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A new #poem a day for the Teen Writing Center and other Tupelo Press Projects



Greetings and salutations! May is half way through her course and I am half way through my writing marathon over at Tupelo Press. I'm raising money for the non-profit small press publisher by writing a new poem every day for the month of May. I have the pleasure of raising money so the independent publisher can continue to operate a Teen Writing Center near Charlottesville, and gather resources for teen outreach across the US, as well as publish a new translation of Pablo Neruda's Cantos, among other publishing projects. I have no ties to Tupelo Press, my little books and reviews make their homes elsewhere, so this is simply a way to try to give back to the community that I have participated in for the last twenty years.

Most small presses struggle to make ends meet, which equates to jobs. Paying writers, paying poets, paying editors and paying graphic artists. Paying people. Your donations, no matter how small, will pay artists for equitable work, as well as help generate resources so young people have a creative outlet for expression. Tupelo Press' out-of-the-box thinking in terms of generating capital for their needs speaks to a grass-roots, Democratic way of participating in the dialogue that is American poetry. I am happy to say that most of the writers that have contributed this year are women, whose collective voice is often forgotten by publishers. If you are one of my publishing friends, check out the way TP crowd-sources their projects.

May is half-way done. Come and see what the other writers and I have been cooking up. We write a new poem, in draft form, every day. You can donate by paypal, CC, or purchase a book to help me cross the finish line. I'll even write something just for you. Drop me a line and let me know. So far I have whipped Common Core Standards into a dystopian poem, praised my gut bacteria, composed a fugue, a l=a=n=g=u=a=g=e poem about spring trees, among others. Later today I will probably write about the spring peepers making so much noise in the aftermath of all the rain we had on the Eastern Shore last night. But come on by and see for yourself.

The 30/30 project page with links to donate http://tupelopress.wordpress.com/3030-project/
The donation page https://www.tupelopress.org/donate.php

Thank you so much for your time and support.


Scott Whitaker
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