How long have you been writing and publishing poetry? Since you started have kind of trends have you noticed?

I have been writing and publishing poetry since 1967. I guess one of the major trends I have noticed is the proliferation of MFA programs--when I graduated from college in 1971 there were only 6 programs in the US, now I think there's something like 250. I find this rather alarming since most MFA program graduates write poems that are what has been called the McPoem. By that I mean they all sound the same like they've been cut out of a cookie cutter. Very rarely does one produce an original voice and what the programs have done is foisted too many bad poets on the public, each with ambition that will probably go nowhere. Furthermore, it has created a cottage industry of more MFA programs and an unending supply of graduates that want to teach in them....since that is about all that poets can do to make a living these days. Poetry has gone from being the soul of the people to the heart of academia.

Perhaps you can tell me how you started writing?

Well, I was 17 and a freshman in college and filled with teenage angst. I started writing these awful poems that when I look back on now seem pretty dreadful. However, I must have written at least one good one at the time because at the end of my freshman year I saw a sign that said that the Academy of American Poets was sponsoring a contest -- I ended out beating the upperclassmen and graduate students.

Any authors you have been particularly touched by that you discovered on the 'net?

Nope.

Do you read any internet literary journals or sites? How about print only journals, magazines, or 'zines? How do you feel they compare? Do they at all?

The internet literary sites I tend to go to are web del sol, Poetry Daily, Poets and Writers, the Cortland Review, The Los Angeles Poetry Festival website. To be blunt, I've found that most internet zines cannot compare to the print ones in terms of quality or for that matter legitimacy. The print journals I read are Double Take, Arshile, Tin House, Atlanta Review, Pearl, The Chiron Review, Solo, Rattapallax and Witness.

What kind of writing have you done and published on the internet?

Because of copyright issues, I only publish on the web poems, etc. that have already been published in print form. I've had work on the following sites: Unlikely Stories, Zuzu's Petals, Poetry Superhighway...been interviewed on the Independent Review Site...and some others that I can't remember.

Do you feel your aesthetic has been influenced by the work you do or have read on internet?

No.

Have you noticed any stigma related to internet publishing? Any bias against it?

Well, as I said, due to the fact that one cannot copyright work that's on the internet and since I don't like to have my work appropriated without my knowledge, I only publish work on the net that I've had published in print journals, anthologies or in my own books. Yes there is a stigma and bias against internet publishing basically for that reason...the writer no longer has control of his or her work.

You know I went back to grad school in 1998 although I had been a working poet for about 30 years at that point. I found I could not compete for jobs without some sort of graduate degree. It's like for an artist to be legitimate they have to deal with academia -- I think that is VERY wrong. Did Van Gogh have a graduate degree? or Walt Whitman? or Dylan Thomas? Yeah, I got the paper in '01, but does it make me a better poet? I don't think so.

You know, I have been in the MFA circuit for a while, now I am going to one and largely I agree with your McPoem comment. Was it Robert Bly who coined that term?

I believe so.

Still, do you think that market has hurt the print journals as well as the internet journals?

I'm not sure. It's sort of become a "cottage industry" -- people go to graduate school, they graduate and then teach in graduate school (because that's about all one can do with a degree in poetry) where other people come to study and graduate and so on. About the journals...Well, all the graduate programs have literary magazines -- so on one hand that's good, there are more outlets for manuscripts (theoretically speaking). The bad thing is that they tend to publish only other MFA graduates or the current demigods -- which tend to all sound the same -- and rarely publish someone writing something innovative or radical or daring. I think I'd probably prefer fewer journals with more diversity and originality than so many interchangeable ones.

Interesting side note: how do you see poetry as the heart of the people before?

Well, I was a young woman during the Vietnam War and I remember Ted Berrigan and those folk. Less contrivance and more heart. Which is not to say I think poems should be uncrafted -- I don't think so -- but I think we need to be less safe now, especially during these complacent Republican years.

Last question, while you are correct about complications of copyright, legally the author does retain the rights to their work unless there is a contract to the contrary. So do you think that the relative uncontrolled nature of the internet that such protections are pretty much meaningless?

Yes, I do. I've actually seen my work on sites I've never submitted to or even heard of. Rather disconcerting that. Just like I've seen my Freshman comp students regurgitate papers nearly word for word from internet sites and call it their own.

Lastly, Web del Sol has done wonders for making a legitmate venue of literature on the internet. Do you have any idea as to why they have been so successful?

I think they have been particularly successful because the magazines they promote are exceptional ones -- most with long standing print issues before the existence of the internet. They can hook people in on the strength and name recognition of the publications.