Breaking the Rules for Publishing Poetry On Medium — All Year Long

The Ides Have It: A 2020 Spoken Word Series, Available through Assemblage, Brings a New Approach to the Medium Platform

Artwork by Kalkidan Assefa. Original painting owned by the author.

There is a misconception that spoken word is not “literary” because it’s meant to be spoken aloud.

I think most readers like discovering new and unique forms of expression when they search for poetry, journalism, commentary, criticism, and prose. The problem is that writing, particularly when it’s on a platform that aggregates many voices, can sometimes become staid, formulaic and static — leading to boredom for the reader and frustration for the writer.

From my very short time writing regularly on Medium, one thing has come across to me very strongly: Editors want to see new material in a draft so they can look it over, approve it, and be assured that people are seeing it on their publication for the first time anywhere.

And that makes sense to me.

Medium poetry publications want to create and maintain standards that are common in literary journals around the world. They want you to create compelling new work and not recycle previously released work. They want to ensure…