Sunday, February 19, 2012

Poetry Collection Almost There

It's nearly ready! My first poetry collection entitled Asking for Directions, after one of the poems, is in the final stages of editing and proof reading (should that be proofreading or even proof-reading?).

I found the process with Doghouse Books editor Noel King fascinating. Many fellow poets said things like I hope he didn't make you change your poems. Well, we sat down together and spent quite a lot of time going over the manuscript I had submitted. Lines, stanzas and even whole poems were queried and questioned. Some lines, some stanzas and some poems were jettisoned with the result that the poems were improved and the whole collection made more coherent. The punctuation was improved considerably, many commas were inserted.

A cover image is not yet selected though a short list has been established and this should be finalised in the next week or so. Then to choose a date for a launch in Trim, sometime in May or June. Among the other poets being published this year by Doghouse are Barbara Smith and James Lawless. I'm in good company.

No comments: