1/ Part I
2/ If you write poems you are a poet. #pobiz
3/ Just because you write poems does not mean they are good. #pobiz
4/ Large, gate-keeping institutions are not radical. #pobiz
5/ Giving monetary compensation or publicity opportunities to “radical” poets does not make a large, gate-keeping institution radical. #pobiz
6/ Accepting monetary compensation or publicity opportunities from a large, gatekeeping institution weakens the radicalness of a poet. #pobiz
7/ Not liking, enjoying, or reading work is not equivalent to thinking it is unimportant or shouldn’t be read or published. #pobiz
8/ Personal taste does not eclipse societal importance; societal importance is not the only way to evaluate work. #pobiz
9/ Choosing to make one’s personal social media space about oneself and not plugging the work of poets of one or another school or sect to which you may or may not belong, does not make you a bad member of the “poetry community.” #pobiz
10/ Choosing to use your space and voice to uplift writers who are not receiving recognition, necessarily at the cost of lauding the already-lauded, does not mean you hate the work or the already-lauded; it does not mean you are bitter. #pobiz
11/ Being bitter is okay. #pobiz
12/ The American poetry “community” is a professional network not a community on which every member as an independent individual can depend for specific and unique support. #pobiz
13/ Poetry communities are the poets you live near or choose to spend time with, share work with; the 1000+ poets you can connect to on social media are not a community. #pobiz
14/ You owe nothing to a poet you’ve never met and should not expect anything from poets you don’t know personally when, out of the blue, you ask them for something. #pobiz
15/ Saying no to opportunities, even with organizations or poets you respect, does not make you a “bad member of the community.” #pobiz
16/ Criticizing the work of an individual poet is not condemnation of the communities/demographics of which that poet is part. #pobiz
17/ Hustling hard does not make a poet or their work necessarily deserving of praise. #pobiz
18/ Book prizes are not a scam; book prizes do take advantage of writers. #pobiz
19/ Saying poems that focus on identity are trendy doesn’t mean they aren’t important; saying they are important does not mean they aren’t part of a recognizable publishing trend. #pobiz
20/ Most people who post pictures of books or galleys on social media have never and will never actually finish that book. #pobiz
21/ As an industry within the capitalist system, Pobiz is prone to economic scarcity. #pobiz
22/ If you are seeking to publish, you are part of Pobiz. #pobiz
23/ By choosing the work of one poet over another, institutions and publications necessarily leave out the work of other poets. #pobiz
24/ When institutions tend to favor the same individuals over and over (with economic and social capital) this necessarily excludes other poets who do not just feel left out, but are actively left out and unsupported by institutions. #pobiz
25/ Calling out this exclusion is not the same as saying the poets already receiving support are not doing good, important work worthy of that support. #pobiz
26/ Calling out this exclusion is highlighting the need for a greater diversity of support sources, methods of, and purposes for distributing support. #pobiz
27/ Fees are inherently classist (and so necessarily misogynist, racist, transphobic, ableist etc.). #pobiz
28/ Non-paying publications are exploitative. #pobiz
29/ Praising work with hyperbole (“this is the best book of the year,” “_____ is literally the best poet writing in the country right now.”) is unbelievable and cheapens the overall critical discourse surrounding contemporary poetry. #pobiz
30/ Publishing widely and often does not make a poet better than other poets; publications should be aware when poets are (perhaps) over-publishing and make space for other voices. #pobiz
