poetically challenged

In a recent post, I talked about my friend’s newly opened online lit mag, Sloth Jockey.  The site is under way now, and is shaping up very nicely.

When I first started blogging, I ran into a number of good writers at the community-oriented site I blogged at.  One stood out from the crowd as one of the best writers I’ve encountered on a personal level.  He went by the name Son of King Pharmacist at the site where we blogged, though his real-life (if there is such a thing) name is Jason Gantenberg.  

Looking for some good information on a literary magazine before you decide whether you’d like to submit to it?

Try out this database at newpages.com. It’s a good guide to good literary magazines. It’s very helpful for aspiring writers because you can get the scoop on a publication early on, and decide from there whether it is worth your time to pursue trying to get published in it. The early research can save your time, not to mention the editors, if you find it not a suitable match for your work.

Have you ever submitted to Byline Magazine’s poetry contests? They’ve got them running throughout the year, with different contests having closing dates each month.

Coming up before the end of this month: Nature Poems. In March: New-Talent Poetry, Rhymed Poetry, and Character Sketches and “Fillers” (prose).

If you’d like to have a closer look at Byline, and perhaps even submit to their contests, the link is

I want to introduce an exciting little online journal I’ve found — one that I hope is on the verge of exploding into something huge and amazing.

Bakery of the Poets is run (at least in part) by someone I blog with at another site, debergerac. She’s long been one of my favourite bloggers, as she always writes something that has some punch — and usually makes the reader think too.

The website she’s got going there looks like it is bringing us work of that same quality which is featured regularly on her blog here. Go take a look. Sign up as a member of the community there. See if we can support her efforts to build the best literary journal around, on- or off-line.

I’m especially pleased because I’ve got some things appearing in the e-zine for this issue, including my introduction to Singapore poet Yong Shu Hoong. I’ve been reading Yong’s poetry for some time now, and am pleased to see he’s garnered something of a reputation in Singapore. It is nice to be able to spread bits of information about his poetry here and there, and I appreciate Bakery of the Poets for publishing this introduction to his work.

Check out these poetry contests

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