Renee Emerson

ordering the waves

i sent to 6 contests this year and heard back from 3 of them last week.

not even a finalist. sigh.

after some homemade sugar cookies and an appropriate length of moping, i pulled out my manuscript to do some editing.

this is my first year where i have sent to more than 1 contest. i’ve been working on my manuscript for 3 years, since finishing my mfa.

i do feel like it is strong enough for publication–else i wouldn’t send it out–but as i write new and stronger poems i like to go through and weed out the weaker poems, see where the order needs to be shifted, etc.

so i’ve heard advice a few places to leave a manuscript be once its finished, but i am a tinkerer. what i had right out of my mfa is still for the most part the core of my manuscript. life, however, has led to new subjects (motherhood, babies) and also a new boldness in writing about the never-mentioned family history (a traditional southern family, we don’t ever mention anything unbecoming).

i reordered, added and removed, and i’m doing some read-throughs of the printed-out manuscript these next few weeks, getting it ready to send out again. i’ve always had an easier time editing on paper than the computer screen, and there’s something to physically holding the poems in my hands.

i don’t expect to have it published this year, honestly–my hope is for it to happen before i am ineligible for the yale series of younger poets (age 40–younger poets?). i’ve had professors and friends read through it but i could always use an extra set of eyes, readers, if anyone is interested.

of course, i do already have a faithful manuscript assistant available at all hours:

cats are the best editors