Comments for toadlily press

Comment on Thank You, But No Thank You: Thoughts on Electronic Submissions by Lisa Dolensky

Lisa Dolensky — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:26:03 +0000

I never thought I’d say it either, but I miss rejections. If I hear from an editor, it’s usually because of an acceptance. About 1/3 of what I submit receives a form or a brief, personal “Not quite what we’re looking for” response. Then there’s the other third that I refer to as the blackhole, no comment- rejections. However, if an editor is too busy to write a rejection…I wonder if that means it’s a loophole and I don’t have to technically count the lack of communication a rejection? So maybe I have less rejections than I thought I did. Maybe a more positive way to look at it. Thanks for bringing up this topic. I figure editors these days are swamped with e-mails and are just having trouble, like the rest of us, keeping up.

Comment on On the Periphery—Thoughts on Teaching and Poetry, and Teaching Poetry by Pamela Hart

Pamela Hart — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:04:40 +0000

Hi Matthew,
First, congrats and good luck! Eighth graders are — wow — such complex, wonderful, frustrating, endearing, annoying creatures. Will you be teaching primarily a writing class or a reading — or most likely a combination? The Poetry 180 anthology is great for teens, though some of the work is more appropriate for high schoolers. For me as both teacher and writer, poetry is about trying to making sense of the world, and I think kids yearn, for ways to learn how to do that. Get them out of themselves to be in themselves, if that makes sense. Be outside and inside. Read. Read the world. Let them learn to read their world. That the stuff of their world is material for poems. Ask them the question you’re trying to answer — what is a poem anyway? What is poetry? What a great time you’ll have with these embodied awkward beings. Keep us posted!

Comment on Emma Bolden On How Obsession Becomes a Book by Elizabeth Oakes

Elizabeth Oakes — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:37:25 +0000

I love this, especially “a ring I forged / for my own finger.” I did a lot of research on witches in relation to my dissertation on Shakespeare’s widows; once I did, I could never, ever look at the Halloween witch as anything but a desecration of women who experienced a holocaust.
Write on, Emma!

Comment on Emma Bolden On How Obsession Becomes a Book by Monday Shout-Outs « 58 Inches

Monday Shout-Outs « 58 Inches — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:30:50 +0000

[...] is one of my favorite emerging poets. I have all three of her chapbooks, including the one from Toadlily which is actually three chapbooks from different authors in one. Toadlily has started a blog and [...]

Comment on Emma Bolden On How Obsession Becomes a Book by Jessie Carty

Jessie Carty — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:23:49 +0000

I am such a fan of Emma’s. Love Edge by Edge and can’t wait for the witch poems book to find a permanent home

Comment on The Conversation As Muse Continues by Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. « A Century of Nerve

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. « A Century of Nerve — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:35:00 +0000

[...] had a wonderful time catching up with my fellow Toadlily authors, from Nienow himself, who offers an account of how uniquely supportive the Toadlily experience is, to an article by Emily Carr, a UNCW classmate [...]

Comment on Edge By Edge by toadlily press » Blog Archive » Emma Bolden On How Obsession Becomes a Book

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:14:13 +0000

[...] You can find some of her latest “witch” poems in recent issues of The Greensboro Review, The Journal, Linebreak and other venues. Her chapbook, How to Recognize a Lady, is included in Edge By Edge. [...]

Comment on The Conversation As Muse Continues by Heidi Hart

Heidi Hart — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:53:24 +0000

Great to hear the conversation is continuing! I would be happy to contribute. More soon, and let me know if I can add something specific that would help in the ongoing blog.

Comment on An Uncommon Accord by toadlily press » Blog Archive » More good words

toadlily press » Blog Archive » More good words — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:27:42 +0000

[...] great write up on An Uncommon Accord from Fiddler Crab Review, partially excerpted here. Visit the website to read the entire review. [...]

Comment on The Chaos of Organs: Emily Carr on Meat by bob wesley

bob wesley — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:51:17 +0000

i don’t know if what i am about to write is fair for the blog but i thought of this piece (at least indirectly) when i read what i am about to quote. this is from a book called ‘runes of the north’ by sigurd olson. sigurd olson is a naturalist; this is from a reflection he had upon encountering a frog that had somehow gotten into a well olson had dug in the north woods: “Rana (the frog) was of an ancient race, one of the amphibia, predating man by untold millions of years. . .We studied each other an I wondered what primal reactions were running through its amphibious nerve centers as it lay there watching. The same life flowed in Rana as in me. We were brothers under the skin. It knew nothing whatever of such things as the atomic arms race, or missiles, nationalism, or self-determination, but it did know something about the feel of water and mist and the sound of waves and of rain, something about shadows and the threat of a long sharp bill of some heron wading the shallows, or the swift flash of a pike from the deeps.” I believe you are correct that we think we know an animal when we know how it mates; i also believe that we are wrong. this knowledge is an observation, a fact, even truth of a sort. but we really don’t know how to relate to animals anymore. thank you for this piece – it was very thought provoking.