happy 4th birthday, WOAW
WOAW turns four today. that makes me happy, even though i haven't been spending much time here lately. a lot of my attention has been devoted to girls can blog, probably because it's less of a niche product and more of an allround good cause.
obviously, the downside of occupying myself mostly with gcb is that the better part of my creative energy is dedicated to "digital social work" as opposed to poetry. it's a typical dilemma known to writers: i love doing x [i.e. painting], but if i do too much of it, there'll be no juices left for writing. most of us choose less x and more writing.
with gcb, most of the work to be done, though, is writing: posts, emails, comments. proper blogging also involves a fair bit of reading. i love it. yet while i have received great support and appreciation of what i have accomplished with gcb, i also get frequent questions regarding the lack of new material of both prose and poetry. i have been asked why my novella hasn't been published in spite of good reviews, nor a poetry collection with any of the usual publishers, and why i haven't devoted more time and effort to get either.
first easy answer: because i can't have my finger in every pie. i like where i'm at right now with gcb. second, more difficult answer: because i would rather keep my poetry to myself than be on the knocker and beg people to print it!
i have undertaken one sole attempt when a friend of mine alerted me to the fact that her publisher was looking for female poets especially. i emailed the person in charge and asked whether that was true. needless to say, i never received an answer and have thus decided that that was that.
with WOAW around for four years now, i am fairly positive that plenty of people in positions to publish a poet's work are aware of what i do. by now, many of them know my writing. event organizers and editors alike. if they decide to ignore me, so be it. i am over mailing in poems to magazines that publish only work of people their editors have slept with (and trust me, turnover is high!). but i do accept that these are the rules of the game; maybe not so much the sex, but the ass-kissing for sure. i am sorry to say that i have lost interest in what used to be the soul of this blog: my curiosity about up and coming german poets, especially those of berlin. in my opinion, most current poetry has become interchangeable and obsolete, save a few glorious exceptions, so i have stopped working for that crowd's acceptance. i have stopped reading their work. i have stopped going to readings.
you might think i'm jealous. well, i have never been the jealous type. naturally, i, too, would like to see my novella in print or have my own poetry collection, which poet wouldn't? but not at the price of dignity and boredom.
throughout this recent development, WOAW has remained to be my loyal, patient companion. as have my readers. like last year, the year before, and the year before that, i'd like to thank each and every single one of you for stopping by or following my RSS feed.*
to your loyalty and our next years together!
thanks. annina
* if you wonder what an RSS feed might be, try this explanation.
