Well we now have a title: I've gone with Before the Sirocco. It's a lovely evocative title, and I think does a good job of catching the mood of the poems. So many this year are ... well, almost despairing. Sad, angry, regretful, passionate, rueful. Appropriate poems for a planet in trouble? Nothing overtly greenie, …
Titles for the anthology
I've pretty much finished my selections for the anthology now. There are a few on the cusp, which will depend on things like how many lines I need to fill at the end of poems that require a second page. So now it's time to think about picking a title. Traditionally, the title comes from …
The difference between judging and editing
I've just about finished making the selections for the anthology. Everything has been read, re-read, and re-reread. Longlists have been compiled, and shortlists are emerging. Fingers crossed, I should be able to get notifications out by the end of next week. The mechanics of selection are pretty much the same for judging a competition and …
Continue reading "The difference between judging and editing"
NZPS anthology – the process
When your entries arrive at the NZPS (comfortably before the cut-off date, naturally), the competition secretary enters the details (your name and address, plus the titles, first lines etc of your entries) in a database, and assigns a unique code number to each individual entry. The two copies are separated (of course, you followed all …
Things to avoid when entering a poetry competition
I thought it might be interesting to post a couple of times through the process of editing this year's NZPS anthology. There's no official secrecy about it, but an awful lot of people don't seem to know how the process works. So lets start with some real duh moments. The first time I edited the …
Continue reading "Things to avoid when entering a poetry competition"
A Dark Feathered Art 