Scott Thomas Outlar: First off, Sheikha, I’d like to thank you for agreeing to do this interview with me here at 17Numa. I suppose a good place to start would be in the beginning. At what point were the artistic embers of creativity initially sparked in your life? Have you always been drawn to poetry […]
A collaborative venture with Suvojit Banerjee, wherein we have attempted to create a darkly magical, mystical and semi-fantastical world, the invisible corners of which we hope you’d love to sit in and dwell longest.
The digital chapbook is a free download available with Praxis Magazine on the below link:
http://www.praxismagonline.com/nyctophiliac-confessions-sheikha-suvojit-banerjee/
Scott Thomas Outlar: First off, Sheikha, I’d like to thank you for agreeing to do this interview with me here at W.I.S.H. I suppose a good place to start would be in the beginning. At what point we…
Source: Poet Interview #59: Sheikha A.
A while back, on a poetry group that I co-admin on Facebook called Poets, Artists Unplugged, the following questions had been posted by the owner of the group in order to elicit and educate about the Dos and Don’ts of making submissions. Since having some experience in the field (rejections included), I thought about answering them to the best of my knowledge. Though these experiences can vary per writer, perhaps some of the information I’ve written out can be of little or large help to others new to the stage.
What is the etiquette for submissions?
Read the submission guidelines carefully. If you scan, then make sure you are scanning with the eyes of an eagle’s because the most embarrassing stance to be in is when you have clicked ‘sent’ and realize you haven’t conformed to the guidelines by oversight. It is even more embarrassing to contact the editor asking them to forgive your (seemingly) rushed submission. It gives the editor the impression you aren’t really interested in their magazine, you are just interested in getting published in a myriad places.
If certain guidelines don’t conform to your style or preference, DON’T submit to that magazine. You aren’t doing any magazines any favours by posting your work to them. I know most editors are obnoxious and arrogant to be extremely blunt about their remarks or criticism – sometimes ballooning to censures – but you need to heed that some magazines have a peer readers group that read through every submission (going over 100+ submissions is no joke) and some amount of irascibility will set in.
Submission guidelines are formulated for a reason – not to fill up an empty web page. Don’t be intimidated though by lengthy, exaggerated, over-demanding, superior-sounding guidelines. I have come to believe that it is the magazine’s way to filter out unsuitable submissions. Most magazines do follow a theme – even though they aren’t explicated with every issue – but it is advantageous to read the past few volumes. Again, read them carefully because from there you will gauge the style the magazine is most interested in. Sometimes, you’ll notice the magazine has gone against their requirements expressed in their guidelines and have published poetry you thought they wouldn’t publish. So, it isn’t always a pattern.
How do you address the editor?
As they want you to. There is no need to be utterly formal unless you are submitting to Academic journals (even then I believe it is redundant to overdo your humility). Journals/magazines that have been in the publishing business for over decades (eons literally!) need to be approached formally. This doesn’t mean you should be obsequious or exalting in your salutations, message body and end-greetings but follow their or general requirements for cover letters and/or creative process notes. Don’t belittle yourself or allow the magazine to condescend you. Be humble but confident.
E-zines or new emerging journals, on the other hand, are usually operated by university graduates, or poets/writers, now, wanting to take the horse by the reins. Such places usually don’t demand or expect extensive formalities but the submissions should, nevertheless, be polite (even if informal) and portray a sense of importance and respect to the publication – simultaneously projecting the same for your work (general intent to get published).
If you really must sound casual and nonchalant, then do that on your blog where you own authority.
What all do you mention about yourself in a gist?
This again depends on the guidelines AND existing contributors’ bios. Read not just the content the magazine publishes but also the writers’ bios published with the magazine. It will give you tremendous insight into the magazine’s character. Some magazines blatantly publish high profile or widely published writers regardless of how good or bad their work is. I presume such magazines read just the bios and determine whether they should publish the writer’s work or not. This is their way of marketing their magazine which isn’t wrong; it’s just tactics; to each their own. So whether they are biased or unreceptive to emerging writers (even if they say they are welcoming), submit anyway! Don’t worry about the rejections – you’ve been brave in rebelling and submitting anyway, the rejections won’t faze you out.
Some people’s writer’s bio keeps changing as per needs of the magazines; some ask for bios to be shorter than three lines whilst some look for paragraph length bios stating prominent publications by far. The only way to know is to read through the bios in each magazine. I have come across a few magazines that ask for quirky bios – asking to elicit your weirdest, most bizarre habits – usually, such magazines are also interested in eclectic forms of writing – weird, slick, odd imagery combinations, etc. If that isn’t your style of writing or you don’t believe you can attempt it, then skip it! Don’t brood over why or how you can’t write like that. You have a style of your own and nothing’s ‘wrong’ with it – stick to developing it for finesse and craft.
But basic bios (not compulsorily) should include your place of residence, birth or descent; education; a little about yourself (in one creative line highlighting your essence); publications; prizes/awards; upcoming publications. I have read bios that even include the number of pets the writer owns! But that’s entirely up to you.
How do you select among your works? Do you try to read the editor’s mind or do you go by gut feeling?
Gut feelings don’t work with submissions – at least, by far, that’s what I’ve realized through triple score rejections. It is imperative you read the content published by the magazine. Most times, you might need to write or rewrite your piece to cater and comply. That’s also entirely up to your predilection. If you don’t wish to bend to anybody’s rules, don’t. But, the magazine isn’t wrong for expecting one to either. In the current age of popular media and easy electronic submissions, plus with a deluge of e-zines popping up like mushrooms in a forest, it is only natural that magazines have become staunch or fickle about their selection of work. Each is contending with their contemporaries for quality – thus becoming harsher in their selection process and rejection notes. This doesn’t mean something is wrong with your work. There are cases in which it would be beneficial to revise; writing a piece and then going back to it after a couple of weeks, you’ll realize your mistakes or probably find a better line or expression to replace with. I know, with me, it has happened many times, when I re-read my previous writs, I either cringe or bemuse at what I was trying to express, and immediately sympathize with the editor and understand the point of rejection.
Then there are cases when you don’t need to revise your writ at all, and find when submitting it simultaneously to other publications, you get a rejection from one and an acceptance from another for that same writ (for exactly the way it is)!
Yes, read the editor’s mind if you can. Don’t run along to contact psychics! But, reading through the magazine’s contents will give you an insight into the editor’s penchants and palate for the styles of work they seek. Again, don’t be disheartened if you can’t write like their contributors; IDENTIFY your style and match it to a magazine that seeks it.
Never launch into a random spree of submissions either. Don’t assume that submitting to ten places will get you an acceptance from at least one – that will RARELY or NEVER happen.
Also for your growth as a writer, how do you build your literary credentials? Publish often? Publish with same group or publisher? Win competitions? Get reviews hoping they will be praiseworthy?
The only way to build literary credentials is identifying your style and then finding places seeking it, even if it means spending hours reading through several magazines/journals and finding either one or none to submit to. Search, search, search. You’ll eventually find home for your writs.
I’ve come across works that are amazing in expression and content but magazines will still reject it because of the fixed patterns they follow. The advancement in anthology publications has become a notable support for writers whose writs and style belong in books rather than magazines. Generally, anthologies don’t tend to follow fixed patterns staying open to various forms and themes to accommodate as many writers as they can.
Yes, why not! Publish multiple times with a group or publisher! They were the first to believe in your work. Why regard them as the lower rung? Climb down to them if you must – you went up only because of their initial confidence in you. But I would never regard going back to previous publications as climbing down because multiple publications with a magazine or publisher establishes you as a regular contributor, thus levying you leverage as the oldest writer amongst the newbies. That is strong credential.
Entering competitions can expand your style. The only way to progress is experimenting with your style and innovating. If you lose, read the entry that won. You will definitely see the difference in perspective and style in the winning poem/story that wasn’t in yours. This will also help you understand other people’s styles and appreciate it.
If the review is for promotional sakes for your book, then it is fine to get your friends to write one but, if you’re looking for neutral opinions on the ‘quality’ of your work, seek it from the sternest reviewer you know.
If you are an editor, what attracts you? Do your personal tastes intervene? What irritates you and what makes you decline? Do you see the poet if you know him/her or do you detach and read just the poem?
To know what attracts editors, read their magazines content. I think editors who make decisions through a peer reading group reviewing submissions, adopt the democratic approach of accepting what receives majority yeses, or if one amongst the group declines, then regardless of the others in favour, the submission is declined altogether.
Some pet peeves of editors with submissions are glaring grammar flaws, lack of originality, hackneyed syntax, recycled perspective, etc. This is hard to say because rejection notes don’t carry specific reasons for decline, so the editors’ personal preferences remain elusive.
Many guidelines draw emphasis on blind submissions – this means adding no contact or identifying information on the pages of your submission. They conduct a blind reading, not knowing who the writer is in order to make an unbiased decision.
Either which way, it’s easier to blame the editor for being partial or discriminatory or unreasonable or rigid or unadventurous or going to the extent of calling them stupid for not knowing how to relate to the emotions in one’s work. What should be remembered is that rejection notes aren’t a criticism or rejection of your emotions but of the manner in which they have been expressed. And that’s acceptable.
Writing can pose to be an intricate and tricky craft since pictures, events and stories are illustrated with words sans use of a variety of tools that would otherwise be used in painting or sculpting. As a writer, if you aren’t able to tell your story and evoke the powerful emotions you’re feeling in the readers, getting them to see through your vision, then your story hasn’t been told. That isn’t on the editor. It is on you.
– Sheikha A.
My poems ‘Gone’ , ‘Love has become a sin’ and ‘You’ve to go’ feature in this Valentine themed anthology compiled and published by Poets Corner.
‘Spaced’ speaks to a time that hasn’t yet forgotten, or forgiven. Each poem is an echo, a voice leveled in tonality, like a sounder that is used to measure the depth of water but in the process causes reverberating ripples all around its space. Author Sheikha A. navigates the philosophies of love and spirituality in search of the aura beating within both. Can adoration be alchemized into new forms of divinity, into images that transcend demarcations into lucidity? SPACED eschews reasoning for feeling, exploring avenues of balance within imagery and patience through the beauty of the precisely-selected word. There is no stillness of heart in this extensive and empathetic collection.
To read more about it, visit link :
http://www.hackwriters.com/SpacedSA.htm
The book is available on Kindle at Amazon.com :
http://www.amazon.com/Spaced-Sheikha-A-ebook/dp/B00GTSSLIA/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_imgnr_1%5C
‘The waters have run dry, it seems,’ lapped Dog
at a mound of pebbles bordering a stream
in an animal’s park.
It sniffed. The scent of fish and corals
mingled with the limpid air.
The rest of the animals were asleep;
in ascent of the Netherworld’s hill steep.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sakes!’ cried out Star
from the sky that was night, with moon shining bright.
‘A pair of glasses is what you need.
Licking stones instead of stream!’
Looked up the dog squinting at the starlight,
‘Aren’t you pretty; like a cluster of dreams.’
‘I’m a bird. Not a dream. I flutter
the rings of Universe’s reams.’
scoffed Star at Dog’s weakening sight.
‘The bones of my eyes have become creaky,’
Dog rolled his head to wobble the eyes.
‘I can’t see your wings but five pointy sides.
A good fix is what I need, to begin.’
‘You’re not real, you phantom creature.
Ought to find the light and walk the crossing…’
Just then Dance marched in,
close to Dog. On its nightly surveillance,
Dance guarded the park.
‘Why do you soldier instead of ballet?’
confounded Star relayed.
Dance, the snobbish one, threw a snooty look to Star.
Dog, it ignored, as if not equivalent to par.
‘I’ve entertained the sands of this earth aplenty. Swirling
and spinning on my axis like a fairy princess.
‘The earth became a crude hunter. Grabbing my feet
to pull me under.
Tis the day I stopped and turned a soldier.’
‘Very well, Dance, your excuses pose valid.
I shine brighter than as many artists added.’
Dog looked blankly from Star to Dance.
Nodding and shaking its head like in trance.
‘I must be barmy for Star is a bird.
Dance is a soldier; this must be a dream.’
contemplated Dog lapping again at the pebbles.
‘If only some water I could taste.
My tongue is dry, I’m near waste.’
‘Oh for pity’s sakes! You’re a sorry state!’
Dance and Star berated both.
‘I’ll throw you the light. Enter it this time without fight.’
Dog scowled, voicing its moot,
‘I shall do no such thing…’
‘You, but shall,’ Dance interjected.
‘You’ve been haunting this park for eons,’ Dance concluded.
‘I’ve come to ensure you take the light this time.
Throw it down, Star; I’m ready to push Dog to its rightful line.’
‘Isn’t death a choice of a thing?!’ Dog pleaded.
‘I don’t wish to leave without a lick of water from fresh springs.’
‘Your ghost tongue cannot lap at anything,’
Star put on a tone of sympathy.
‘Come to the after(world) and there’ll be plenty.’
Dance touched Dog with a hand of empathy.
Real or pretence, a soldier’s job was to ensure the task completed.
‘Alright, throw me the straw, conceded Dog.
‘With a sigh, I shall bow to your brawl…’
Before the words were out of Dog,
Star cast the spotlight.
Dance patted Dog and promised the walk painless and fast.
Dog looked eagerly, one last time,
at the earth, sky and everything in between
when suddenly its eyes grew a vision sharper
for the moment that was brief, it saw the stream gusher.
Dog whimpered and wondered about heaven
as it knelt its paws to the glowing tunnel;
and turned its eyes to Dance and Star,
that watched its flight, grinning in power.
Published in Poetry Sans Frontier and Danse Macabre du Jour.
…and this is why the caged bird sings
Flitting about in a golden cage,
She’s pale as the first flake of snow,
Unseen and untainted,
For the world she’s a jailbird,
She sings ‘cause she knows,
Her source of admiration is
By being encaged
The sky outside is vast not new,
Her wings have worn off their feathers,
She sings out of content,
Drawing people to her pretty cage,
Her shadow she protects
By being confined
The sky outside is not new for her,
She will fall prey to none.
Published in Voices de la Luna, Volume 5, Number 3, July 15th 2013 Issue
Write me, Saudade. 