In an effort to send my poems out into the world, I recently joined a creative and professional development group formed by a few VCFA alums. Our goal is to submit our work to five (as in 5 or cinco) literary magazines or journals every month. We track our progress on spreadsheets that can be viewed by other group members in order to hold each other accountable and share in the ups and downs of our writing careers. Since graduating, I’ve been telling myself I’m going to send my work out, but haven’t been following through (I’m not a big fan of rejection, especially when I’ve poured my soul into it). Somehow making a commitment to other people helps me keep the promises I’ve made to myself. No wonder the experts tell us to find a buddy for any activity — it really works!

In addition to the boot camp, I plan to submit to a few contests:

• Geist 2nd Annual Erasure Poetry Contest
• Women and Place Anthology
• Missouri Review’s Editors’ Prize

Now that I’ve stated an intention to publish and apply to contests to you who are reading upon this blog, I feel compelled to follow through and give you an update on my progress.

And I already know sharing my poetry can have positive results. Last week, I got word that three of my April 2012 Poem-A-Day poems will be included in Main Street Rag‘s forthcoming anthology, “The Best of the Fuquay-Varina Reading Series 2012.” Cool beans!