3rd Thursday Newsletter Issue: 36 Date: January 18, 2024 Dear Reader, This 36th issue of the 3rd Thursday Newsletter <https://www.beeugenebecreative.com/blog> starts with the excitement surrounding our Open Submission period (now through January 31). We’ve had an amazing response to this call for poems of, about, or inspired by Tacoma for the anthology, Voices of Tacoma: A Gathering of Poets. We want to continue to encourage poets of all ages, from all over our City and beyond, to submit their work. Information is available on how to submit <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NjrEd5zkwJ67QWqWJdakP0E8BtLzKPRI/view?usp=sharing> your work, or visit our website and you’ll find the submit poetry <https://www.beeugenebecreative.com/> button at the top of each page . ------------------------------ Our panel of review editors has been hard at work evaluating the poems that have already been submitted. Though they will, for now, remain anonymous, I want to thank them for all their work in reading and scoring each piece. Each submitting poet is being asked to complete a demographic survey to help us create an inclusive and diverse anthology. After the panelists have made their selection, we’ll be reviewing the demographic data in aggregate form to determine whether our efforts to be unbiased in our scoring met our equity-focused intentions. If we discover gaps, we’ll be revisiting the scoring process to work through ways to make it more equitable. Again, submissions are being accepted up until January 31, so send us your work and share with your fellow poets this opportunity to make their voices heard! ------------------------------ We are also hard at work planning the next steps of this project. After the poems have been selected, every poet has been notified of our decisions, and contracts have been signed, we’ll be working on the design and editing portion of the book. Working with an editorial panel to determine each element of the book, we’ll also be engaging Hilltop artist Mauricio Robalino <https://www.artpeople.com/> in the design elements. Mauricio has already provided the artwork, Voices <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JEc562NOj4Do_dnYLVUfPwJSdfgLierW/view?usp=sharing> (2010, gouache, artist's collection) to be used for the cover design. ------------------------------ Come join us for our January Gathering of Poets <https://www.beeugenebecreative.com/monthly-poetry-gatherings> at Moore Library on Wednesday, January 31 at 6:30 pm. Bring a poem to read or just come listen to the Voices of Tacoma! Check out other poetry and literary arts events here <https://www.beeugenebecreative.com/events>. ------------------------------ For questions or media inquiries about the project, please contact agatheringofpoets@gmail.com. This project is partly funded by the Tacoma Artists Initiative Program. ------------------------------ Please share this newsletter. If you received it from a friend, visit Be! Eugene Be! Creative <http://beeugenebecreative.com> to learn more. <https://sites.google.com/view/beeugenebecreative/home> Copyright© 2024 by Burl E. Battersby All Rights Reserved