it’s troublesome, honey

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Jilly Dybka is a poet who lives in Tennessee and writes a blog called The Poetry Hut. Usually it’s mainly a list of links to poetry-related news items, but this week Jilly’s the news. In a “disputation” on the “po-biz,” the publication contests in the US, where you pay to get your manuscript considered for publication, the MFA system qualifying people to write poetry and teach creative writing, so their students can then get an MFA – or, as she says, “(get MFA) + (spend thou$and$ on iffy book contests) = ~possibly a book hardly anyone will read anyway & the slim chance of getting a teaching job” – she eventually comes down to what she thinks it’s really all about, and why she has self-published.

“Meanwhile that machine keeps rumbling along vrrrr creak vrrrr creak so then I think, well, I guess I really am, obviously, the jackass, here. Plus once I got my MFA and learned the tools of poetry I was fine with that. (Thankyouthankyou teachers.) OK now use them. Not interested in going to more workshops, though there are many poets I admire. How many workshops do you need to attend before you feel your poetry has become valid or acceptable or worthy or whatever? That also makes me feel like a jackass. I don’t know, maybe people think workshopping is fun & enjoy it. I don’t. Just sit your self in a chair and write. Repeat and repeat.”

You can download Jilly’s book, Trouble and Honey, here . Or buy it.

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