I was worried that when I finished my MFA, I would no longer have anyone to critique my work, and I imagined myself falling into a dark, cobwebby hole of unpublishable poems that I didn’t know how to fix.  Since then, some of my fellow student poets and I have made a pact to stick together and continue sharing and commenting on work, even though they all live in Washington and I’m here in New Jersey.  The Internet makes virtual critique groups easy.

My current issue, however, is that I have this manuscript that my virtual critique group have already seen and commented extensively on and, while their comments were helpful as always, they’ve seen many of the poems so many times and in so many drafts that it’s become hard to be objective.  I need a fresh pair of eyes to help me turn “thesis” into “publishable manuscript that will leave contest judges sockless all over the country.”  Luckily, such a person has come along.  A long-time reader of my other (anonymous, non-poetry) blog and I have been chatting via email for a few months and playing the odd game of Word Twist on Facebook.   She’s a poet, too, a few years ahead of me in her writing career, but (I think) we’re more or less peers.  We’ve both got manuscripts we want to publish, so she suggested we trade and comment.  I am ridiculously happy to have someone to swap with.  And if the quality of her comments is as high as the quality of the poems I’ve read so far in her manuscript, I’ll be in good shape.  (No pressure, though, LC.  Ha.)

Not only that, but yet another blog-reader poet friend has offered information on workshops that specifically address getting a manuscript into the best possible shape for publication.  I think I will look into that.  Has anyone ever been to one?  If so, I’d love to hear your impressions.

Meanwhile, today I bought my ticket to the Academy of American Poets’ 2008 Poets Forum in NYC.  This is one of the reasons I love living near New York.  I don’t know how I’m going to wait until November.