We opened our submission period in August 2024, inviting poets from around the world to submit to our digital journal, while poets in Taiwan could submit to both the journal and our upcoming reading celebrating 7 years of TPC. This was a shift from our past – we'd previously printed zines to commemorate our last three readings, but I wanted to move away from hard copies and create something more accessible, an online journal free from paywalls where poets could easily share their work.
Here's the thing about poetry publishing (a little aside): it's a different beast from most other types of writing. Share your work on social media or your personal website and it's considered "previously published" and most journals won't touch it. Submitting to journals is already this rigorous act of subjugation, with rejection rates sky-high, especially now with waves of AI/machine learning poetry washing up at journal gates. Some journals have even declared they'll only publish poets they've previously published. Dire.
So here we are, launching our journal, submissions streaming in – it's exciting and thrilling. Behind the scenes, we're juggling all the logistics: finding an affordable hosting platform that could be passed on to future poets if needed, continuing our regular workshops, combing through submissions, editing our own poems for the reading, planning the event. It's a beautiful chaos of creation and coordination.