Not going anywhere. As you might have already heard, Connotation Press, the incredible labor of love that Ken Robidoux created and the home of A Poetry Congeries, will go on a year-long hiatus after this issue. Ken wants to make clear that “Connotation Press: An Online Artifact will remain online the entire time. All links, with few exceptions, will still function as they should. In fact, from the outside there will be little difference to the magazine. However, we will be closing our submission page at the end of this month in anticipation of our coming hiatus.” You can read Ken’s statement here.
The gist of it is that, as Ken so eloquently puts it, “After ten years, we are a mess of patches, temporary fixes, and regular, expensive maintenance. Even then, many of our columns are no longer viewable by everyone on computer or phone, and now somewhat regular crashes have become the norm. It is clear to everyone, even this lughead, that it’s time for a change. It is for this reason and many more like it that I have decided to place this magazine on hiatus starting September 1st of this year. Our hiatus will last one year as we build an entirely new website with contemporary, easily updatable software, and convert our existing site from our Joomla platform to the new one.”
There will be an August 1st Issue VII, Volume X: August 2019: A look back at 10 years online release and on September 1st, the hiatus officially begins.
Again, A Poetry Congeries is not going anywhere. All of the back issues will be available as always: for free! If you’ve not browsed the archives and claim to be a fan of poetry, you are doing yourself a great disservice. Below, you can check out a partial list of the vital poets of our time who’ve trusted us with their work. I’ll out my ten year archive up against just about anybody’s. I remain committed to publishing the best poetry—of all kinds—that I can uncover, and VIDA has never had a beef with me. Women and poets of color have always been treasured contributors to the Congeries, and they shall remain so.
I plan to keep things pretty much the same once we return; however, while I have not at all run out of amazing poets whose work I want to feature, the query response rate has fallen to a level that makes it hard to continue to feature poets only once. That’s right. In ten years, no poet has appeared in the Congeries more than once (with the exception of translators and a couple of poets who appeared both solo and as part of a collaborative effort). Therefore, I may decide to begin including new poems by poets who’ve already appeared in the Congeries. Maybe not, we’ll see. In any case, the Congeries will remain by solicitation only, curated by me.
When we return, it will mark my 22nd year as a literary editor (12 years as an editor at Kestrel previously). I’m very proud of my work as an editor. I’ve published Seamus Heaney, Lucille Clifton, Rita Dove, Natasha Trethewey,Maxine Kumin, Stephen Dunn and so many other heroes. I hope you’ll stay with me until I return. Until then, you can follow A Poetry Congeries on Twitter and you can follow me on Facebook. See you in a year or so!
Rita Dove, Natasha Trethewey, Michael Collier, Maxine Kumin, Michael Harper, Claudia Emerson, Alicia Ostriker, Carl Phillips, Ted Kooser, Terrance Hayes, Patricia Smith, Denise Duhamel, Medbh McGuckian, Tony Hoagland, Carl Dennis, Jake Adam York, Geffrey Davis, Fady Joudah, Justin Phillip Reed, Ishion Hutchinson, Oliver De La Paz, Norman Dubie, Gary Jackson, Stan Plumly, Rae Armantrout, Shara McCallum, David Kirby, Kimiko Hahn, Bob Hicok, Tarfia Faizullah, Natalie Diaz, Alessandra Lynch, Keetje Kuipers, Mark Jarman, David Biespiel, Derrick Harriell, Malcolm Tariq, Sumita Chakraborty, David St. John, Dave Smith, Leanne O'Sullivan, Mong-Lan, Bruce Smith, Sydney Lea, Shara Lessley, Nickole Brown, , Robert Morgan, Fanny Howe, Nicole Cooley, Paisley Rekdal, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Joe Millar, John Burnside, Gregory Djanikian, Maura Stanton, Campbell McGrath, John Yau, Tyree Daye, Kirun Kapur, Michael Pettit, Jericho Brown, Lisa Russ Spaar, Haki Madhubuti, Stephen Dunn, Patricia Spears Jones, Bruce Bond, C. Dale Young, Fred Chappell, Rachel Hadas, Christopher Merrill, Stacey Lynn Brown, Jeffrey Harrison, Idra Novey, Gerald Dawe, Maria Hummel, Colleen J. McElroy, Vievee Francis, Dara Wier, Stephen Burt, Paul Hoover, Chana Bloch, Pascale Petit, Rose McLarney, Robin Becker, Ilya Kaminsky, Alice Notley, David St. John, Allison Joseph, James Applewhite, Brenda Hillman, Alberto Rios, Annie Finch, Peter Campion, Janice Harrington, Tomas Salamun, Laura Kasischke, Forrest Gander, Kathleen Graber, Dorianne Laux, Brian Turner, William Heyen, Michael Collier, Duy Doan, Ralph Angel, Marge Piercy, Denise Duhamel, Kwame Dawes, Michael Burkard, John Tranter, Honoree Jeffers, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Kathy Fagan, Margot Schlipp, H.L. Hix, Nin Andrews, Jake Adam York, Suzanne Cleary, Sean Singer, Patrick Lane, Timothy Liu, Elizabeth Spires, Allison Hedge Coke, Charles Harper Webb, Nancy Eimers, Camille Dungy, Nicky Beer, Hayan Charara, Lola Haskins, Fleda Brown, T.R. Hummer, Jim Richardson, Ann Townsend, David Lehman, Quincy Troupe, Doug Anderson, Meg Kearney, Mark Bibbins, Mark Jarman, James Harms, Kyle Dargan, Sue Goyette, Angela Ball, Jenny Molberg, Donald Revell, James Hoch, Julia Johnson, Michael Dumanis, Nathalie Handal, Cheryl Dumesnil, Ales Debeljak, Maura Stanton, Sydney Lea, Dan Albergotti, Alice Friman, Nick Thran, K.A. Hays, Judith Vollmer, Ed Skoog, Rick Hilles, Mihaela Moscaliuc, Peter Everwine Adrienne Su, Sally Ball, Katie Ford, Amy Dryansky, Amber Flora Thomas, David Rigsbee, Catie Rosemurgy, Natalie Graham, Yesenia Montilla and more.