[Kate Benedict]

I am thrilled to announce that I will be publishing and editing a new quarterly journal. Guidelines and a mission statement may be viewed on the site:

www.umbrellajournal.com

The type of poems I'm seeking are specific in that they are idea-based and highly focused. On the other hand, both formal and free verse are not just welcome; eclecticism will be key.

Prose! I want it! So many of the discussions that arise here and at other forums, and on blogs, deserve to be hammered into cogent essays, and given greater exposure. As you'll see, I'm actively soliciting opinion pieces, personal essays on one's life and art, appreciations of individual poems and movies and of books that aren't fresh off the presses. The media are infatuated with the new and the current; I want to offer a corrective.

Bumpershoot, a zine-within-a zine, is open to lighter things. Art people: digital images featuring umbrellas are eagerly sought.

So please wish me luck and join me in celebrating my return to the world of editing, which I've long missed. The worst thing, for me, will be the "rejecting" aspect. But I intend Umbrella to be not just a "must read" but a "can't-wait-to-read" journal, lively and of the highest quality. That will mean casting a cool editorial eye on things.

One more note. I am looking for reviewers who will contribute to PODcasts, i.e., capsule reviews of poetry collections published by print-on-demand publishers. If you'd like to join this "stable" of reviewers, please email me. The journal's email addresses are on the Guidelines page.

Kevin Walzer's Word Press group and Steel Toe Books are the only publishers that I know for sure use POD technology. I know there are quite a few others. Please email me if you know their names, so I can solicit review copies.

[Maryann Corbett]

The very best of luck to you, Kate. May you have many terrific submissions and the patience to read them! Congratulations on this venture.

Maryann

[Lo]

Way to go, Kate....congratulations and much success and joy.

Lo

[Margaret Moore]

Kate,

Warm congratulations on this ambitious and imaginative project. The website looks delightful. Hope to explore it more fully at a later date.

Every good wish for the venture,

Margaret

[Patti McCarty]

I'm excited for you Kate! Best wishes on your new venture. I'll be keeping a digital eye open for interesting umbrellas

Patti

[Carol Taylor]

Kate, I'm delighted for you and wish you the very best in this venture. Your site is attractive and intriguing.

Carol

[wendy v]

Sounds like a fun adventure, Kate, best wishes
and enjoy where it takes you,
wendy

[Kate Benedict]

Thanks, all, for the good wishes. Already I've received some marvelous submissions and have accepted some.

My submission email codes have sometimes gone wrong. Apologies! I'm getting used to a new html editor, which I swear sometimes reverts to previous edits, and I'm a bit ham handed with code anyway.

===============================

submitpoetry@umbrellajournal.com

submitprose@umbrellajournal.com

submitart@umbrellajournal.com

================================


Those are the correct email addresses.

[Kate Benedict]

Well this has gotten fewer hits than the call from Shit Creek ... so I'll take the liberty of bumping the thread up. It's less aromatic under the umbrella!

[Tim Murphy]

I've sent Kate two chapters from Requited, and she's actually had the temerity to edit me! She has also complained privately that submissions from women are running 20 to 1 over the boyos. So come on guys, let's give Kate some help. Umbrella shouldn't turn into a sorority, though lord knows I'd fit right in.

Kate, you must have downloaded that ghastly photo from the Library of Congress site. There are excellent photos of me at Alan's site www.seablogger.com. Just click into the photo section, then enter skipper on the search function.I am not near as ugly at the helm of Dreamweaver as I was at that Poetry Pavilion. I was so nervous to be following The Gwynn, that I'd downed a pint of whiskey by 10 in the morning. Although given what you're publishing, you might want a photo in which I am wasted.

Actually, here's the picture for you:http://photoblog.seablogger.com/inde...kipper&paged=2

[This message has been edited by Tim Murphy (edited October 03, 2006).]