[Kate Benedict]

We're live!
http://www.umbrellajournal.com

Fall 2007 will be an all-poetry edition (no prose or Bumbershoot this time; the 'shoot is on summer break).

In addition to general poetry submissions, we are reading for a planned special section on the subject of working. These could be poems based on your experience in jobs, or persona poems from the POV of working people, or poems of a more philosophical nature. Work is broadly defined: office work, manual labor, arts, crafts, housework, hospitals, classrooms, kitchens, courts. Deadline: August 5.

I'm also hoping to get The Salon of the Refused off the ground. Some background: In 1863, the selection committee of the French Academy of Fine Arts would not allow certain paintings from an upstart group of artists calling themselves Impressionists to exhibit in that year's prestigious Salon de Paris. The artists protested and no less a figure than Napoleon III stepped in and decreed that the paintings must be seen; as a result, the Salon de Refusés (Salon of the Refused) was organized, and the public was given a chance to judge for itself works by Manet, Whistler, Fantin-Latour, Cezanne and Pisarro, among others.

Umbrella will present the contemporary poet's answer to the Salon of the Refused by featuring worthy poems wantonly rejected by well-known journals. Snarkiness is not the point of this feature. We simply wish to shed light on the fact that fine work is often overlooked. We're not even the first to work in this direction; quite by accident yesterday, I hazarded upon an online site calling itself Ugly Cousin, with the same idea, though perhaps not exhibiting the level of quality our Salon is looking for. It's tough. So far, with one exception, the submissions I've seen for the feature seemed rather rejection-worthy. They've got to be very good poems for the feature to work, and poems rejected by the better print journals. For the Salon, we consider (indeed we favor) poems that were eventually published in a journal or in a book.

[Rose Kelleher]

Yay, it's up! Congratulations on a fine issue, Kate, Carol and everyone else involved. I know, that always sounds so self-serving coming from someone who's IN that issue. But I checked it out during the proof, and there's really some great stuff in there. Some of my favorites are:

Catherine Chandler's "Sapodilla" - aw

Anna Evans's "Were-wife" - heh

Mary Ann Mayer's "Refusing Sweet Bread" - nice skewer job

Pedro Marrero's swoony "Dopo che lasci la barra o" (though I tried to translate the title at Babelfish, and it didn't work, so if someone can tell me what it means, I'd appreciate it).

Larry Wells's wonderfully creepy "At the Pillory"

Kudos on Bumbershoot, too - I'm ashamed to say which ones made me laugh the loudest.


[This message has been edited by Rose Poto (edited June 01, 2007).]

[Marion Shore]

Rose,

"after you leave the bar...oh"

I'm not sure what "o" means there -- seems like some sort of interjection. Maybe the line is a quote from a song or poem?


Maybe someone else will have some idea.

Marion

[Rose Kelleher]

Thanks, Marion.

BTW, I forgot to mention Tom Rodes's "Decima to Haditha."

Not that anyone cares. Like I'm the big taste-maker or something, LOL.

[Roger Slater]

But I thought "Rose Poto" was the nom d'internet of Harold Bloom!

[Janet Kenny]

No that's Jim Hayes's moniker.

[Rose Kelleher]

LOL!

[deleted lame attempt at humor that didn't come out right]




[This message has been edited by Rose Poto (edited June 02, 2007).]

[Jim Hayes]

Leave my Moniker out of this, she's heavy in years, light in the head and besides we need her pension money.
C'mon Mon, this is no place for us..

[Kate Benedict]

Well, I missed the "lame humor attempt" and all, but I'm glad you're having fun! And Rose, I'm thrilled you mentioned Pedro Marrero and Larry Wells; though they're not of the same generation, neither have published widely and I'm so pleased to be a part of their introduction to the reading public.

On another subject ... I've made some changes to the Guidelines. One thing is that I am giving submitters an opportunity to send their poems BOTH in the body of an email and also as a Word attachment. Upon acceptance, I'll open the attachment. This will help me get a grip on the poet's intended formatting. (If anyone knows how emails can "weirdify" formatting, it's Rose!)

Regarding the current issue, special thanks to Rachel Dacus for curating our Featured Poet (the marvelous Lynne Knight) and doing a fabulous interview. Carol Taylor made Bumbershoot not just good, but possible! And her specially curated joke feature is being enjoyed all around.

[Janet Kenny]

Kate,
It's a fine edition. I'm still sorting through the poems. I'm impressed already by Rose Poto (as usual) and Catherine Chandler's "The Dogs of Ushuaia".

Humour? It's a matter of where one is standing at the time
Congratulations. It's handsome too.
Janet