Category: writer on writing

Good Gracious! This is Excellent!

March 31st, 2023
This month my trampset column “Not Me Offering Advice on Writer’s Block” received a lot of likes and shares. Evidently writers are on the same boat as myself, ruminating about their craft, the present of our world and what holds for them in the future. Amidst war, unrest, gun violence, dictatorships, corruption and injustice, any art that anyone manages is commendable. Whether put out there for others, or for one’s own satisfaction. I know the odds are just too much, and it is incredibly difficult. What remedy do we have? Except perhaps this: Keeping at it. Because keeping at it has got us thus far.

This unsure baby writer clocked 250 (and counting) publications from zero in 2019. At the moment, I’m excited about the preorders for my Novella-in-Flash Where We set Our Easel and its launch by Stanchion on 23 May 23!

So, in order that we aren’t disingenuous or casual in the practice of our craft simply out of hopelessness or boredom, let’s do a Spring cleaning of the skills we have, and see how to make our writing exciting and what else we could do. Let the fresh ideas come!

In this month’s blogpost, let’s look at pieces that stand apart from the others and marvel us. Those that make the EiC exclaim: Good Gracious! This is Excellent! Obviously, these are ones litmags get very little of and could do with some more. Let’s make a list:

Sleek satirical pieces. Editors will agree that in a queue for unthemed submissions, prose written in a lighter vein, in a quirky, comic, satirical style, are always eagerly read. (Read Avra Margariti’s The Clown King, if you’d like to attempt one)

Bottom-up Approach, or Reverse Chronology (Keys by AE Weisgerber ). Done well, these are sensational.

Difficult subjects like Identity, Displacement, Gun Violence, and Climate Catastrophe when tackled well (Read Market Forces Winner, Bath Flash Fiction 23rd Award, February 2023)

Authentic cultural perspectives (Read Hema Nataraju’s CNF Tempering)

A story that does not obey spelling and grammar (You might find this amazing: Elisabeth Ingram Wallace’s Scrolling Facebook Memes…, Winner, Fiction, Forge Literary Flash Competition, 2020)

Using time jumps in spite of extreme brevity using clever writing (Read Leah Browning’s Orchard City : lifetimes in 100 words!)

Unusual setting. Places where no one’s been (or very few have!). Flash Fiction set in Kenya, Madagascar or Greenland for example. I found none! If you have, do link in the comments!

About or fiction set in a game/match/competitve race that most of us aren’t very aware of, like archery, or Jallikattu

PROMPTS

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 1: A flash piece about someone who lost his way while on an expedition in Antartica.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 2: A flash piece about a retired Olympic swimmer. Make it funny (for example: he tells tall tales to his friends when drunk)

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 3: Write prose but using the rules of a villanelle or limerick

THING TO LOOK OUT FOR

2023 FlashFlood UK : 00:01 BST on 30 April to 23:59 on 6 May 2023

Micro Madness New Zealand (submissions open April 15)

SUBMISSION SPOTLIGHT:

Here I list magazines writers may not know about. These are FREE TO SUBMIT & either are open or are opening on April 1

Broad River Review (Free on the 1st of April), Narrative Magazine (First two weeks in April are free), The Cortland Review (upto May 15, poetry), Fictive Dream, MoonPark Review, Brilliant Flash Fiction Contest (until Aril 15)

WORKSHOP NEWS

Book here: CROW COLLECTIVE WORKSHOPS

REGISTRATION OPENS APR 1!

This workshop runs over 2 days, 2 hrs each day: Sat, May 20, 2023: 7 AM PDT / 10 AM EDT / 3 PM BST / 7:30 PM IST & Sat, May 27, 2023: 7 AM PDT / 10 AM EDT / 3 PM BST / 7:30 PM IST

Click here to read what previous participants of this workshop had to say!

PRO-TIP OF THE MONTH

This month we hear from published writers who offer valuable advice. Things they wish they knew when they started out!

To find the right workshop. The right sensibilities, perspectives, and skills are essential in the peers to whom you entrust your work. — Camille U.Adams

That writing ebbs snd flows. Don’t be afraid of the days the words won’t come, or won’t come out right. Give yourself space. Do other things. Trust that the tide will turn. — Laura Besley

Have a strong circuit of fellow writers whom you can go to whenever you want to. A strong support group is absolutely necessary.— Rashmi Agrawal

That the goal is to move towards our most authentic voice and perfect our craft to get there NOT to try to embody someone’s else’s voice. That writing isn’t about the publishing world. That you need to find your people and listen to them. — noam keim

Your writing will improve if you keep doing it. — Jamie Etheridge
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COLORS of PLACE

February 28th, 2023
Because story-telling is both art & science, a writer may strive to use the right blend of history, culture, language, and colors of a place to enrich the narrative, and thus mold a piece in the best of what’s available and unique to the writer’s sensibilities. This fertile ground is made use of by many contemporary writers, writing in the Asian and African story-telling tradition. In flash fiction too, choosing such an approach, whether or not they be critical, reactionary to an event, or merely conveying a thought process or way of life, pays rich dividend.

To illustrate how this can be masterfully executed in the brief scope of flash fiction, let us bring “How We Were Born” (Lucy Zhang, MayDay Online) on the observation table. This story won first place in MayDay 2022 Flash Contest.

Lucy Zhang’s narration is fast-paced, inviting the reader into the dynamics of a scene. From its telling, this piece essentially plays with the closeness between the siblings, and yet their competitiveness, and dissects how, in the gaze of the outsiders who despise their non-conforming features, they are unified and one. Embellished with truly beautiful imagery (“the golden crow who burns earth with radiation and explosive flares”), the story spins complex dynamics without becoming imposing or serious. “There, they’ll kneel and pray to be less ugly.” is the core of this tiny piece — an ugliness of unbelonging we all identify with at some or the other level. I love the narrator’s voice, the unusual setting, the cultural references, and the sub-surface theme and messaging. It goes deeper and beyond the simplicity of a sibling rivalry between the narrator and her brother and spills into a binary field of knowing-unknowing, winning and losing, boon and curse, beauty and hideous-looking.

Like the coder Lucy Zhang is in her day-job, she manages to approach it with logic, and manipulates the situation into a malleable form where the outcome becomes unpredictable. The open-ended concluding lines adds to this, leaving the reader to ponder over the possibilities this scene might reach if the writer allowed it to take course. Such a methodical precision, as done here, requires restraint and is impressive.

As a Writer of Color, I understand the complexities involved in incorporating cultural references that wider readership may not be familiar with. The question is compounded by the brevity of micro-fiction and flash: the where, when and how much of it so as not to swamp the spinal storyline within the skeletal scope. Lucy Zhang does that with aplomb, starting with the Lantern Festival, and carrying it onwards with the mention of tangyuan, sesame paste and rice balls. “How We Were Born”, for me, works on multiple levels and is highly recommended as a study in form and structure.

It is also very important to remember that cultural/socio-political references should ideally transcend boundaries if one is writing in the English language and hopes to be read and enjoyed by readers globally. Simultaneously, it does seem that native real-time experiences of culture, people and events are more important and convincing than emigrant/diaspora viewing windows to look at a place/home country. It is the voice of one that lives in that place and chronicles the nuances of life unique to a place and people that stands out to readers. Here are some more examples:

“Haori” by P Akaska, who wrote this flash piece inspired by her grandmother who was a seamstress in Japan. “A Primo Place to Stay” by Melissa Llanes Brownlee that explores home in Hawaii, with sensory details and the connections to a mother. And, what can I say about “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid? In this piece, which runs to just a couple of pages, a mother offers advice to her teenage daughter about how to behave like a proper woman. Originally published in the New Yorker (1978), the setting – as Kincaid has subsequently pointed out – is Antigua, the Caribbean island where she was born and raised, and the reference to numerous local foods, such as okra, salt fish, and dasheen, all hint at the story’s Caribbean setting.

PROMPTS

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 1: Pick a popular tourist place of the country you are a native of. Set your story in that place.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 2: Summon a character from the history of your region/country. Conjure up a conversation with that charcter. Tell your flash through dialogues only.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 3: A family must decide what to take with them when they need to permanently leave their home in an emergency (war/air strike/disease/famine/civic unrest/wildfire etc). Recount that scene as a work of flash fiction, and bring forth heritage, identity, language and culture through what they pick up and pack in.

FLASH FICTIONEER SPOTLIGHT:

The spotlight is on Jude Higgins (short listed for The Bridport Prize, runs the Bath Flash Fiction Awards, co-runs Bath Short Story Award and directs the short fiction press, Ad Hoc Fiction and Flash Fiction Festivals, U.K). Because we’re talking authentic cultural reference points in this blogpost, may I point you to Jude Higgin’s excellent stories in Flash 500, Storgy, and EllipsisZine, to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

SUBMISSION SPOTLIGHT:

Free to submit magazines & open in March: Splonk, MicroLit Almanac, Barren Magazine, Ruby Literary, The Minnesota Review, Passages North, Parentheses Journal, Heavy Feather Review, and JMWW

WORKSHOP NEWS:

First workshop of 2023 is

A 90 minute Online Generative Flash Fiction Workshop on Sunday March 26: 8:30 AM ET/2:30 PM BST/7:00 PM IST

Description: Flash Fiction brings to mind something like coffee. Perfectly blended. Strong. Served fast and fresh. As a rapid generative session, sit with a cup of coffee, and before it gets cold, we’ll tap into everyday trifles and memories to quickly write five stories. Expect to experiment and have fun with unusual cultural prompts and published diverse stories to draw inspiration from.

Click here to read what previous participants of this workshop had to say!

PRO-TIP OF THE MONTH

An acceptance does not mean publication. Nor does a paying publication mean payment. There’s many a slip between the cup and lip. You’ll come across many such cases in public domain shared by writers themselves. Just make sure you’re aware of what you are getting into, trust the people at the helm but apply caution. Look for red flags such as: a) errratic scheduling of Issues b) Says paying on Twitter but no such thing in their submission guidelines page (recently withdrew an essay because of this ambiguity c) In the acknowledgement email of your work, the editor offers services or requests purchases, and d) Does not state any time frame either for publication or payment in their About/submission page.

Thanks for reading!
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SURREAL OPENINGS

January 31st, 2023

My 8yo son and I watch YouTube recipe videos a lot. It’s baffling how the same dish is prepared in a wide variety of styles, the host of one often sharing a process that might be diametrically opposite to the next video! Like ‘Wash basmati rice and soak for 30 minutes’, and the other says ‘Do not wash the rice’!?? I get impatient… only to realize that we now have these videos to choose for ourselves when earlier we’d blindly follow one or the other recipe handed down to us by family or friends! Similarly, it’s fascinating how aspects of writing are interpreted widely, and there’s actually no rule. Alas, beginnners like me realize it pretty late. Read all, but follow your own — That might be a good advice if I had it sooner! Reading craft essays are like following recipes — know them all and then choose what fits for the plot you’ve in mind. You may read my craft essays and articles in other publications where I’ve discussed aspects of flash fiction and writing in general.

For the first blogpost of 2023, I am exploring surreal openings. Fit to talk about openings in January, isn’t it? You must’ve heard how crucial they are, and how they decide the piece’s fate in an editor’s mind one way or the other. Let me not scare you any more than saying they are as significant as, say — the final paragraph, or as the middle, or as a thought or universality slipped in, or as a memorable character. In short, it’s doing its job! Like everything else. For openings, I look no further than to question myself: Is it grounding the reader into the narraative by firmly pointing to one of these?

*Place

*Character

*Setting

*Genre

*Time period

*Point of conflict/tension

For me, it must do at least one of the above. Two or more, even better!

Now, what do I call ‘surreal openings’? Surreal openings are ones that are not mere statements. Instead they’re enquiring, inquisitive, throw and bounce around possibilities, open up a vast field and range where the writer could ‘theoretically’ take the narrative to.

My Auntie Cheeks moved in with us when I was around the age memories start to stick. She brought with her no belongings and made no requests except one: “Put me there,” she said, pointing the yellow nail of her forefinger to underneath the kitchen sink. *	This introduction immediately pulls the reader in. Who is Auntie Cheeks? (note the peculiar name!) and ponder over the strange request. I’m sure you’ll click and read te rest of the piece.
That summer, everything was pregnant.**	Intriguing! The question is what is ‘everything’ and why? Field of possiblilities!
“She jumped out of perfectly good planes,” the cutler, Ting, says to me in Mandarin as she wraps freshly sharpened knives inside folds of butcher paper for the customers of her seafood and cutlery shop, Fish Cuts.#	Again, myriad ways this narrative can be spun into — sad, funny, fantastical, weird… And , the reader is immediately pulled in to know more.
“So,” the imprisoned alien asked me, flanked by a semi-circle of scented candles, religious ornaments and protection wards, “what did you do to get sent out here?” @	So many things are told rightaway, though it doesn’t read like some info dump. Notice the clever use of the question & the word ‘imprisoned’ to qualify the ‘alien’.

*”Auntie Cheeks” BY Renée Jessica Tan

**Egg BY Nikki Ervice

#Inheritance BY Nancy Au

@ “A Love Like Bruises” BY Jeremy Szal

Surreal openings are also those that stand out for sheer beauty of the weave of words. Like this one: I’d been hired to guide children’s bodies through air—kids shot through my palms mid-vault, my hands glancing torqued torsos, the horizontal fling of flexed ambitions. “Where Everyone is a Star” BY Ashley Farmer

Many experts say that even if the launching lines are about a conflict, it is the protagonist’s humane side that must be shown so readers might identify with the character’s goals as the story progresses. I tend to agree with this. Let’s depart from the nuances of flashfiction to usher in this opening from a novel: This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time. (Mitch Albom’s ‘The Five People You Meet in Heaven’). So, great openings, are meant to be surreal in the broadest sense of the word, and to jolt the reader into attention, and to demand their time.

I hope the next time you read a story and love it, just take a minute to return to its opening and see what exactly pulled you in to invest in the piece.

PROMPTS

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 1: A first line that reveals your protagonist’s name, age, location and a hint that helps to establish the time period the story is set in.

DIFFICULTY LVEL 2: i) A first line that opens with a relationship in turmoil (eg. mother-daughter, father-son, sibling rivalry). Use the additional metaphor of the setting of a confined space (room, library, restuarant etc.) to set the piece in.

ii) A list of ingredients in a recipe format flash story. Read this example.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 3: Start with a simple dialogue where the protagonist is spoken about in a conversation between two other people.

FLASH FICTIONEER SPOTLIGHT:

January’s spotlighted author is Laura Besley. When I started reading and writing flash fiction, Laura Besley was one of the first writers I read. Laura was also one of the first 5 people I followed on Twitter when I joined it. She is an expert in brevity, whether 20-odd words for Haunted Passages, or her 50 and 100 word stories, such brief tales can’t work without one smashing opening line that encapsulates setting, character and more. Read some of Laura’s stories in Reflex Fiction, Selcouth Station, Citron Review and 101words to discover the magic of openings in very short-short stories.

WATCH OUT FOR:

Rashi Rohatgi’s novella, Sita in Exile. Rashi is the Fiction editor of Waxwing magazine. I first connected with Rashi because of this piece in Jellyfish Review — a must read in my opinion. Rashi’s novella will be released in May, 2023 by Miami University Press. Know more about Rashi.

SUBMISSION SPOTLIGHT

Writers love FREE submission windows, so do I! Places that open for FREE submissions on February 1 are Lost Balloon Magazine, Gordon Square Review, The Citron Review (mini Issue), DASH Literary Journal (open now), Skein Press, Ghost City Press (microchap), Stonecoast (opens Feb 5), Atticus Review (FREE on the 1st), and Shenandoah (opens Feb 6).

WORKSHOP NEWS

First workshop of 2023 is

A 90 minute Online Generative Flash Fiction Workshop on Sunday March 26: 8:30 AM ET/2:30 PM BST/7:00 PM IST

Description: Flash Fiction brings to mind something like coffee. Perfectly blended. Strong. Served fast and fresh. As a rapid generative session, sit with a cup of coffee, and before it gets cold, we’ll tap into everyday trifles and memories to quickly write five stories. Expect to experiment and have fun with unusual cultural prompts and published diverse stories to draw inspiration from.

Click here to read what previous participants of this workshop had to say!

PRO-TIP OF THE MONTH

Finally, the pro-tip of the month! A rejected piece is not a bad piece. It means your idea is great but the prose needs work OR Your submission went to the wrong magazine OR Your submission made it through many rounds but they just had too many and couldn’t fit it OR The piece is meant to stay unpublished and later find a place in that collection you’ll write one day!

WRITERS’ WINTER FAIR 2022: Top 10 Flash Stories of the Year

December 22nd, 2022
And why I love them

I’m a Writer of Color, untrained, live outside the traditional publishing hubs, and all my learning comes from reading. The Writing Community has been extremely generous to me. To pay it back in my very small way, I wrote about four flash fiction writers and their styles for Writers’ Winter Fair 2021 aiming to help writers like me who might benefit from those writers’ art and process. This time I organized a poll, and out of 4 choices, Top 10 Flash won. So here are my top ten stories from the year, pieces that teach a lot about structure, theme and imagery, apart from being excellently crafted. Ignore the numbers on the left — they are in no way rankings — they are there because I loved the images! Happy Reading!

“The Emergency” by Frances Ogamba

Why I like it? The marvellous opening! True to the title, Frances begins with ’emergency’, creating a breathless urgency and continues to build layers to this narrative. Plus, love the background of this piece, the reflection of underpriviledge, and the unique takes, like this one: “The room is a pursed mouth…”

“Drowning on Main Street” by Amy Cipolla Barnes

Why I like it? This piece actually edged out another contender from my list because it’s so well structured! It plays with the trust factor in a mother-daughter relationship, and stands out because of what it leaves off the page: “…does the mother continue with wobbly lies to protect the narrator because she feels the stories are better than the truth?”

“Dad Paddles In” by Teddy Engs

Why I like it? I’d venture to say this piece pulls a lot despite its tiny size, both in terms of structure (one-sentence wonder) and the emotions it is able to evoke.

“Passion” by Melissa Ostrom

Why I like it? Consider this: “All day, she enjoyed this significant otherness, this double-selfness. ” Melissa weaves intrigue, and universal dilemmas and truths in this brief but deeply insightful story. Check it out!

“in ache” by Melisa Llanes Brownlee

Why I like it? This tiny piece is a perfect example of how to braid language and culture into your writing and make it universal. I am awed by just how much Melissa manages to include in this tight compression.

“How We Were Born” by Lucy Zhang

Why I like it? Again, I love the voice here, and the unusual setting, very rooted in culture and beliefs. Check out this line: I tell Brother he is more beautiful than the golden crow who burns earth with radiation and explosive flares, who incinerates us, and upon its disappearance, freezes us.

“Certain European Movies” by Emma Cline

Why I like it? The unpredictable twists in the narrative and the ending.

“Fires Near Me” by Faye Brinsmead

Why I like it? “I fell into a pixel-flimsy dream. Disco goats with burning hooves bleating pe-rish pe-rish pe-rish to the tune of Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! ” Check out the superbly done edge-of-the-seat tension and the ending.

“CHAW” by Rosaleen Lynch

Why I like it? The intriguing title, and of course the fab use of the shell in a hermit-crab style flash fiction.

“Little Socks” by Brecht De Poortere

Why I like it? I’d suggest you read it in one flow, dwell on the mesmerising details and be awed by the impactful end. Nominated for Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction.

There were easily 10 more that I could not include in this list for no reason other than paucity of space (and because it was mandated to make this a Top 10 list!). I feel so bad about this. Apologies. I look forward to include the shortlisted pieces in my upcoming craft blogposts in 2023! Thank you!
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Anatomy of a Debut Chapbook

November 25th, 2022
Hi friends, I write to you to share the anatomy of a debut chapbook. Now where to start? As you may already know, I enjoy writing prose, particularly flash fiction. Two-thirds of my published pieces are under 1000 word fiction pieces, yet it was destiny that my debut collection should be of poems. (Btw, my first ever published piece was a poem too!). This ocassion demanded a celebration which I wanted to share with lit community. Hence this blogpost. You may have read an earlier post I published about how to compile a collection of one’s work — theme, structure, title, etc. My collection grew on those lines, focussing on the lives of people in small-town India, their struggles, conflicts, and hopes. Interestingly, Fahmidan Publishing picked up my chapbook around that very time and yet, none of my analysis/study prepared me for what awaited. Farah shared images of the cover as it took shape, and the collection was really coming together! Friends, it is overwhelming to find readers (who had an advance copy) tell you they enjoyed the collection, sharing words of generous praise. Then came the advance reviews. First up, came an interview with David L O’Nan in Fevers of the Mind, which fatefully, was about my writing journey — how it started, till the chapbook! Sara Dobbie’s review appeared next, also in Fevers of the Mind. Describing the chapbook, Dobbie writes, “…is a study in provincial struggle, both heart-warming and wrenching at varying points. From the first lines of the title poem Pattnaik takes us by the hand to guide us with stunning imagery through the small-town India of her heart and memory.” I cried after reading it. It meant so much. Daniel Clark, editor of Briefly Zine, published another extremely kind review on November 16, titled “Weathering Words”. Daniel Clark’s concluding paragraph is especially touching: “Mandira’s keen descriptive eye and vivid imagery convert the twists and turns of doubt into an enriching journey. Navigating ‘the fog of | yesterday’ and ‘the palm of tomorrow’ could be a précis of the ongoing COP27 negotiations. Her climate warning is stark – and her poems are a reminder of the beauty and richness of life on our planet.” A nod to how thoughts and dreams resonate and bind us in invisible threads across countries and continents. I’m most grateful. Universal Journal described the collection as “kaleidoscopic” adding, “poems, with chunks of words so intricately woven that one is compelled to take a pause, close the eyes and see it, feel it.” These magnanimous words served to reinforce the palette I’ve long been working with: the colors and images of India — the diversity in culture, scenery and people. If you’re looking to read (or gift your friends) a total experience about a place and people that is so varied, and written by a writer living and observing it every day, the chap is available HERE. It’s digital, so no hassles of postage! Now, the best was saved for last: Until the chap’s launch on November 20, I hadn’t discovered the blurbs Maria S.Picone, Christina Taylor and Keana Aguila Labra had so kindly written for the collection, reproduced below. From when I read them first, and still, I’m at a loss to express how grateful I am. Finally, one of the first people who had bought the collection, shared their reading experience: “An emotional collection flush with beautiful language.” All this is the anatomy of a debut collection! If you’ve published a debut chapbook this year, do share below, and add your experience. And, consider purchasing a copy to support an independent press. That’s all for now, friends! Thanks!
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COLLECTIONS

September 28th, 2022
A VIDEO ESSAY!

HOW TO CREATE A SEAMLESS COLLECTION OF PUBLISHED/UNPUBLISHED PROSE OR POETRY PIECES

Hey friends, Thank you for following me on this very beautiful journey as I learnt so much about writing and craft, explored new things on the way and shared through my craft essay series. “Collections” is the last craft essay blogpost of the series. See you with a new series in 2023. Meanwhile, happy writing, happy publishing!
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10 Things About Poetry You Didn’t Know

August 27th, 2022
Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. — Plato

We know nothing about poetry. Or we know everything! Hey, isn’t poetry the most natural human response? I oscillate from one response to the other. Two-thirds of my published writing of over 200 pieces, is prose, and yet, my debut chapbook will be a collection of poems! I guess it’s not as much a surprise to my editors as it is to me, because I’ve consistently been told my prose is “rhythmic” and “lyrical”. Only recently did I discover (and explore in my trampset columns) how prose and poetry aren’t as delinked as I thought. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner influenced Mary Shelley’s imagination. Michael Ondaatje, Sri Lanka-born Canadian novelist, began his career with poetry (The Dainty Monsters, 1967), but is better known as the author of the acclaimed novel The English Patient (1992). Here are 10 things prose writers may not know about poetry and vice-versa:

1. “Poem” comes from the Greek poíēma, meaning a “thing made,” and a poet is defined in ancient terms as “a maker of things.” So a poem is a thing made. Prose comes from the Latin “prosa oratio,” meaning “straightforward.”

2. The longest poem in the world is Mahabharata, an Indian epic ‘narrative’ poem which has around 1.8 million words. Kisari Mohun Ganguli was the first to translate the Sanskrit epic into English. The complete translation was published in Calcutta between 1883 and 1896.

3. Poetry is a dispatch. Poetry suspends time. Fiction never happened. Poetry happened many times over. If it’s a poem, the poet must have experienced it. Well, that’s public perception! Readers tend to identify with poets a lot more than fiction writers, and everything they write must have happened, of course!

4. If you are a poet, you’ll always be a poet. Poets are the ones who see the truth first. They won’t let the world sleep. It is the love of the language, greater than anything else, and words of empathy and sensitivity.

5. Studying poetry makes you a better prose writer, according to one study. Among the things it lists (as you get to learn from studying poetry): a) Rhythmic structure b) Vocabulary, formal words vs. colloquial words c) visual imagery d) sense of sound without reading aloud

6. Identity/self as a theme in poetry isn’t new or contemporary as believed. It existed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Contemplative musings have centered around questioning one’s place in the society and/or identity conflicts. However, one aspect of such poems that have gained recent popularity is the element of angst, sense of injustice, and rousing call to action. Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise”, for example, ends with: I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.

7. Villanelles originated from Italian and Spanish folk songs with country or rustic themes and accompanying dances The popular poetry form Villanelles are built around one or more refrains, which means entire phrases get repeated throughout the poem. This makes them more song-like than most other poems, but also more repetitive. Successful villanelles are extremely rare due to the immense weight placed upon the refrains, which must therefore be strong enough to carry an entire poem on their own.

8. A short narrative poem that uses stanzas is called a ballad. Earliest ones were recorded before the Greek alphabet was invented, around 800 BC. Ballad is a sub-group of narrative poem. A narrative poem is a poem that tells a story. Another definition of ballad is a popular narrative song passed down orally. They are memorised by heart, tell heroic, tragic or dramatic stories, rhyme beautifully, and are set to music. For example, Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee.”

9. 66% OF POETRY BOOK BUYERS ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 34 According to one reading statistics, 66% poetry book buyers are under the age of 34. It follows, poetry on topics relatable to young people in their 20s and 30s sell more. Themes that address love, death, restlessness, beauty/desire, body, identity/self, resonate with most poetry fans.

10. Novel and short story collections have lost out in recent trends of adult reading habits, but the popularity of poetry collections has risen, according to recent data available, shows a Submittable study on publishing industry trends. Poetry happens to be genre du jour among people of color at the moment.

Hope you enjoyed this post. If you’re a writer undecided between prose and poetry, I suggest you do both!

As always, Happy Reading, Happy Writing. Please share this article so others may enjoy it and subscribe below for more posts like this. Thank you!

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