Letter Writing Campaign Continues: More Poetry in the Post

The Washington Post's Book World "Summer Reading Issue" published on June 19th included no poetry books. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

Continuing our letter-writing campaign to encourage Book World editors to include more poetry in the publication, Split This Rock 2012 Festival Planning Committee member and poet Yvette Neisser Moreno had her letter to the editor published in this past Saturday's Post.

You can read it here: Why no poetry in Book World special?

We encourage you to join in on the conversation in the "comments" section and if you live in the Washington, DC, area or read The Washington Post, please write a letter to the editor urging more reviews of poetry. We hope to continue to swamp the Post with scores of letters demonstrating the wide audience for poetry among its readership. Use our Sample Letter to the Post, or write your own.

For inspiration and more details, read our flyer and check out some of Split This Rock's favorite sites for book reviews! Please let us know what response you receive. Contact Yvette Neisser-Moreno for more information.

If you live outside the area, write a similar letter to the book review section of your local newspaper. Even better, launch a local campaign! Together, we can make this a national campaign to increase coverage of poetry books in major newspapers and begin to restore poetry’s place as a major genre of literature in this country.

Your Activism Pays Off!

Great news everyone! Today the Washington Post published an article on the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. As many of you know, Split This Rock, in cooperation with local poets, has been leading a letter writing campaign urging the Post to publish more poetry reviews - and it now looks like the effort is making an impact. Details of the campaign are here.

While this is great step, we can't stop now. Be sure to read the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/08/AR2011030806408.html

and leave feedback thanking the editors for publishing commentary on this vital art form. While you're at it, keep the pressure on by writing a letter letting the Post know that you want to see more poetry.

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Thanks so much for your work on this, and lets keep the momentum going!

Examiner Article on our Book World Campaign!

A few days ago the DC Examiner published an excellent article about Split This Rock's campaign to increase the frequency of poetry reviews in the Washington Post. The story does a great job of introducing the campaign and includes an interview with Sarah Browning, director of Split This Rock. Here's a excerpt:

Poets from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, of all ages, are writing, publishing, and performing work in a huge variety of styles and taking on the pressing issues of our time, helping us wrestle with our difficult and contradictory world. We know that more residents of our area, including many Washington Post readers, would benefit from exposure to these voices, the poets who are telling the true stories of our times.

Be sure to check out the rest of the article here and for more info on the campaign, check here.

Thank you for the support, and keep writing letters!