3.18.2008

Cliches T.K.O. Editors

This link from the VQR blog appeared on my alumni listserv today. The writer set out to prove that "authors submit poetry to us covering clichéd topics that there’s just no way we’re going to print." Instead, he ended up proving the opposite. The most impressive and durable of poetic cliches--darkness--appeared in 3.9% of overall submissions and in 17% of published VQR poems!

The blogger concludes, "The moral of the story is that talent transcends topic." This is obviously (and I guess, necessarily) self-serving. Maybe preconceived notions of "What Poetry Is" run deeper in the average editor than many would like to admit. There are certainly "comfort zones" out of which editors don't like to move and that the typical reader is not interested in.

This also reminds me of my suspicion that it is not the best idea for all editors of lit journals to be practicing poets/prosists themselves, but I guess that's the system.

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