Vocal Poetry Anthology: Progress Update and Requests

Hey folks!

Remember this?

It's that time again, folks! Another update for my long-term self-published poetry anthology project featuring poetry from many of you on this platform.

As most will know, I recently suffered a bereavement and my Dad's funeral is on Tuesday, 17 June. So, my head is a bit messy already, with funeral stuff, but I also have a stack of projects I am working on, including this book.

To give myself the chance to do something positive and lighten my own load, I thought I'd push ahead with the next update.

The previous update, see link below, included details of the poems I had selected from each of the contributors during the first submission period and a plea for more contributors, as there was not really enough to justify publishing.

And you didn't disappoint. The second submission period proved very successful, so thank you!

Here is the full list of the poems that will be included in the book (still untitled).

Vocal Poetry Anthology Poem List

1. Alexandria Stanwyck - will you hurt me? (love's a dagger)
2. Mark Graham - The River
3. Mark Gagnon - The Ubiquitous They
4. Jeremy White - Let's talk about Autism and social anxiety
5. Matthew Fromm - Borne Aloft Upon A Gale
6. Shirley Belk - Jade Elizabeth
7. D.K. Shepard - Creatures of Comfort
8. Heather Zieffle - Following My Light
9. kp - what I learned from a pea today
10. Bradley Ramsey - A Letter to My Demons
11. Calvin London - Can You See the Artist Painting in the Sky
12. Mackenzie Davis - When I Made Stars Cry
13. Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred - Imbolc
14. KA Stefana - The Wanderer
15. Amanda Starks - The Mortal Limit
16. Alyssa Nicole - The Gamble
17. John Cox - Mary in the Moonlight
18. Ruth Stewart - Royalty Transformed
19. Paul Stewart - Of Past and Grief
20. Mother Combs - The Pressed Rose
21. Iris Obscura - Mitten
22. Randy Wayne Jellison-Knock - The World Ends
23. Kendall Defoe - Marydale
24. Natalie Wilkinson - One Way To Write a Poem
25. Caroline Jane - My Will: In Glorious Technicolour
26. Gabriel Huizenga - Not There Yet
27. Andrea Corwin - Zenith
28. Cathy (Christine Acheini) Ben-Ameh - The Warrior's Death
29. Heather Hubler - Midnight absolution
30. Angie the Archivist 📚🪶 - Parched Soul
31. Lamar Wiggins - South
32. Addison Alder - Heartmelter
33. Poppy - My Aurora Borealis
34. JBaz - Born of the Dark
35. River and Celia in Underland - Dragon's Breath
36. Euan Brennan - Where is...?
37. Teresa Renton - Imagination
38. Donna Fox (HKB) - Feeling Winded
39. Marilyn Glover - Time Escapes Me

That brings the total of poems up to 39, which I think is excellent! (Had to revert this to drafts after publishing cos I missed one, and noticed I had missed another, so if anyone else has definitely submitted a piece to me and I've said yes to it, but your name is not in the list above let me know - I am only human, haha!)

(Please also note that my maths aren't bad, but I will probably forget to change the number in the above paragraph if I get late submissions. :))

Thank you again to everyone who has taken part so far.

So, now what's next? I think we need to move on to the next stage. However, if you're reading this and only just hearing about this project now, and you have a poem you'd like to include, please read the original post and then share the link in the comments section for this article.

Contributor Bios

What would an anthology be that was designed to highlight the poetic talent published on Vocal regularly, without contributor bios? A collection of poems without the connective tissue a bio would give to a new reader, happening upon your works for the first time. What do I need for the contributor bios?

To save me some hassle, I will copy and paste from the next section of the project's original article, which needs to be tackled as we inch ever closer towards printing and publishing.

Contributor Bios: As Stephen pointed out in the comments section, it's standard practice for multi-author collections to feature author bios for all contributors. I have yet to decide whether these will be included alongside the poems or at the back of the book. That depends on the number of submissions I receive. Regardless, the bios give a little more real estate for the authors and a great place for the authors to plug their Vocal profiles, author websites, or even podcasts. Contributor bios are normally restricted by length, with 50 words or 2 to 3 sentences, in collections for shorter pieces like poetry. Thanks again, Stephen.

Same as before, if everyone who has put forward a piece for the book, please provide their contributor bio in the comments section of this piece. That would be great. Thank you!

I will set the completion date for this section as July 13, 2025. So, that gives everyone a month

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Thanks for reading and thanks for your ongoing support!