Poetic Honoraria: One Breath at a Time

 

The issue of getting paid for presenting poetry is ever present among poets. Most of us present without any promise of honorarium because we need to reach audience.

 

Recently, the Steiny Road Poet organized a reading featuring four other poets and herself based on her anthology From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons through the Brooklyn, NY organization One Breath Rising. The reading was spectacular with lots of great questions posed by our host. Although there was some mention that we might get an honorarium, we had no expectation. Some weeks later we each received a check for $100 thanks to funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council and Poets & Writers (NY).

 

Stepping back to see the bigger picture, one should note that was $500 for one program. Some speakers easily get that kind of money, insist on that level of funding.  Just saying that poetry is an art form that brings spiritual benefits if not entertainment and that we poets are much like monks sitting with our begging bowls. Kudos to One Breath Rising for their generosity in sharing their resources.

Poetry Mutual: A New Washington DC Poetry Promoter

 

Washington, DC, has a new poetry promoter in town called Poetry Mutual.

 

Years ago, DC had the Poetry Committee of Greater Washington, DC Area which was hosted by the Folger Shakespeare Library. That poetry promotion group had a literary calendar and an award system (the Columbia Prize). It’s a brave thing to do because it takes staying power.

 

Behind Poetry Mutual are Kim Roberts (founder of Beltway Journal now hosted by Indran Amirthanayagam), Michael Gushue, and Dan Vera. These three poets have been involved in promoting other people’s poetry through small presses they have formed and supported. They are an awesome literary force.

 

The Steiny Road Poet is pleased to have had From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons selected by Poetry Mutual as one of the three best anthologies of 2023. The other two selected were Dora Malech and Laura T. Smith’s The American Sonnet: An Anthology of Poems and Essays and Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and Jeremy S. Hoffman’s Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States.  There were many wonderful anthologies they could have singled out for recognition. Check out Poetry Mutual and sign up for all their news, including their selection of the ten best single author poetry collections.