[Matt Q]

I've been asked by an American magazine if I’m OK to change the spelling of word I’ve used a couple of times in a poem to its American spelling. It's possible that this is a polite way of informing me of the magazine's policy, in which case the following is largely moot, but even so, it might still be an interesting topic to discuss at a more general level.

I’m wondering how common it is for magazines to do this? It’s not something I’ve been asked to do before when an American mag has taken a poem. Anyone else been asked to do this (in either/any direction), and how did you feel about it?

I don’t think American readers are confused by British spellings (or vice versa) – no one here has ever seemed confused by one. Though I guess I can see why they might want consistent spelling across their magazine.

I find that my initial reaction is reluctance: when I read poems with American spellings, I assume an American narrator, hear an American voice, and, absent any clues, I imagine an American location. So it does kind of feels like it changes the poem, though possibly only in relation to the version in my head!

Another issue is that poem contains the British word “flat” (rather than the American, “apartment”), which they've not asked me to change, and I’m wondering if it’s odd to combine British language with American-only spellings.

So, a related question I have is whether “flat” is truly a British word. Americans: does the word “flat” sound British to you, would it sound odd coming from an American, or do some Americans use it in place of apartment?

Anyway, against the above, I'm very aware that I may just be having an over-protective over-reaction to the idea of being asked change anything in my poem!

I'd be interested in any thoughts.

Matt

[Jayne Osborn]

Hi Matt,

It seems strange that "flat" is acceptable to them, being an entirely different word, as opposed to different spellings of the same word.

Everyone's aware of the words like "color, center, meter" having alternative spellings to Brits, but they only signify whether the writer is American or British, and I don't think anyone minds too much, one way or the other.

I'm intrigued which word they're asking you to change; can you tell us?

Jayne

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by Matt Q

Anyone else been asked to do this (in either/any direction), and how did you feel about it?

British magazines have often changed my American punctuation to their house/national standard (double quotes to single quotes, for instance). It's never bothered me. At times, I've even tried to anticipate and do that myself, though always with a niggling worry that I'm missing things and doing a half-assed job. I generally don't do that anymore.

I see your point about British spelling signaling a British speaker. But the vocabulary and voice will still sound British. When a novel is printed across the pond from the author, the publisher generally Americanizes/Britishizes the spelling and punctuation without--for this reader--any damage done.

Originally Posted by Matt Q

Americans: does the word “flat” sound British to you, would it sound odd coming from an American, or do some Americans use it in place of apartment?

It does sound British to me. It doesn't sound odd coming from an American.

Decades ago when I lived in San Francisco--more European, in many ways, than most American places--flat was used regularly and I interpreted it to mean an apartment occupying a whole floor of a (usually smallish) building. It wouldn't have been very odd for it to be used as a simple synonym for apartment. I can't say whether it's still commonly used there, but I expect so.

[James Midgley]

It does sound like a question of house style -- which wouldn't demand changes to regional vocabulary, but would to spelling and punctuation, say.

Journals have changed my punctuation (dashes, for instance) but not my spelling -- but that's probably because there were none that would have demanded it, simply by chance.

Congratulations on the acceptance at any rate!

[Chris O'Carroll]

Years ago, when my American sister was studying abroad in Heidelberg, she heard a German DJ play "Me and Bobby McGee" and explain that the lyrics busted flat in Baton Rouge translate as gebrochene Mietwohnung (broken apartment) in Baton Rouge.

My poems have often appeared in British journals with British spellings, and I'm free to Americanise -- or rather Americanize -- the words if I publish the poems later in a book. I love the fact that English is heard and read in so many different dialects around the world. Makes me feel well-nigh multilingual.

[Matt Q]

Thanks people,

Jayne, I guess there's no real harm in saying: it's "mould"/"mold". Though I would have posted this in Eratosphericals/Pub if I thought people would have seen it there.

Max and James, interesting that you'd not had spellings changed. Hadn't thought about punctuation. American dashes are way cooler, though.

James, I also thought at first that probably I'd just not used British spellings, but when I checked a few I saw had "rumours" in one publication, "colours" and "clamour" in another. You had "prise" (versus "pry") in one American publication -- though I guess that's not a spelling variation, so much as a word one. And thanks for the congrats, I'm very pleased to be in this magazine.

Max, thanks for letting me know about how "flat" is heard. That's useful.

Chris, I love the idea of a busted flat waiting for a train!

-Matt

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by Matt Q

Max ..., interesting that you'd not had spellings changed.

That's not the case. (See below.)

And, yes, congrats. That an editor asks is a good sign. FWIW, I take seriously an editor's making changes in my poems without consulting me; I stop submitting to journals that do that; this has included one formalist journal that Spherians think highly of. But Britishizing spelling or punctuation doesn't bother me; I don't consider these to be changes in my poems.

I'm surprised to learn that American journals have published your work with the British spellings. And that Spherians haven't chimed in to say "Oh, yes. Americanizing/Britishizing is standard procedure." Maybe it isn't as standard as I've thought.

It's hard for me to imagine a good journal printing one poem with double quotes to signify speech and another poem with single quotes to do that. I suppose printing one poem with "color" and another with "colour" isn't as hard to imagine. Maybe spelling is a different matter and I've been mistaken to conflate the two.

I'd be interested in others' experience: examples of specific journals that follow their own national customs regardless of poets', and of specific journals that follow whatever national customs the poets do, and examples of specific journals that (sloppily?) sometimes follow cross-pond customs and sometimes alter them. Dunno whether this ask should be the topic of a new thread. Maybe since it involves specific journals it should move to Eratosphericals (though no criticism of any specific journal needs to be implied in this sharing of basic facts/examples).

***

I've gotten curious enough (and I want to show a willingness to share with others what I'm asking them to share with me) to look at some of my own cross-pond publications. A thorough survey (I'm pleased to say) will take more time than I've got at the moment, but I've pretty quickly found that The Spectator and Hungarian Quarterly have both Britishized my spelling ("realised," "favourite" etc.)--and in The Spectator the speaker (not just the writer) is clearly American, which might have given them reason, if they'd been so inclined, to avoid Britishizing.

So, at the beginning of (our? my?) survey here, we've got two good journals whose standard practice seems to be to follow their own national customs regardless of poets'.

[Matt Q]

Max,

I can tell you that Rattle and Shadowplay published my poems with the British spellings. My other poems in American publications have had no British-only spellings to change, so that doesn't tell us much.

Since all Rattle's content, bar the most recent, is online, it's possible to search it for various British words, so Google found 11 poems at Rattle containing the word "colour". Searching on "centre", I see that Rattle doesn't seem to change spellings in author bios either.

It also looks like Poetry magazine doesn't change spellings either -- or at least has published poems with British (or non-American) spellings. The same is true of poems from other sources that are republished on the Poetry Foundation website (i.e. poems not published in Poetry).

I guess this could be done more systematically, as long as the magazines' archives were available online. Plus you wouldn't have to search that many words to be reasonably sure that there were no British/non-American spellings.

I didn't get very much further that, really. I did notice that Cally has a poem on Shot-glass Journal (which is American) containing the word "colour": Not a British spelling, in her case, of course, but an Australian one. And I tried HAD, and elsewhere magazine, where I've had things published, and they also have pieces with non-American spellings.

Matt