom Fleming at Chronicles, that his managing editor just slips in the changes and doesn't tell him about it. His usual response? "This is even better than I remembered." If Paula takes these three poems, that will take the Hudson to thirty poems, nudging them slightly ahead of The Formalist, The Dark Horse, Chronicles, and Light, all of which have 27 poems per magazine.

Richard, the place for almost made it is the Collected, and I'm too young for that. I never take down Auden's or Hardy's Collected. Instead I use volumes of the Selected, which like this, run to about 150 pages.

My hope is to endow The Glasrud Prize as companion to The Glasrud Lecture, which I also helped endow. The prize would recognize outstanding poetry, fiction, or non-fiction. I will not be a candidate for the prize, because I am raising the dough to endow it.

Alan did an outstanding job editing the book. Throwing out a hundred poems was hard, but we were able to rehab about twenty poems that subsequently made the grade.

[This message has been edited by Tim Murphy (edited October 08, 2006).]

[Paul Lake]

Congratulations, Tim, on havng your Selected Poems accepted for publication. And thanks on behalf of all poets for helping make it possible to publish more good books.

As to revising poems awaiting publication or even after publication, lots of poets do it, including me on occasion.

[Susan McLean]

Congratulations, Tim, and thanks for the information about New Rivers Press. I had been submitting there for years without the slightest success and had never heard of the press publishing work in form, so I had begun to think that the press was not necessarily open to poems in form. Hearing that it has accepted a book of yours has encouraged me to try again, though I remain pessimistic.

Susan

[Tim Murphy]

Susan, write to Alan Davis and tell him you have worked with Mason and Murphy. Might help. Under new management I expect them to be very formal friendly, but I'll caution you they can only take a book or two per year. One encouraging acceptance I didn't mention is that Kate is taking Mortal Stakes for Umbrella. It is an essay of about nine pages on alcoholism, and it contains all my scary alcoholic poems. I'm hoping she'll also take the last chapter of the book Requited. Thank you Kate.

[Daniel Haar]

Tim, great news on the acceptance of your Selected.