What now?

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First of all, CONGRATULATIONS! If you participated in any way for National Poetry Month, BRAVO to you!

Do you have a stack of poetry to read, edit, scratch your head over? Where do you go from here?

There nothing quite like a critique group to help you sort this out. Do you have such a group? They are out there. Check with other poets to find out where they go. In this area of North Carolina there is an excellent group via Living Poetry. Here’s a link to check it out! https://www.meetup.com/living-poetry/events/305658373/?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share-btn_savedevents_share_modal&utm_source=link

Poets and Writers AKA PW.org has a variety of groups, including online critique groups. You can check them out here: https://groups.pw.org/browse-all-groups

There are others, I have no doubts. Just ask around and I bet you find a group. Anything I have worked on via a critique group has been published and rather quickly.

Poetry Editors can also be helpful. You will have the advantage of 1:1 feedback. It takes a bit of time to find that right match. This is often a paid service unless you work out a mutual feedback relationship.

Meet others in common at Poetry Workshops. Chances are that if you put it out there that you would like a writing partner, you will find someone or a group to work with. I participate in a weekly prompt workshop. In this it’s up to you to be prompt centric or to veer off. I tend to veer off. It’s a PW.org group called The Time is Now. It only last about 30-45 minutes and it helps to interact with others.

You have polished your work and now is the time to publish. There are multiple journals accepting submissions. Where do you find them? I use Duotrope. because I like the feedback feature in which you can determine if the publisher is a good match. There is also a tracking feature for all your submissions. As one who runs a Facebook group, I share when I find what sound like good matches. I especially focus on paying publications, preferably ones who don’t charge.

Submittable is another option for finding a variety of places to submit.

As an editor for FineLines.org I recommend this journal, which has been around for 35 years, for submissions of poetry, art, essays, short stories, and photography.

There are also several calls for submissions from poets and writers of which I regularly have contact. Here they are:

Feed the Holy

Chewers by Masticadores

Masticadores USA

Latinos USA

Have you found that National Poetry Month has helped you with all the prompts? Check out the options for regular prompts.

Living Poetry has regular prompts and you can even share your work on their blog.

Metaphor Dice are fun for creating metaphors. You can make a game of these.

Garden of Neuro Institute has frequent poetry prompts and events in their Poetry Group. There are also regular workshops and open mics.

Wordsmith Weekly is a Saturday group in which attendees work with prompts and share.

If you are interested in a special Call for Submissions with a specific theme, you might want to check out this one: https://www.gardenofneuropublishing.com/

I hope this is helpful. There is a lot more information out there, but I thought I would open up the discussion.

Happy Writing!