[Janet Kenny]

I can't remember what I told Ezboard but I know I made it up.

[Kate Benedict]

Step One, it would seem, is gathering all her poems together and getting them into .doc form. This would involve copying/pasting those still findable online and, one would hope, getting a friend or relative to supply whatever Margaret had on file in her home. Will anyone raise a hand to do this?

Step Two would be organizing the material into a logical and flowing manuscript ... and I volunteer for a job I know well, having worked as a book editor.

The outpouring of love and admiration here just buoys my soul, and I hope her soul is somehow relishing it too.

[Rose Kelleher]

Step One, it would seem, is gathering all her poems together and getting them into .doc form. This would involve copying/pasting those still findable online and, one would hope, getting a friend or relative to supply whatever Margaret had on file in her home. Will anyone raise a hand to do this?

I've already started on a doc and a spreadsheet.

Check your email.

[Julie Steiner]

[Ack, Kate and Rose, I got interrupted while writing this and ended up cross-posting with both of you. Anyway, I'd like to help coordinate volunteers to compile Maz's definitive bibliography, as outlined below. I was an academic librarian before I became a homeschooling mom.]


Would anyone like to help form a Bibliography Committee?

Someone should start compiling all those "Her poems have appeared in A, B, and C Journals, among others" references in Maz's contributor bios. These will then provide the starting point for tracking down actual bibliographic citations (and then full texts) of her officially-published stuff, both in print and online.

As for workshop-posted texts or other ephemeral stuff (such as poems that Maz included in private e-mails), we should create bibliographic entries for these sources, too. That way, if there are multiple versions of the same poem, the collection editor will have some basis for deciding which version is the definitive one. Another advantage is that we'll create a "paper trail" for work from online sources that eventually become defunct or, heaven forfend, have data catastrophes like Gazebo did; even if we have the full texts of those, it would be nice to know what appeared where, and when. And we'll also be able to document our good faith in case we make attribution errors (such as innocently assuming that Maz's quotation of another author's work is actually her own, as has already happened).

I would hesitate to officially post the full texts of Maz's works via a website at this point, both because of the legal ambiguity and because doing so might be detrimental to the success of a print compilation. (If I were a print publisher, I'd be nervous about taking on the production and distribution of a book whose entire contents were already available for free in one handy spot online.)

However, Rose's idea to at least archive the full texts is an excellent idea, so that a backup copy of each poem exists in one convenient place for either a print publisher or an eventual website, whichever is deemed the best course of action in the long term.

And it would be VERY helpful to have a website presenting Maz's bibliography, as it gets gradually assembled--containing links to the full texts of poems that Maz herself officially published online; full citations for poems published in print format; and titles only (citations created, but not publicly displayed) for poems Maz never officially published. Such a bibliography would save a lot of duplicated work, because we'd each be able to see what work's been done and what still needs doing. And I'm sure a print publisher would appreciate having this necessary legwork already done, too.

Rose, how does this sound to you? Would you like to be the one to get such a bibliographical website off the ground, fairly soon? If so, I'd be happy to help with the actual creation of the bibliography, and to map out various assignments for volunteers, including to a.) create citations for the poems already identified on this thread, b.) compile and document Maz's contributor's bio statements, c.) contact the editors of all the publications she named to ask for help indexing any works they published by her. Editors' response times being what they are, it might also be good to try d.) asking poets who have back issues of these journals to search for her listings in the tables of contents.

It's a huge task, but many hands make light work! Rose, I'll PM you so we can chat by phone or e-mail. Then we can put out a call for volunteers, once we've agreed on a plan of action.

I'll do anything I can to help any such project.

[Janet Kenny]

George Simmers has placed a tribute to Maz on the main page of Snakeskin.

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~simmers/

[Roger Collett]

Originally Posted by Julie Stoner

[Ack, Kate and Rose, I got interrupted while writing this and ended up cross-posting with both of you. Anyway, I'd like to help coordinate volunteers to compile Maz's definitive bibliography, as outlined below. I was an academic librarian before I became a homeschooling mom.]


Would anyone like to help form a Bibliography Committee?

Someone should start compiling all those "Her poems have appeared in A, B, and C Journals, among others" references in Maz's contributor bios. These will then provide the starting point for tracking down actual bibliographic citations (and then full texts) of her officially-published stuff, both in print and online.

As for workshop-posted texts or other ephemeral stuff (such as poems that Maz included in private e-mails), we should create bibliographic entries for these sources, too. That way, if there are multiple versions of the same poem, the collection editor will have some basis for deciding which version is the definitive one. Another advantage is that we'll create a "paper trail" for work from online sources that eventually become defunct or, heaven forfend, have data catastrophes like Gazebo did; even if we have the full texts of those, it would be nice to know what appeared where, and when. And we'll also be able to document our good faith in case we make attribution errors (such as innocently assuming that Maz's quotation of another author's work is actually her own, as has already happened).

I would hesitate to officially post the full texts of Maz's works via a website at this point, both because of the legal ambiguity and because doing so might be detrimental to the success of a print compilation. (If I were a print publisher, I'd be nervous about taking on the production and distribution of a book whose entire contents were already available for free in one handy spot online.)

However, Rose's idea to at least archive the full texts is an excellent idea, so that a backup copy of each poem exists in one convenient place for either a print publisher or an eventual website, whichever is deemed the best course of action in the long term.

And it would be VERY helpful to have a website presenting Maz's bibliography, as it gets gradually assembled--containing links to the full texts of poems that Maz herself officially published online; full citations for poems published in print format; and titles only (citations created, but not publicly displayed) for poems Maz never officially published. Such a bibliography would save a lot of duplicated work, because we'd each be able to see what work's been done and what still needs doing. And I'm sure a print publisher would appreciate having this necessary legwork already done, too.

Rose, how does this sound to you? Would you like to be the one to get such a bibliographical website off the ground, fairly soon? If so, I'd be happy to help with the actual creation of the bibliography, and to map out various assignments for volunteers, including to a.) create citations for the poems already identified on this thread, b.) compile and document Maz's contributor's bio statements, c.) contact the editors of all the publications she named to ask for help indexing any works they published by her. Editors' response times being what they are, it might also be good to try d.) asking poets who have back issues of these journals to search for her listings in the tables of contents.

It's a huge task, but many hands make light work! Rose, I'll PM you so we can chat by phone or e-mail. Then we can put out a call for volunteers, once we've agreed on a plan of action.

As the putative editor/publisher of a print version of Maz's Colleced Works I would like to make the following announcement.

1) I am prepared to take on the publishing task.

2) the legal requirements of permission from the executor of Margaret's estate MUST be met.

3) Whoever collects the poems must be prepared to send them to me en masse as an RTF file (plain text with italics where indicated by the author)

4) Christina Fletcher has volunteered to design the cover and I know her personally and we can work together in a satisfactory way.

As a newcomer to Eratosphere I don't know you people at all and must trust the competence of whoever does the work in that you wish the best for Margaret's legacy to the world of poetry.

Regards to all

Roger Collett
Editor
Arrowhead Press
http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk

[Maryann Corbett]

I know that everyone takes a vital interest in Maz's poetry because she meant so much to us all. Quite a bit has been achieved off this thread in the last couple of days. Just so that everybody has full information, here is what has been accomplished at this point:

A group is formed. Christina Fletcher and Helen Beaton, Maz's friends, have been included in it.

Rose is collecting and documenting Maz's poems, and she's prepared to do that task single-handed. Although it's a big job, unless she asks for help with particular parts of it, let's let her do it her own way for the sake of consistency and efficiency.

David Anthony has agreed to be our contact with Maz's solicitors (now that we know who they are) so that we can discuss permissions. We'll be talking next about who's going to pay them.

I hope this helps fill in the information gaps. To me, this thread is most valuable in its outpouring of affection and in its pointers to Maz's poems, every one a fresh reminder of the huge talent we've lost.

[Adam Elgar]

This is looking excellent.
Many thanks, Roger, for your hand on the helm, and to Rose for undertaking the collation. All great.

BTW, Margaret wrote a couple of delightful and hilarious science fiction poems in 04/05. I knew I'd regret it if I didn't filch them. Does anyone recall these? One was about a spoof intergalactic superhero - it mentioned "half-human girls" as I recall.

[Petra Norr]

Adam, one of my favorites by Maz is a sci-fi one about someone collecting scrap and junk out in space. If I remember right the scrap was a lot of funny, inventive things and not just mere "scrap". The whole poem was so imaginative and inventive. I remember I started my critique by saying, "This rocks!" I don't think I've ever said that to anyone before. Yesterday I was trying to find that poem, because I think she posted it not only at the Gazebo but also at the non-Met at Erato. I searched the term "Riga", because that was in the original version (until she changed it to something else), but I couldn't find it. You know, I'm thinking now she might have posted it at Sonnet Central as well. Maybe a search over there through all their archives could bring it up. I would like to read it again.