So Much Salsa, No Chips
So Many Chips, No Salsa
A recent edition of Poets & Writers magazine
asked over a dozen independent, mostly poetry, publishers
their “single greatest challenge in 2005.” So
many of the answers—“expand our presence,”
“getting the public to read,” etc.—pointed
to the lack of interest Americans have in poetry.
This at a time when the number of people writing poetry is
exploding. According to the Association of Writers & Writing
Programs, there are now over 300 MFA programs in North America,
producing, by another estimate, 10,000 graduates a year. Assuming
half of these are for poetry, that comes to 25,000 newly degreed
poets in just the last five years. Whenever I ask MFA candidates
what they plan on doing with their degrees, I only get two
responses: 1) publish the manuscripts they wrote as final
projects 2) teach in an MFA program. Neither of these, for
the vast majority, will happen.
One thing they aren’t doing is buying books. We know
this from articles like that one in Poets & Writers.
We know this from all the presses who report their totals
for books sold are eclipsed by manuscripts received. Serious
poets read a few hundred books of poetry for each one they
write. Which is why all the new competition shouldn’t
be intimidating to serious poets: much of that competition
is not reading.
The other thing they’re not doing is using their skills
in unselfish ways that benefit poetry. If that sounds like
an abstract undertaking, consider the most fertile soil for
growing a poetry culture: schoolchildren—already natural
lovers of poetry, until they get Mrs. Crabtree. Mrs. Crabtree
is the grade school or high school English teacher almost
all of us had who does a really good job ruining poetry. Precious
few English teachers are literate in poetry; hardly any are
practicing writers. I don’t know if the tens of thousands
of recently anointed poets are qualified to teach in MFA programs,
but many are eminently qualified to replace Mrs. Crabtree,
and grow a real poetry readership in our country—a task
which need not get in the way of publishing their own writing.
For the sake of argument, let’s say 25,000 Americans
with MFAs in poetry taught 25 students a year over the next
five years: we would be cultivating 3,125,000 readers of poetry.
A real legacy.
