As both an accomplished writer and a career librarian, Carol Smallwood knows a lot about what women ask when they wish to learn about the writing and publishing process. Over the years, I’ve received email invitations from Carol asking for contributions to anthologies whose subjects have rung true as extremely useful for women writers. I have contributed to three of the many anthologies she has edited. The blend of voices in the books makes them among the most useful of the many on my shelves: Women on Poetry: Writing, Revising, Publishing and Teaching co-edited with Colleen S. Harris and Cynthia Brackett-Vincent; Women Writing on Family, co-edited with Suzann Holland, and the recent, Women, Work and the Web: How the Web Creates Entrepreneurial Opportunities for Women.

I am pleased to post this interview with Carol, a many-times Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of the numerous poetry collections including Divining the Prime Meridian (WordTech Editions, 2015); Water, Earth, Air, Fire, and Picket Fences (Lamar University Press, 2014),  Compartments: Poems on Nature, Femininity and Other Realms (Anaphora Literary Press, 2011), Lily’s Odyssey (All Things That Matter Press, 2010), the chapbook A Ceremony (The Head & The Hand Press, 2014), and On the Way to Wendy’s (Pudding House Publications, 2008). Her work also appears in prose anthologies. You can read more about her here.

Sheila
I’ve been wondering a few things about the anthology projects you’ve done. What drove you to create the anthologies you’ve edited on your own and with others? How have you mastered the juggling of your writer, librarian and editor hats? How has your work as a librarian and poet informed and fostered your vision for the anthology projects?

Carol
I started the anthologies for librarians after my retirement as I wanted to still be involved as I had been; before retirement I had done librarian books since 1980 by collecting resources after teachers asked me for materials. It took a few anthologies to figure out how to best do them. It was learn-as-you-go but I enjoyed the professional contacts. To get the library resource books out, I often got up at 3:30 in the morning before going to work to do them first with a typewriter, then after 1983 with my Apple IIe computer.

I didn’t try poetry until after retirement and while I was going through breast cancer. I had felt poetry was way beyond me. So it was very good getting poems slowly accepted and a chapbook out by 2008. When one is told their chances at surviving are 17%, one digs deep to find what they want and need quickly! I was auditing college classes at the time in creative writing as a senior citizen after retirement.

Being a librarian gives one a good overview of books, publishers, readers: I’ve had experience in academic, public, school, special libraries as an administrator, librarian, and consultant.

Sheila
Did you know when you started each anthology which publishers you would approach? Were the books agented? Tell us about your route to publication and the collaborations you did with different co-editors on many of the books.

Carol
There are not that many publishers doing books for librarians and none of my books have gone through an agent. From being a librarian, I knew which publishers to approach. Once I built up a record, it was easier to do more since I had proved I could do them. Publishers were concerned about getting writer agreements, permissions, and the right formats necessary from several contributors: one has to be aware of several details at one time to meet deadlines. Contributors often do not come through. I’ve worked with various co-editors: they have been editors or contributors I had become familiar with and knew the quality of their work. Some worked well, others have not. It is hard to tell if those saying they wanted to edit really have a “fire in the belly” necessary to do the work. Most new co-editors can’t know editing takes a lot of time and effort. When venturing outside the library field to do anthologies, it was a matter of finding publishers and writers working in a different area.

Sheila
I understand the need for collaborators with a “fire in their belly” to do the work and see it through. As a librarian I am sure you are detail oriented. Making an anthology can be like herding cats as contributors forget to get to editors and forget their deadlines.

What were the kinds of forgetting and not coming through you were up against? What did it take to find the co-editors and writers working with poetry?

Carol

Up to half of the contributors do not come through with their work or are unwilling to revise what they’ve sent. A few will not sign offered contracts. So it takes a lot of looking for contributors. The two anthologies I am compiling now require 25 and 30 chapters and it is a challenge to attract the necessary variety of topics and avoid duplication.

Sheila
I am impressed with your work and vision. I’ve heard that publishers are wary about taking on anthology proposals not only because they wonder if the projects will come together but also because they worry that there are not strong audiences for them.

Did you run up against this feeling from publishers about the audiences for the books?

Carol
Yes, publishers were wary at first. Once you have delivered good work/have a good track record, they have the necessary confidence. Only propose anthologies that will draw readers, have a gap that needs to be filled after checking what has already been published.

Sheila
What have been the most gratifying aspects of the various anthology projects? Although they are targeted to women, have men benefitted from the information they contain?

Carol
The most gratifying aspects have been helping to launch writers: those who as contributors or co-editors, then found it easier to get published elsewhere. Reviewers have shared that the anthologies were useful to all writers. Here’s one such review.

Sheila
How do you measure the success of the anthologies?

Carol
That is a difficult question. Some have received critical praise, others sales; a few both. One’s own satisfaction is very important and lasting.

Sheila
What do you most want your potential audiences for the anthologies to know?

Carol
That they are getting information they can use that is reliable from various viewpoints from qualified contributors.

Sheila
That sounds like a succinct mission statement. Let’s switch now to the topic of your poetry.

Some of your short poems were featured in July 2014 in the online Contemporary American Voices, A Journal of Poetry. Your bio after the four featured poems shares that your first poetry collection, a chapbook, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and that hundreds of your award winning poems have appeared in literary magazines in the United States and abroad.

How do you approach sending your poems out for publication and how do you handle rejection? Which awards have had special meaning to you?

Carol
The first Pushcart nomination was for my first full collection in 2011. One never knows when a poem is really finished, ready to send. Some I send soon if I feel they are ready, others sit for a year or more. Acceptance is always a joy; rejection still hurts. I’ve had poems rejected several times that go on to win awards. The first chapter of my first novel was a 2010 Short List Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award for Best New Writing but did not sell well.

It is that unpredictable quality one experiences in writing that keeps one guessing and engaged. I should perhaps pay to enter contests but I don’t. The Eric Hoffer one was a free contest. I’m now sending out an essay collection out in hopes of publication as believe different types of writing helps keep one interested and challenged.

Sheila
What advice do you have for writers at the beginning of their writing journey? How about for those who have been writing awhile?

Carol
Enjoy the ride as chances are high it won’t make you rich. Writing is something to do for yourself, it belongs to you and no one can take it from you. It is the same for those starting out or writing for some years. Writing offers a freedom, an outlet. If you find excuses not to write, do not feel lost without it, than you will not stay the course.

Sheila
I like how you phrase the criteria for staying the course. Most of us who write feel lost if we go too long without putting words down and seeing where they take us.

Is there a question you would have liked me to ask?

Carol
Why there are not more writers like you! I wish there was more a sense of helping one another, especially women helping other women since statistics show women have a harder time getting published. It is very sad they do not. Thank you very much, Sheila, for helping!

Sheila
I think it is important to help in the ways we have in us to help. Those ways are different for everyone. Some people are really good at helping fellow writers by sharing grant and manuscripts wanted information. Some are fabulous responders to early drafts. Others are connectors, helping writers find the right venues for their work. Some organize readings, local contests, and awards for writers in their communities. There are so many ways to help. Some do reviews like Diane Stanton who wrote the review in the link you provided. Some start small presses to help emerging writers publish. Some serve on Arts Commissions. Some start literary journals online or in print. If everyone does a share of the work of sharing, we all benefit as our writing and writing communities thrive.

Before we close, are there links to some other of your poems on line you might share with us?

Carol
I’d like to share this new review of The Universe in a Grain of Sand that includes lines from several poems.

Sheila
Thank you so much for the interview and for introducing us to the woman behind the books.