Assembling Poetry Manuscripts: A Resource List

Writing poems is hard. Assembling poems into a book is nigh impossible: a task akin to making sure the sand on a beach is in the right order. 

Here are some resources for anyone in the midst of this Sisyphean process: 

An excellent series of interviews by Sarah Blake in the Chicago Review of Books:

• How Do Poets Choose a Title for Their Books? https://chireviewofbooks.com/2017/10/18/how-do-poets-choose-a-title-for-their-books/

• How Do Poets Choose a Collection Opener? https://chireviewofbooks.com/2018/04/30/how-do-poets-choose-a-collection-opener/

• How Do Poets Organize a Collection? https://chireviewofbooks.com/2018/11/01/how-do-poets-organize-a-collection/

• How Do Poets Choose a Collection’s Final Poem? https://chireviewofbooks.com/2020/04/21/how-do-poets-choose-a-collections-final-poem/ 

And several other incredibly helpful resources:

• Natasha Saje’s “Dynamic Design: The Structure of Books of Poems” in The Iowa Review: https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/iowareview/article/id/15749/ 

• Susan Grimm’s book Ordering the Storm: How to Put Together a Book of Poems (CSU Poetry Center, 2006): http://www.csupoetrycenter.com/books/ordering-the-storm-how-to-put-together-a-book-of-poems 

• Alberto Rios on Turning a Manuscript into a First Book: https://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/resourcebank/02mssintofirstbook/index.html 

• Erika Meitner’s thoughtful blog post “In the Poetry Contest Gulags: Project vs. Mix-tape Books”: http://aboutaword.org/2011/11/06/erika-meitner-in-the-poetry-contest-gulags-project-vs-mix-tape-books/ 

• Jeffrey Levine On Making the Poetry Manuscript: https://jeffreyelevine.com/2011/10/12/on-making-the-poetry-manuscript/ 

• Alina Ştefănescu’s “Crib Sheet on Assembling a Poetry Collection”: https://www.alinastefanescuwriter.com/blog/2018/12/29/crib-sheet-on-assembling-a-poetry-collection. This post includes even more helpful links!