This year, I’ve been happy to discover two new poetry journals. One is a journal that has accepted some of my poems, and the other is one I doubt I’ll submit to, but adds diversity to my reading.
Postcard Poems and Prose
This is a magazine that recently published three of my poems. Each week they publish one poem with an image. Usually, the image is created specifically for the poem from a photograph or art that the editors then modify. Sometimes the writer provides the image. The poem is printed on the image or if it’s too long, as is the case with short prose pieces, then the title may be on the image and the poem or prose printed on the website, alongside the image or images. Especially when printed together, the text and image form a new work of art.
I’ve enjoyed seeing what images the editors chose for the three short poems I sent them, and I’ve been pleased with the way they manipulated the image to combine it with my text. Adding color to the text sometimes helps to tie the two together. Author bios and pictures — headshot and personal photographs — complete the experience.
Poetry Journal In Print. – Bao Giay
This is a journal in Vietnamese and English. The Vietnamese poems are all translated, and though the translations are sometimes a little stiff, they provide a glimpse into another poetry tradition: Vietnamese New Formalism. Each issue also includes an essay on Vietnamese poetry, followed by some English-language poetry translated into Vietnamese. Naturally, I can’t speak to the quality of the Vietnamese original poetry or translations.
Poetry Journal in Print is available as a PDF file by email. This journal magically appeared in my inbox, and I almost deleted it as spam. But I was glad when I opened the attached file to find a legitimate journal with quality poems by poets I never would have heard of otherwise. The journal is published every 3 months, and now it is also available in Issuu.
Kendall Dunkelberg 