Saturday, June 11, 2011

Welcome and guidelines

(Edited July 13, 2011, 10 AM (in Brisbane), to change the indexing scheme)

Welcome to NaPoReMo 2011! The basic idea is that everyone here will read a book of poetry by a contemporary poet, and post 15 comments, each on a different poem from the book. Here are the rules (shamelessly cribbed from this post at PFFA).
  1. NaPoReMo will begin on 15 June 2011, and end on 15 July 2011.
  2. Obtain a book of poetry by a contemporary poet, preferably one whose work you're not particularly familiar with but in whom you have an interest and whose work you would like to explore. Feel free to read more than one book by a single author, if the spirit moves you. Anthologies are also acceptable if you would prefer something of that sort, although in general it's better to focus on a single writer, as the basic idea of NaPoReMo is to develop a deeper understanding of a specific writer. Nor does it matter if more than one participant chooses the same book or poet, as what each says is likely to present differing perspectives from the other.
  3. To index your posts, pick a label (such as your alias). When you make a post, type your label in the little box that says "labels for this post".
  4. Make an overview post that says which book you're reading, and why. I'll make a page with links to all the overview posts. If you like, you can use your overview post as an index, with links to all your other posts, but this is strictly optional.
  5. Read the whole collection by the end of the month at least once.
  6. Every other day, write at least a paragraph on a poem from the book, for a total of 15 posts. There’s no minimum or maximum length; you can write a short sentence. I'm not imposing a maximum length of one paragraph either, because paragraph breaks make a big block of text much easier to read. Just explain how you react to the poem and quote your favourite line (or a line to show why you didn’t like it). Be careful not to quote too much from individual poems. Respect copyright. (Of course, one doesn't have to post every other day; it's the number 15that's important, although waiting until June 16th to begin could offset the advantages to be gained; that, however, is purely at the discretion of the participants.)
  7. Feel free to comment on others' posts about the specific poems reviewed or the poet or related poetry-based matters. Off-topic fluff is also permitted this year. People who aren't participating in NaPoReMo are welcome to drop in and comment as well. No anonymous comments, spam, or harassment, though.
  8. Be excellent to each other, and have fun!

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