Thankfully Regretful: My Ten Years of Editing Oddball Magazine

 

 

On October 15, 2012, Jason Wright, poet and editor of a little WordPress site called Oddball Magazine, featured at Stone Soup Poetry. We struck a friendship.

I ended up submitting to Oddball three of my original Jesus poems, all of which were published in January of 2013. 

I think Jason started pushing for me as far back as December 2012 to join Oddball Magazine as an editor. It took about nine months before I caved in. 

 

Ten years later, I'm a month late writing these words to commemorate my tenth anniversary as an editor. I'm over a month late writing this post. What I laughingly call my personal and professional lives are in shambles.

But the magazine still goes up on time (mostly). 

Editing that damned online literary journal has been the bane of my existence more than twice. It's caused me stress, aggravation and has at least made a 10% contributor towards my graying hair. That said, I can't say I have any regrets because I'm back every Monday to editing the damned thing. 

Clearly I was waiting for the opportunity to inflict this almost daily punishment on myself. Now that I have it, I somehow refuse to let go.

The first banner ever used for what would become the yearly  Oddball Horrorthon.

Now what's the first thing you do as the editor of an online magazine? That's right. You feature your own work! I published a multitude of my zombie poems to cover the whole Halloween week of 2013. 

Actually, that's not quite true, but I thought it was until I did a deeper dive this past weekend. 

 

Turns out my very first act as Associate Editor was to publish poems by Martin Willitts, Jr. and Linda Griggs as part of Stone Soup Servings, a weekly column highlighting Stone Soup features on Fridays before they performed on Monday. 

 

The first artist I would bring into the fold would be James Conant--longtime friend and collaborator on my poetry collections Spoonful and other obscure ventures--who I would try to keep involved until his death in 2015. 

 

I also published a Bill Barnum retrospective along with poems by Gordon Marshal (later Sophia Marshall). And another Stone Soup Servings. At least I thought of other people at first. And clearly I was still trying to settle in to a system, ultimately deciding to feature contributors prominently every Wednesday (still my favorite day of the week).

 

I did publish all my best zombie poems of mine the week of Halloween in October of 2013, but that same week I also debuted James Van Looy's poem "It's All One Thing," which would then become the title of his ongoing poem column. 

If there's anything can thank me or blame me for, it's the poem column. Part of the reason why I created the concept of a regular poet coming back week after week to Oddball was to feature people like James who had a mountain of work but either never had the inclination or the opportunities to share it. 

 

I also wanted to light a fire under creators to get more work out of them, which is why publisher Jason Wright was the next one to start a column. I figured it would be his creative outlet and also his Note from the Publisher if needed. 

 

My gamble paid off. Both these poet columnists have gone past 500 weeks worth of posts. Not so fund fact: There was a double post here and there with James before I became less sloppy with the checking process, but the column count is well over that number now. Our remaining weekly contributors are trudging towards that goal as we I type this.

 

Liza Zayas' Underground Garden no longer runs, but her book will be out someday.

Others columnists--both poet and other types--have come and had to go because it's tough keeping it up, which is why I respect their dedication so much. It's also why I never did tried it. Even though the idea was inspired by my own Stone Soup Croutons series on my blog, I never took Jason's offer to move it to Oddball. Partly because I wanted it unique to my blog and mostly because I knew I would screw it up the first month I tried it.

If you ever wondered whether editors intentionally feature their friends and colleagues in the poetry world, the answer from my point of view is yes, of course we do. It's exciting to feature new voices as much as Oddball does, but it would be incredibly lonely if you didn't invite people you like along. 

Thankfully, most poets know when to scale it back and don't send me everything they've ever written. Either that, or they become our "roving poets" who cover current events on a more regular basis. I'd love to give these poets that official title of Roving Poets, though it will probably take another revamp of the website.

Asking friends got me to recruit Janet Cormier and Geoffrey Fallon to be regular contributors. Both creators I had known for years, and Oddball was a perfect opportunity to give them both the outlet they deserved. The results have been fantastic for both them and the journal. I was proud to help facilitate that for them and countless others.   

Geoffrey's Fallon's "Secrets..." turned from a gag panel to an absurd sci-fi romp.

What else am I proud of? Definitely the 2020 year of Oddball as we juggled the Pandemic, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the destruction of Roe v. Wade and the election. That was Oddball Magazine's banner year, which also led to the founding of the Oddball Foundation, which could potentially become bigger and more important than the magazine someday. 

Finally, I'm proud of the fact that in 2023, I have so far published none of my writing in the journal. After my run of Jesus poems, a humor column and other odds and ends, I am so happy we have enough contributors that I don't feel the need to contribute. I didn't even contribute that much photography this year. 

What do I regret? I regret still being behind in responding to contributors. I regret not having more than the small but criminally talented visual artists at hand. Most of the original artists I started with in 2013 contribute anymore. Dr. Regina Valluzzi's paintings are missed and Allison Goldin is still the most versatile contributor we ever had. I regret losing both artists. 

Also, I haven't been very good at recruiting others. If I could make one resolution for 2024, it would be to reconnect with those and several other artists to lighten the burden of the ones still around. If it wasn't for the Matthews family, Oddball would only run a couple of days a week. 

Finally, I want to start nominating people for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net awards. It will be one hell of an undertaking for next year, but I'm willing to try if others can help. Lord knows I need the help.

Here's to another (oh dear God) ten years!