ysabetwordsmith | Poetry Editing

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This article looks at poetry editing. Apparently British publishers of poetry mostly hire poets as editors. I think that's a good idea, as long as they can find people with both skill sets.

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Crossposts: http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/2134825.html

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From:

tuftears.livejournal.com

... why wouldn't you hire a poet to edit poetry? Someone who doesn't understand scansion and meter would do a terrible job on poetry. (note: never hire me to edit your poetry)

From:

ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com

It is possible for someone to understand poetry without being able to write it. (According to my artist friends, I give excellent artistic feedback because I know how art works. I just can't paint it myself.) But it's easier to understand how to refine poetry if one writes it oneself, rather than building up all that knowledge from outside analysis. Then too, editing is a specialized skill that not all poets have. Sometimes you might not find a good poet/editor, but find a good editor who is a fan of poetry. That's the sensible version.

The less sensible version is that American publishers don't care whether an editor has topical experience, only editing experience. They may go with the cheapest applicant, or one who has connections, or whatever. I find the results of this inferior more often than not.

Editing poetry does require a subtly different set of skills than editing prose. You really need a fine sense of linguistics, either conscious or intuitive -- or preferably both. Frex, if someone sends you free-verse poetry and you think, "Hmm, this sounds like prose with arbitrary line breaks," then you need to know to look for things such as alliteration, assonance, parallels, enjambment vs. end-stoppage, etc. that will indicate whether or not that impression is accurate.

If a phrase sounds clunky, you need to be able to explain why and how to fix it. Just writing "awk" in the margin isn't enough. You have to say something like "This is a tongue-twister. Read it out loud and listen to all the different /s/ and /sh/ sounds. Substitute some words without sibilants."

You also have to know when NOT to jerk around the writer's diction in a way that will eclipse their personal voice, even if some of the phrasing is not technically "correct," as long as it's clear and compelling. That's one place where a non-poet might have some other relevant experience, if they're an expert with a dialect or culture that doesn't get much exposure and that's what the poet is using.

Depends on the poet's scope, too. A science fiction writer, not a poet but fond of poetry, could probably edit my SF poetry. A nature scientist could probably handle my nature poetry. But a mixed collection, like a year's fishbowl output? You'd need a poet/editor. Some poets have a really tight focus, while others spread out a lot.

From:

tuftears.livejournal.com

Well-- to clarify, I wouldn't require a poetry editor be a published poet, merely that he or she has studied poetry and understands these things! I mean, prose publishing might be a little weird if you required their editors to be published authors as well. (talk about the outcries about cliquishness then!)

Of course the mass market publishing model is weird already, but for entirely different reasons than the skillsets of their editors.