internationalism through e-zines & the electric non-being of the web
to the e-zine i edit (moriapoetry.com), visitors come from roughly 40 countries a month. they read and submit works. i have had submissions in the past two months from india, japan, canada, the united states, the czech republic, france, poland, and australia—that's just to name the countries i remember off the top of my head. in traditional publication settings, i.e. paper, such wide distribution and readership is not possible due to, among other things, cost. for roughly $20 dollars a month, the e-zine can reach a mass market. hopefully, the wide distribution also helps to foster experimental poetics; the readership and e-mails that i receive would suggest that. what i mean is that i have started conversations and friendships with poets in diverse parts of the world through e-mail. i have no idea how old they are, what they look like, or what they do for a living, but i do know that they are interested in experimental poetics. the great poetic/artistic centers of the past, like paris, seem less significant as centers now that the outpost have a medium to find distribution. when i started moria, i was living in baton rouge—hardly an artistic hub. i could of course find gluck, strand, and clampitt in the dwindling hometown bookstores, but i had to order experimental poetry through the mail. my move to chicago made no difference in terms of the amount or quality of the submissions that i receive.
i have many questions about internationalism and electronic space.
Questions:
1) does this decentering of the artistic centers inspire poets who might not get interested in experimental poetry if they had not had access to it via the web?
2) do experimental e-zines only encourage readers who are already interested in experimental poetry to read them?
3) who are some international poets that could be used to make an argument about e-space?
4) are experimental e-zines becoming the new centers for experimental poetry? can they become the new centers?
5) how many people read e-zines as they would print sources?
to the e-zine i edit (moriapoetry.com), visitors come from roughly 40 countries a month. they read and submit works. i have had submissions in the past two months from india, japan, canada, the united states, the czech republic, france, poland, and australia—that's just to name the countries i remember off the top of my head. in traditional publication settings, i.e. paper, such wide distribution and readership is not possible due to, among other things, cost. for roughly $20 dollars a month, the e-zine can reach a mass market. hopefully, the wide distribution also helps to foster experimental poetics; the readership and e-mails that i receive would suggest that. what i mean is that i have started conversations and friendships with poets in diverse parts of the world through e-mail. i have no idea how old they are, what they look like, or what they do for a living, but i do know that they are interested in experimental poetics. the great poetic/artistic centers of the past, like paris, seem less significant as centers now that the outpost have a medium to find distribution. when i started moria, i was living in baton rouge—hardly an artistic hub. i could of course find gluck, strand, and clampitt in the dwindling hometown bookstores, but i had to order experimental poetry through the mail. my move to chicago made no difference in terms of the amount or quality of the submissions that i receive.
i have many questions about internationalism and electronic space.
Questions:
1) does this decentering of the artistic centers inspire poets who might not get interested in experimental poetry if they had not had access to it via the web?
2) do experimental e-zines only encourage readers who are already interested in experimental poetry to read them?
3) who are some international poets that could be used to make an argument about e-space?
4) are experimental e-zines becoming the new centers for experimental poetry? can they become the new centers?
5) how many people read e-zines as they would print sources?
Comments