Arts

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IGNITING YOUR SPARK

A mighty flame followeth a tiny spark.
—Dante

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There is a quiet spark of an idea in each writer, especially as winter approaches. You will be aware of this as something that wants to come out.

You may think that you must wait until you have something to say—an idea, an insight, or something known. When I feel this way, I start writing onto the page, whatever is on my mind. I often journal this way, until I have the germ of an idea. Then, I start writing in a more focused way and eventually, it evolves into a poem. For you, it may be an essay, short story, or even a novel.

Much of what you write may be totally unusable, incoherent, but then eventually something important emerges – your unique way of seeing things from your singular and distinctive life.

I was in the state of looking for a new project when I traveled to Costa Rica in winter three years ago. It was there that I met the Norwegian artist, Irene Christensen, who was doing a series of paintings on women at the heart of the environmental movement. I fell in love with these paintings and started writing poem responses to them. The paintings were the spark I needed at that time.

That’s how Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth developed. The dread is what’s happening to the environment. The splendor is the paintings and poems that developed. This book will be published by Shanti Arts Press in January 2026 (www.ShantiArts.com.)

Whatever inspires you, follow your spark a a writer, and you will find your inspiration and next project there. Follow me here monthly as I report about writing, inspiration, and the progress of my new book.

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Starting the Writing Process

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Whether you’ve had six books published or you are a new writer, getting started can be a challenge. Writing is a process, not merely a product. The quality of your writing will be reflected in the thought and time you put into it.

Having a deadline can be helpful. If you have an editor waiting for your final draft or you have an assignment due, this is a motivation. If you don’t, you can set one for yourself. I often do.

Planning ahead is a good place to start. Sn outline is even better. You don’t have to actually write, you can just think about what you want to say and plan ahead. When you do sit down to it, you’re that much ahead. Then schedule a few writing sessions. That way if you’re not feeling like it, or if you want some revising time, you can return to it later. I rarely finish a piece in one sitting.

Topic and audience are often interrelated. Think about what you want to say to your audience and how that informs your topic. Ask yourself who the audience is, Why is your audience interested in this topic and what do they already know, if anything, about it. What of you think your audience would/should gain from your text?

Think about the purpose of your writing. Why are you writing the piece My most recent book, a collaboration with the Norwegian artist, Irene Christensen, was inspired by her paintings about women at the heart of the environmental movement. It’s called Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth. I wanted to respond poetically to Irene’s work, but I also wanted this to raise awareness of the environmental crisis.

My new book will be out in early 2026 from Shanti Arts. I will keep you apprised of the publishing process on it. Follow me here monthly.

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I Will Be Reading from my new book Dread and Splendor at Wordshed, NYC on September 28

Come join us if you are in the area. I will be blogging again monthly about the new book.

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Putting Together a Poetry Chapbook

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If you’ve published poems in literary journals, your next step might be a poetry chapbook. A poetry chapbook is a small poetry collection that is significantly shorter than a typical printed poetry collection. Typically running in the range of 20 to 40 pages, a chapbook can be affordably published by small presses and is therefore a more economical option for emerging writers who may be financing their own book of poems. 

Some poets begin with publishing a chapbook before a full-length collection. The chapbook, due to its small size, has to be focused on a theme. Ghost Girl by Laura Madeline Wiseman is a small group of poems about memory loss. Muted: A Short Story in Verse by Jessica Bell is a narrative in poetry about whose vocal cords are brutally cut. I’m working on a manuscript about a drowned future world, Water Journey in the form of a Japanese narrative form called a Haibun. Soul Work: A Chapbook of Poems by Elizabeth Spring is about astrology.

The word chap dates back to sixteenth century England. A written account from Cambridgeshire in 1553 describes “lytle books” sold by pedlars, likely containing lyrics to sung ballads. The price of these books was low—typically a penny or a halfpenny—and they provided cheap entertainment for the masses, although there’s little evidence that the books themselves were mass produced. A “chapman” is an English word for an itinerant pedlar or tradesman.

There are several things to consider in compiling a chapbook. The first is audience. The biggest reason to write a chapbook is to reach dedicated poetry fans, a tiny but devout slice of the general population. So think about who will be reading your chapbook.

Another consideration is theme. Nearly any theme is acceptable, since your poetry chapbook should ultimately reflect your personal taste and style as a poet and showcase your best work. The theme can be almost anything, winter, New York City, nature, a poetry form like haiku.

Another thing to consider is organization. My second book, Touch My Head Softly (Finishing Line Press, 2021) was about my partner’s dying of Alzheimer’s. I organized it into three sections: before, during and after the death.

My latest collection of poetry, Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth, is due out from Shanti Arts in early 2026. Follow me here monthly as I blog about writing, the publishing process and my new book.

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Putting Together a Manuscript for a Full-Length Poetry Book

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Many poets have published in literary journals, online or print. I wrote a blog about publishing in literary journals, if you want to research my site. But if you are at the stage of having published in a number of journals, you may want to start compiling a manuscript of your poems for publication.

There are two big categories of poetry manuscripts. One is a full-length, the other is a chapbook. A full-length poetry manuscript has at least 48 pages. The important thing is that the poet feel “finished” with the manuscript. The other category, a chapbook is under 48 pages. Chapbooks tend to be more thematic, because they are smaller. But either manuscript format should fit together as a whole.

This blog will focus on the full-length poetry manuscript. The poems need to have a connecting thread. You can start by looking at your published poems and see if there is a connection. For one thing, your finished collection should have a list of acknowledgements at the end that give credit to the literary journals you have published in. If you start by considering your published work first, you have your acknowledgements at the end and also your future publisher knows there were literary journals who found your poems worthy of publication. As a general rule, about 25% of your poems should be pre-published, although this varies publisher to publisher.

To give you some examples, Mary Oliver’s American Primitive is a collection of nature poems. My second book of poems, Touch My Head Softly, is about my partner who died of Alzheimer’s. Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky, is about a town under occupation. Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds is about her divorce. American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassination by Terence Hayes is a collection unified by a single poetry form, the sonnet. Richard Silken’s Chrush is focused on stories about queer desire and loss. So think about how your poems fit together when you choose them.

So you have a theme or unifier for your collection. How do you order your poems? Ask yourself the following questions. Do the poems fit together? Do the poems feel evenly spread out? Does the subject matter grow and change over time? Do the poems offer new experiences? Do the poems play with words, form and structure?

Now that you know the poems you’ll be including and in what order, think about the format. Start with a cover sheet. This should include the title of your manuscript and if it is not a blind submission, your name, as you wish it to be published. I publish with my middle initial, so my name on a publication is Eileen P. Kennedy. Next is your address, phone number and email. A table of contents should follow, with the titles of the poems in the collection followed by the page numbers they appear on. These numbers should correspond to the page numbers of your manuscript. The manuscript should be followed by the acknowledgements we discussed earlier.

I followed this organization when I complied my upcoming manuscript Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth. It is about women at the heart of the environmental crisis and will be published by Shanti Arts in early 2026. Follow me here as I blog more about manuscripts and the publishing process. I will blog once a month.

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Reflecting on Your Writing

I like to reflect on my writing, the drafts that did and didn’t make it to finals, publishing, and what’s next. I plan my reading at this time. For some reason, many writers don’t make a habit of reading for their writing. If you plan to write poetry, you need to read poems, for instance.

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I read closely whatever it is I’m in the process of writing. If I want to write haiku, I will read the Haiku Journal or Acorn, as both publish many haiku. If I’m writing fiction, I read novels. And I read with purpose as I want to study how other writers handle the problems I am having. So, I recently read a young adult narrative, The Poet X by ElizabethAcevedo, to study narrative poetry.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33294200-the-poet-x.

I also read for pleasure and sometimes find mentor texts there as well. So, I recently read Kathryn Holzman’s, Real Estate https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore/Fiction-c18653063 for pleasure. This writer, who set her novel in the beginning of Silicon Valley, writes historical fiction. It helped me figure out how to write a historical poem.

I have a new collection of poetry coming out in early 2026 from Shanti Arts entitled Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth. It’s a collaboration with the Norwegian artist Irene Christensen about women at the heart of the environmental crisis. This collection is largely ekphrastic poetry, or responses to Irene’s paintings.

I am taking the month of March off to travel. I will blog about the writing process and the progress of my new book from Shanti Arts Press when I return in April.

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Keeping a Writer’s Notebook

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Every writer should keep a notebook or journal. A stray piece of paper wouldn’t do. I have always had a notebook, but I have been using my iPhone as a notebook these last few years. I find that I lose my notebook, but always have my phone. You can also use apps, such as My Journal. I was thinking about the long relationship that I’ve had with notebooks, and their centrality to everything I do, the way that they foster my creativity across years and decades.

I’m sure that’s true of most other writers. And yet, whenever I see guides to keeping a journal online, I rarely recognise my own practice in there. I’ve seen so many idealised journals, designed for public display, written in overly neat handwriting using multi-coloured pens, filled with motivational quotes and orderly bullet points. This kind of journal feels wrong to me, reeking of an overly disciplined school: the people-pleasing, self-conscious, high-pressure spaces of my school books. The tyranny of good presentation and legibility.

In my view, a notebook should be unorganized. It should be random thoughts that you want to pick up later. I’ve written many poems from random thoughts I’ve had a movies, while reading, while listening to music, or just going to the supermarket.

Your notebook should be written for nobody’s eyes but your own. It’s a completely private space, where you are the only one writing and reading. You should never show anything directly from its pages, and certainly don’t let anyone have a flick through. This gives you the freedom to write anything in it That might be my darkest thoughts or my fragile feelings; but mostly it’s just terrible writing. Be incoherent, self-pitying, tacky, boring or stupid in this space. It’s nobody else’s business.

A notebook can offer inspiration at points when you’re struggling to find something to write about, when you’ve noted information about what you are writing, or for just exercising your writerly muscle.

My new book, Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth (Shanti Arts, 2026) started as a notebook note. Follow me here to read things about the writing process and the progress of my new book.

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Writing an Outline for a Book Manuscript

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Writing a book can be a daunting task, especially for first-time book writers. Where do you even begin? The essential thing in breaking a manuscript down into a doable project is first writing an outline. Some writers fill it in as they go along. These are usually proficient writers who have published many writers. I advise new book authors to plan the manuscript with an outline before they get there. I am a poet and many people don’t see the organization that goes into a collection of poetry.

To start an outline of a collection of poetry, I start with the theme. My last collection of poetry, Touch My Head Softly (Finishing Line Press, 2021) was on the theme of Alzheimer’s Disease. My poems were about my experiences with my partner who died of Early Onset Alzheimer’s. After I decided on the theme, I arranged the poems into three parts: before, during and after the death. This became the outline.

Poets have a singular challenge in developing an outline for a collection of poems. I advise poets to look through the poems they have written and see if a theme emerges. This can come from published and unpublished poems. Poets have a natural penchant for middle, beginning and end, as they need this sense to put a poem together. Also, published poems tend to strengthen a manuscript in the eyes of a publisher as she/he will know that other editors of literary journals and anthologies valued your work enough to publish it.Just make sure most of the poems are new when you submit the manuscript to a publisher.

The organization of my upcoming manuscript Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth (Shanti Arts, 2026) was very different than Touch My Head Softly. I collaborated on this book with the Norwegian artist, Irene Christensen, who did a series of paintings on women at the heart of the environmental crisis. This informed the organization of the manuscript as there was a visual with each poem. We organized the manuscript together, taking into account the content of both the paintings and poems.

Once you have organized your manuscript and perhaps have a trusted colleague or mentor look it over, you may be ready to send out your manuscript. At this point, you need to start developing your query letter to a publisher. I will blog another week on writing a good query letter.

Follow me here on Thursdays as I talk about the development of my new collection, Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth and the writing process.

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Submitting Poetry to Online Journals Who Accept New Writers

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Finding the right home for your poetry can take a lot of time and research. I often submit to online journals because I want to demonstrate to my book publisher that there is a market for these poems. One way of doing that is to have literary journals publish them. These then become the “Acknowledgements” at the back of your book manuscript.

Another reason to submit online is because it builds your portfolio when you’re trying to submit to more prestigious print journals. Online journals can be a great first place to submit when you don’t have many or any publications.

Here are some places to start:

Barren Magazine https://barrenmagazine.com/ publishes monthly in all genres. They lean toward introspective poetry.

Euonia Review https://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/submissions/ accepts original poetry as well as reprints, but you must retain the rights to them. They also respond quickly, sometimes within 24 hours. They accept up to 10 poems at a time.

The Meadow https://authorspublish.com/the-meadow-now-seeking-submissions/ publishes both in print and online. They publish multiple genres of new and established writers. They nominate for the Pushcart Poetry Prize, so if you get published by them, you are eligible for this prize nomination.

Ghost City Review https://ghostcitypress.com/submit publishes in multiple genres, but do not accept simultaneous submissions. This means you can only submit to them individually and not to other journals at the same time.

Roses and Wildflowers https://societyforritualarts.com/rw/2024-spring/submission-guidelines/ publishes on themed issues. They publish in Spring and Fall and there is always a theme. Check their website for themes.

Starry Starry Kite https://starrystarrykite.substack.com/about is published monthly and welcomes new and established writers. They also do interviews with featured writers.

When I submitted my manuscript, Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth for publication, I had several acknowledgements from different journals, including online ones like Starry Starry Kite and Wordpeace. This assures the publisher you’re submitting to that journals were already interested in publishing some of the work in the manuscript. We submitted to four publishers and got offers from two. We ultimately wound up signing with Shanti Arts. The book should be out in early 2026.

Follow the journey of my book, Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth, which is a collaboration with the Norwegian artist, Irene Christensen. I will blog about it here on Thursdays.

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Developing a Book Cover

Every book needs a cover. This process of development has varied with each book I’ve published. My first publisher, Prentice Hall, just did the design, which was a photograph of a teacher in a classroom with the book title on front. I approved it, but otherwise was not involved. The next publisher, Flutter Press, did not get involved with book covers. She suggested a book designer, Jasmine Hernandez. Jasmine ran several designs by me until I was happy with the cover and Banshees was launched.

The next publisher was Finishing Line Press of my poetry collection, Touch My Head Softly, about my experience with my partner’s Alzheimer’s Disease. This publisher designed its own covers from a photograph you suggested. I liked the way Jasmine had designed my previous whole cover. I asked Finishing Line Press if I could do my own cover with a designer and deliver it for publication. Jasmine suggested several designs, including a drawing of a brain, with the title inserted across it. I thought the brain worked well and was appropriate for the content. That’s what we went with and is pictured above.

For the upcoming book,  Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth. my collaborator is an artist, Irene Christensen. She is coordinating the design with the publisher, Shanti Arts. She suggested a painting from the collection, which is comprised of an equal amount of paintings and poems. The painting is “The Goddess Speaks.” (pictured herewith). We also provided our bios, head shots, and endorsements from other art curators/writers for the back. Irene and Christine, my publisher, are still working this out together. I look forward to seeing the final cover and how it evolves.

We’re delivering the final manuscript and art at the end of this month. The cover will be developed after that. The book is scheduled for publication in early 2026. Follow me here on Thursdays as I blog about the publishing process and this book specifically.