apr (usa) poetry workshop

Update (12 November 2013): Though much discussed I only just finally got around to deleting the community referenced below; there simply wasn't enough interest. I still like the idea and I'd be more than happy to start something similar again if there were interested, engaged poets. Comment below is this is just the sort of thing you're looking for...

For awhile now we've been running the apr (usa) poetry workshop on the Google+ network. You need to have a Google account (don't most of us by now) and you need to be a member of the community to see the posts. But the bar for the latter is low: just ask!!

It is a closed group -- requiring interested folks to request membership -- so the discussion is open and free and poets can feel comfortable sharing works-in-progress and commentators can share candid, honest feedback.

Here's our mission statement:

The goal of the apr (usa) poetry workshop is to create an online community of poets from Africa committed to sharing both their poetry and their practice with each other. 

You do not need to be a published poet to join but we do expect you to share both your poetry and your honest thoughts and feedback on the poetry your colleagues share. 

There is no perfect poem, only the good enough. 

Thus, don't share a poem you don't expect to read a critique of; similarly, don't heap effusive, non-specific praise on a work because you can think of nothing better to say.

So far traffic has been light. As with so much else here on teh interwebz, this is just an experiment. If there's not sufficient interest... well... we'll just pack up and try something new. But...

If you're a working "African" poet looking to workshop your poems and hoping for some forthright feedback and not just plaudits and applause... join us!!

don't tuck those manuscripts away quite yet!!

No, we haven't gotten into the publishing game. Yet.

But the African Poetry Book Fund -- which manages the just closed Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets & supports the Brunel University African Poetry Prize -- notes on its website that it accepts submissions "year-round for the contemporary category of the African Poetry Book Series." The brief blurb can be found here; a full round-up of the APBF offerings is here.

They are looking for manuscripts of at least 50 pages so you have to have been at it for awhile. And rather seriously at it; speaking as a laboring poet, fifty manuscript pages -- let alone fifty manuscript pages of decent quality -- are hard to come by...

Oh, and do everyone a favor: edit that shit!!

But don't be shy. Contact the APBF managing editor and submit. Even if you don't get published you might get some valuable feedback.