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Phillip B. Williams

15 Feb, 11 tweets, 2 min read

https://twitter.com/chayab77/status/1361320641228664835

I'll see what I can do:

1.) You might as well start getting your stuff together now. If you will be applying with a book, get all the information about the book now (publication date, publisher, publisher address, ISBN).

https://twitter.com/chayab77/status/1361320641228664835

2. If you are applying with pieces (I think you need 15 poems published in no longer than 5 years; I'm not sure how many stories you'll need for prose), get your pieces together by journal, website if online, page number, journal address (what am I missing?).

3. Make sure the poems you plan on sending don't have your name anywhere within the file. Your name should not appear anywhere in the file. Just mark that for when the time comes. Keep your name out your files unless otherwise stated lol

4. Make sure your email address and phone number are up to date. They will call you. I had an old number listed. No idea why. They found me, though, via email. Make sure your information is current.

5. Send your best work. Whatever you think that may be. It is subjective. You never know who is on the panel and I believe there are five people on the creative writing panels. Make sure there are no typos and that your formatting is correct.

6.) Follow. All. Instructions. That is the part, I believe, that trips people up. You do one thing wrong and it gives a reason to disqualify you immediately. And you can't be too mad about it cause them's the rules. Do not double or triple check. Quintuple check.

7. Submit it then forget about it. That is the easiest way to manage through the year after having applied. Submit and quit. Try not to dwell on it.

8. Try not to ask previous recipients for their materials. It will not help you and it is taxing on those you've asked. Imagine digging into a hard drive for something you submitted two years ago. Naw, you gotta chill. They sent their work. You send yours.

9. I cannot say this enough: follow all the rules. I promise they will disqualify you if you spell your own name wrong lolol. I have no evidence of this, but I feel it in my heart to be true.

10. Oh, when they ask you what you are working toward (as in what project you are currently working on) don't spend too much time on this. Two sentences will do. I cannot remember what I wrote but it was something about the book I was working on (name, themes, poetic style, etc).

That's all I got! I hope this is helpful. I applied four times before getting one. That's eight years. I don't say that to be discouraging, you just never know what might happen. It's monetarily free to apply (time is currency for many ppl) so I kept applying.

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More from @PBW_Poet

Phillip B. Williams

@PBW_Poet

23 Nov 20

I will say this about Ocean Vuong and metaphor gate. For the first time in my life I was called a f*gg*t while walking with a friend downtown. I do not say this for sympathy or kind words. Black trans women get treated worse every day with hardly any support or kindness. I'm good

I only share that experience because it happened concurrently with metaphor-gate. So here is a metaphor: logging on to Twitter to see poets treating another queer poet like a moron over an IG post was an eclipse over already-dark water.

I have made the mistake of thinking poets are better people than most. It is a mistake I learn from constantly when it seems the intellectualization of our insecurities, entitlement, and resentment overrule any acknowledgement that maybe we need to rethink why we write.

Read 17 tweets

Phillip B. Williams

@PBW_Poet

16 Nov 20

Poetry Ramblings: Maybe all poems are...

1. love poems: for what words can do, for a reader to whom trust is given that the poet's vulnerability will not be shrugged off. Eros as physical affection, as fingers to keyboard, graphite to page, inhale, exhale, sweat. A sharing.

2. self-portraits. The particularities of the speaker as rendered by a self in flux because forced into/out of hiding. How do poems reveal the self but how they reveal their material(s)?

3. first person poems, inasmuch as the existence of an "eye," and observer regardless of position, there too is an "I." That the "he" or "we" or "you" is more "universal" assumes the artist has the godlike ability to render reality *for* someone other than their self.

Read 12 tweets

Phillip B. Williams

@PBW_Poet

7 May 20

Do NOT do what this poet did (I removed the name. My point matters more). It's a shame, because I love this poet's work, have supported it in various ways. But this ignorance of race has expired. Meanwhile, this poet recently awarded a man for a prize. Inconsistency.

First, I hope this won't be a moment where to be told you've done something racist is claimed to be as/more offensive, damning, heartbreaking than the instance of racism. I don't have time. I have books on the subject in which you may indulge, if only you'd take us seriously.

What's true is the presumed focus: there have been no winners who are trans or non-binary. However; this is not actually what she is pointing to by nature of bringing up this issue on the 366th day, the day of Brown's win, out of 365 (and more) other possible days.

Read 25 tweets

Phillip B. Williams

@PBW_Poet

31 Oct 18

If your press isn't treating your poetry right, talk to the editor. Sometimes there are things they simply can't do but they can make up for it in other ways. But, if a press isn't supporting your book or you as the author and is unwilling to hear you out, then you have to fight.

Thing is, it's intimidating to take on an entire press. What if you have to pull your book or what if they continue to sabotage you by not fulfilling print runs on time or not sending your book to prizes? What if the slow responses to emails become no response at all?

You have a contract. Make sure before you sign it that it has basic requirements in it that not only protect the press and your copyright, but also you as an author. Here are a few things you can do early on to secure your position as a writer.

Read 25 tweets

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