technical stuff: why it works

WHY IT WORKS: Most literary journals, both in print and online, have tended to have an editorial centre that selects works based on a determined criteria. Often, the criteria will run along factional lines, be this intentional or otherwise, or according simply to personal poetic taste, or, worse, to poetic trends and fashions. In the case of the major conglomerate publishers, poetry is saleable if and only if it is widely consumable.

The mollusca chain has no major problem with this per se - these things will happen. But the chain does see an opportunity to redistribute editorial power amongst the poetic community it seeks to voice. The method allows poets - the practioners - to guide the movement of contemporary poetry in the directions chosen by convergences of interest. The chain emphasizes peer selection: a poet's work is endorsed and encouraged by their elders and contemporaries, providing a process through which a poetic community can strengthen its allegiances. The letter is personal: it is snail-mailed by individual poets to poets they respect or think would say something interesting about the theme, who then personally mail a poem back, perhaps reducing the sense of isolation that can threaten (especially young or emerging) poets. The letters run in editions, meaning each six months sees the production of a new letter, with a new theme, prompting new bouts of creative output. There is no lengthy or overly competitive selection process; there will be no rejection slip. The hard work of reading, rereading, and endorsing poems is divided up between those who are writing them.