{"id":11400,"date":"2023-10-23T09:41:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T09:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/?p=11400"},"modified":"2023-10-23T09:42:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T09:42:59","slug":"questions-and-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/2023\/10\/23\/questions-and-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions and Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"
Q. How do I find out what sort of poems The Rialto<\/i> publishes? So I can select from my poems ones that they\u2019ll like.<\/span><\/div>\n
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A. The answer to that used to be simply buy the magazine and read it. However recent issues (96<\/a>, 98<\/a>, 100<\/a>) have been guest edited (by Degna Stone, Edward Doegar, and Will Harris + Ella Frears). Of course Michael Mackmin has approved the issues, so that\u2019ll give a general indication. Maybe get hold of one of the ones he\u2019s done? At least check who is editing the one you\u2019re submitting to. Info on the website\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
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Q. What about their anthology Poetry With An Axe To Grind<\/a>,<\/i> will that help me to know what to send in?\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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A. Definitely. Will help you to know what kind of stuff goes on in his head. But it could be daunting as the choice is made from ninety-nine issues and includes some stellar poems\/poets. They do publish all sorts of kinds of poetry.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Q. Does Michael ever say what he\u2019s looking for?<\/span><\/div>\n
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A.You mean beyond saying things like \u2018Just send us your best poems?\u2019 He has said that he thinks poetry is the \u2018most important art form we have\u2019: but he often follows that up by saying maybe dance is more important.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Q. Can you be a bit more specific?<\/span><\/div>\n
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A. He does write about individual poems, on the website and in the Online Newsletter. You could do some research. For example there\u2019s a piece called \u2018Close Reading\u2019 currently on the front page of the website. You might be able to unpick something of what he looks out for\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
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Q. Is it very technical?\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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A. I don\u2019t think you need worry about that, I don\u2019t think Michael knows the difference between a dactyl and an anapaest. He goes by some kind of inner clock which tells him if a poem \u2018works\u2019 or not. He\u2019s usually careful to add \u2018works for me\u2019.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Q. I\u2019m still not sure what kind of poems to send.<\/span><\/div>\n
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A. What do we know about Michael\u2019s likes and dislikes? Well he has been known to say he doesn\u2019t like poetry that \u2018tries too hard\u2019. And he does make a division in poems between \u2018what the poem says\u2019 and \u2018how the poem says it\u2019 (as in \u2018I was interested in what you are writing about but less sure about how you write about it\u2019). A symptom of \u2018trying too hard\u2019 is an over reliance on alliteration and referencing ancient poets \u2013 though the first poem in PWAATG<\/i>, which he must like as he\u2019s put it at the start of the anthology, has alliteration in its first two stanzas and a reference to Caliban at the end. Another sign of \u2018trying too hard\u2019 is poetry that shoves everything the poet thinks the world needs to know into one poem. He likes the poems on pages 15 and 18 of Poetry With An Axe<\/i> to Grind<\/i><\/a> because, he says, they \u2018say a lot without shouting about it\u2019. He gets turned off by \u2018lazy\u2019 vocabulary, when poets don\u2019t think \u2018is this the very best word?\u2019. He\u2019d rather talk about \u2018goose shit green\u2019 than \u2018viridian motes\u2019. He\u2019s not keen on poems about cats (though they appear in The Rialto<\/i>), doesn\u2019t understand the need for poems \u2018after\u2019 e.g., \u2018After George Bernard Shaw\u2019 or \u2018After Henri Matisse\u2019 (though they too appear in The Rialto<\/i>). He and his co-editor John Wakeman used to talk about \u2018Poetry which works in its own terms\u2019, whatever that means. He and the poet Matt Howard talk about poems that \u2018need to have been written\u2019 (ditto). He doesn\u2019t mind \u2018difficult\u2019 poems (remembering that WH Auden reminded the world of the early importance of riddles). He also thinks highly of \u2018accessible\u2019 poetry\u2026.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Q. Thank you. Are you a robot?<\/span><\/div>\n
A. That\u2019s not a question I can help you with.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The Rialto, 22 October 2023<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Image: Hero’s Pneumatica, Source Public Domain Review.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q. How do I find out what sort of poems The Rialto publishes? So I can select from my poems ones that they\u2019ll like. A. The answer to that used to be simply buy the magazine and read it. However recent issues (96, 98, 100) have been guest edited (by Degna Stone, Edward Doegar, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11402,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11400\/revisions\/11402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}