[New-Poetry] Big Bucks in Poetics

[Suzanne Burns]

Ted Hughes lived off his writing-- note though that he didn't just publish
poetry but also children's books, BBC scripts, commissions of one sort or
another.  Plath also lived off of her writing and worked very hard to make
her name writing for "women's magazines".  Ladies Home Journal, Reader's
Digest, etc.  It paid.  The Bell Jar was written with the goal of breaking
into the bestselling "pot-boiler" novel genre.

So yeah, you can make money off of your writing.  I guess I do that
technically speaking-- I'm a professional tech writer.  My latest client
just gave me an iPod as a thank you present.  As a poet the best I can hope
for is maybe a free beer and all the cheese I can eat. :-)

Merwin doesn;t work directly in Academia, but he certainly reads and speaks
in academically funded situations, and I am sure judges the Yale series has
some small change attached to it.  He also translates and has done very well
there.  His place in Hawaii is supposed to be gorgeous.

Suzanne

On Dec 17, 2007 7:54 PM, David Graham <grahamd at ripon.edu> wrote:

> I'm not sure where in the Constitution it covers the position of Poet
> Laureate, but as I've noted before when this subject crops up, the position
> is not funded with tax dollars.  It's a private endowment, administered by
> the Librarian of Congress.
> I would guess that virtually no poet lives on royalties.  Even Merwin has
> over the years brought in a lot of his cash via readings, translations, and
> such.  I'd be surprised if he actually lives on book sales per se, but I
> could be wrong.
>
> If you count readings, conference appearances, contest judging, editorial
> work, and other ancillary activities, not simply book sales, I would further
> wager that quite a few American poets could live quite well off their art
> without tenured teaching gigs.  Donald Hall has been doing it for decades,
> to cite one such instance, and so has Robert Bly.
>
>
>
>
> ========================================
> David Graham
> grahamd at ripon.edu
>
> Home Page:
> http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/About%20Me.html
>
> Poetry Library:
> http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
> ==========================================
>
>
>
> On Dec 17, 2007, at 5:49 PM, R Dillon wrote:
>
>
> This fact may have been posted already but there is one poet only who not
> only
> lives off of his book sales and royalties but has always done so, plus, he
> is not
> a member of any academic faculty or has any job other than being a poet.
>
> I know that this is the case because this fact was disclosed in his
> presence and
> he made no move to contradict or clarify it.  And, he has a real agent who
> handles
> the business.
>
> Also, he seems to me to be one of the few that is utterly qualified to be
> U.S. poet
> laureate from a Constitutional perspective.  Perhaps, because he has
> succeeded in the free marketplace on his own terms without compromise, he
> would not be a reliable advocate for those who don't look at things this
> way.
>
> Merwin
>
> It did make wonder how many poets are able to live off their royalties, or
>
> have royalties enough coming in that loss of some portion of those monies
> means the difference between getting the roof fixed or having to put a
> bucket in
> attic? Re: Can't Cope With Copyright Infringement (JforJames at aol.com)
>
> R.D.
>
>
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>
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