Anne Marie Wells Poetry Newsletter September 2024
Upcoming events, where I submitted work to this month (so you can too!), writing prompt, and other updates.
Hi Poets!
Y’all, August was a wild month for me.
Firstly, I had an issue regarding *plagiarism.* The story is so long and complicated, but the TL;DR version is many years ago I had a best friend when I began my writing journey in playwriting. I wrote a number of plays and she provided editing. Because we were best friends and I wanted to bolster her self-esteem, I insisted on putting her name on the byline alongside mine even though she was the self-proclaimed “polisher” and never actually came up with any of the ideas or wrote any of the text.
Hindsight is 20/20, but at the time, she was my person. My ride or die. People mistook us for a couple. I never dreamed we’d ever “break up.” But our friendship dissolved pretty epically for reasons that aren’t important to this story.
Years later, she confronted me via email about listing the plays with only my name on them. This happened two days after the first Christmas without my father, and I had absolutely no mental or emotional capacity to handle her bullshit. I responded with an unhinged email saying (among other things) that I’d take the plays off my CV completely, and I didn’t care what she did with them.
WELL, I never imagined that four years later, she’d submit the play that *I* wrote to a play competition as if it were her own original idea and own original writing. (Honestly, the audacity.)
When the theater company wasn’t taking action, I lawyered up and learned there needs to be very specific parameters met for an email to be considered a legally binding contract. I also had all the original drafts timestamped from 2017 and 2018 in my Google docs to prove my authorship, whereas she only had the final PDF copy and no drafts at all.
My ideal would have been that the theater pulled the play completely, but they offered the compromise to add my name to the byline since I can’t really prove that she didn’t write any of it. (Even though she didn’t write any of it.)
And I actually think that this is a good compromise because on her side, she shouldn’t have submitted work she knew she didn’t write. (I honestly don’t know how she is not beyond embarrassed to do that in the first place and beyond embarrassed to also very publicly admit that she hasn’t been able to come up with her own original idea for this entire time.) But you know what? On my side, I should never have put her name on the byline in the first place. Even if it was as a symbol of best friendship. I should have given her an editorial credit from the start, and then I would never have had to deal with this bullshit.
(I know this doesn’t seem like it could be the TL;DR version, but believe me, it is.)
ANYWAYS, I HAVE LEARNED MY LESSON.
And allllllll this brings me to this month’s writing prompt.
Writing Prompt
During this unfortunate situation, I was feeling very inspired by Margaret Keane’s story.
She was a painter best known for creating portraits of whimsical people and animals with enormous eyes. Initially her husband at the time, Walter Keane, claimed credit for her paintings, going as far as exhibiting them across the country under his own name. After they divorced, Margaret came forward as the true artist and sued her husband for claiming credit. During the trial, the judge ordered Margaret and Walter to both create one of the iconic paintings. Walter claimed he had a shoulder injury and couldn’t participate. Then Margaret finished her painting in less than an hour. She was awarded $4 million in damages, but the award was overturned in appeals court. Despite never seeing a penny, Margaret said she didn’t care about the money, but only wanted to be credited as the true artist.
Write about a time when you reclaimed what was rightfully yours.
Writing Challenges
This month I am participating in two writing challenges.
3-Day Chapbook Contest
The first is a 3-day Chapbook contest through The Peter White Public Library in Michigan. The challenge is to write 15-40 pages of poetry in the three-day timeframe with the theme of “Room for Love.” Participants are able to bring notes and ideas to the challenge, but all the actual poems must be written within the three-day timeframe!
Y’all, it is NOT going well hahahaha
I went into the challenge with a gameplan of sorts. My forte is poetic forms, so I made a list of forms that I knew I wanted to include: ribcage (of course), abecedarian, pantoum, duplex, ghazal. I also made a list of poems that’d I’d write “after” poems for. For example, Steven Wallace’s “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” I have seen many variations on this poem (13 Ways of Looking at a Glacier, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, 13 Ways of Looking at a Black Boy), and I knew I wanted to create “13 Ways of Looking at a Room.”
But you know what? Even with the plan, I am struggling. And I think that’s because I struggle to write when I have to, when it’s forced. My best work has always been spur-of-the-moment, lightning bolt-style inspiration.
When I am re-reading the poems I wrote for this challenge so far, I *cringe.*
BUT! I’m going to submit my work anyway. It didn’t cost anything to register for this challenge, and they cap the entries at the first 100 participants which means if I don’t submit something then I am potentially taking the spot of someone who would have submitted their work.
My final draft is due tomorrow, and I’ll be turning in my chapbook whether I feel confident in it or not.
Mark your calendar for next year if you want to participate in the challenge next time.
60-Day Writing Challenge
The second challenge is heftier and started September 1. Camari Hawkins (founder of Mama’s Kitchen Press) is hosting a 60-day creative writing challenge.
The tasks are:
Write for 30 minutes
Read 10 pages of a writing craft book.
Complete a writing exercise. This can be a shared prompt or idea from the book you are reading.
Review and edit yesterday’s work.
Engage with the Audacious Writers Community via Accountability Chat.
Every day! For 60 days! EEEEEEEP!
(I’m counting writing this newsletter as writing for 30 minutes)
I created a spreadsheet for myself so I can keep track of my daily progress. If you’re doing the challenge with the group (or would just like to do the challenge on your own) you can use my spreadsheet as a template. (Just click “file” in the upper lefthand corner then click “make a copy” from the drop-down menu.)
“Routine” has never been my friend, but I’m hoping that participating in this challenge will give me the jumpstart I need to prioritize my craft, to make time for my writing even when I am tired from being a mom and trying to make ends meet.
I hope next month I can report that I’m meeting my daily tasks regularly!
Book Recommendation
One book I’m taking inspiration from for the 3-day chapbook contest is Ian Williams’ Word Problems
His use of blank space and poem structure blew my mind!
If you want to explore poetry outside the traditional (read: boring) left-justified alignment, I highly recommend reading this collection.
Where I submitted work (so you can too)
It hasn’t opened yet, but I plan to submit my chapbook Mother, (v) to the Michael Marks Awards
The Garden Party Poetry Contest (Opens Sept 8 and closes Sept 14)
Society of Classical Poets Haiku Competition
Rhonda Gail Williford Award for Poetry
Upcoming Events
I am so excited to be teaming up with Tiny Spoon Literary Magazine as their “Tiny Resident.”
Saturday & Sunday September 28 & 29 from 10 AM to Noon MST / Noon to 2 PM EST
In this two-day workshop Anne Marie Wells will guide participants through a brief history of traditional poetic forms before diving heart first into modern poetic forms that give a throbbing middle finger to convention. Together, the group will explore constraint as a means of defying constraining societal structures as well as a means of experimentation and fun! Poetic forms don’t have to be metered or rhyming or trite. Poetic forms can be cultural, they can be political statements, they can contain secret messages, they can be puzzles, they can be math, they can be nonsensical, and they can be even more than all that when the participants in the class invent their own forms, adding to the diversity and beauty of the literary universe. This workshop is for the established form fetishist, the form curious, and form skeptics.
The workshop will take place virtually via Zoom. Upon registration, you will be sent the link closer to the event.
The registration is pay-what-you-will. To register follow this link. I hope to see you there!
Synonyms for Grief
On October 5th, the Middlesex County Public Library will be hosting me for another iteration of Synonyms for Grief, my creative writing workshop that leads participants through a series of writing prompts aimed to support individuals as they navigate their grief journey.
Registration is free. Follow this link to sign up!
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Alright, that’s all folks! Thanks for reading!
Love,
Anne Marie
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Or support me by buying my poetry collection