The editor of MUDLARK, in his E-Notes, will be recognizable as himself. "Which I is I?" This one. Otherwise, and for the record:
I teach at the University of North Florida, have had Fulbrights to China and Egypt, and have twice taught at the Florida State University London Study Center. My books are THE POLITICS OF MY HEART from Pleasure Boat Studio and UNTOLD STORIES from Empty Bowl. My poems and essays have been published at home in magazines ranging from POETRY (Chicago) to EXQUISITE CORPSE and abroad in CANADIAN FORUM, CRITICAL QUARTERLY (England), POETRY AUSTRALIA, FRANK (France), and PEOPLE'S DAILY (China), for example.
MUDLARK, its authors and their work, will determine who I am as an editor. Mudlarking / Cavafy / Learning How to Read, an essay having to do with my editing of MUDLARK, appeared in THE FREE CUISENART at the invitation of Eliza McGrand. I participated in Painting Trees on the Landscape of Poetry, a roundtable discussion prompted by Jennifer Ley at PERIHELION on editing and publishing in the (still) new electronic medium. In April 2001, I will be chairing a panel at the AWP (Associated Writing Programs) Conference in Palm Springs, California, on the same subject.
As our full name, MUDLARK: AN ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF POETRY & POETICS, suggests, we will consider accomplished work that locates itself anywhere on the spectrum of contemporary practice. We want poems, of course, but we want essays, too, that make us read poems (and write them?) differently somehow. Although we are not innocent, we do imagine ourselves capable of surprise. We read and answer our mail.
In MUDLARK poetry is free. Our authors give us their work and we,in turn, give it to our readers. What is the coin of poetry's realm? Poetry is a gift economy. One of the things we can do at MUDLARK to "pay" our authors for their work is point to it here and there, wherever else it is. We can tell our readers how to find it, how to subscribe to it, and how to buy it...if it is for sale. Toward that end, we will maintain A-Notes (on the Authors) we publish. We will call attention to their work.
THE POLITICS OF MY HEART and UNTOLD STORIES are available online from Pleasure Boat Studio, Barnes and Noble, amazon.com, and the Author's Private Reserve. Poems and essays of mine that have been published online are linked to my home page at the University of North Florida: http://www.unf.edu/~wrs.