It's a delicious Monday for poets. Today is the official launch of the First Water, the first print anthology from Pirene's Fountain. I'm lucky to have a poem in it, alongside poets I much admire, such as Kim Addonizio, Jane Hirshfield, Paul Hostovsky, Dorianne Laux, and J.P. Dancing Bear. Thank you, Ami Kaye and the Glass Pyre Press/Pirene's Fountain staff. Can't wait to get my copy!
The evolution of this wonderful online journal into a journal, anthologies, and print book-publishing is interesting. A number of online journals now have started out with one or two publisher/editors, expanded, gathered a following, increased their visibility, tested the waters with one print anthology, and then launched a book publishing wing.
As a poet and writer, I ask myself more often lately whether I want a piece to land in print or online. So much of my network of friends and readers is online, and so few subscribe to print journals (and usually not the ones I wind up in!). If it weren't for the idea that "print is more prestigious" (to whom?), I would give up publishing in print except in book form.
But the happiest form of publishing, in my view, is an online periodical that can support occasional print publishing.
So congratulations, Glass Lyre Press/Pirene's Fountain! Wishing you many years of success and joy in the work.