The 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly: Gerald So

Today I welcome Gerald So, poetry and crime fiction fan!

GERALD SO:

April is National Poetry Month, established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, As a poet and crime fiction fan, I created The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly, and join in this month's festivities with 30 Days of The 5-2.

The 5-2 presents an original, crime-themed poem each Monday in text and audio/video. Every day this month, contributors and fans are discussing 5-2 poetry on their blogs and websites. I've published crime poetry for five years -- four as co-editor of The Lineup chapbook series -- and I'm still asked, "What is crime poetry? What purpose does it serve?"

I find poetry lets us react to crime honestly, powerfully, and differently from crime fiction. Even the most innovative fiction follows narrative convention. Poetry, not bound by narrative, can more immediately convey emotion, such as our shock at the Boston Marathon bombing.

In almost two years at The 5-2, I've published all kinds of poems. All have surprised me to some degree as the "crime" guideline is open to poets' interpretation. With a few days left of April, I invite you to sample crime poetry for yourself. Thanks to Janet for inviting me.

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Gerald said I should post about my favorite poem, but reallty they're all so great, how could I choose? Which do you like best? Or which touches you the most? and in what way? Be sure and check back to The 5-2 for the rest of the month's posts! :-)

04-01-13 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Criminal Foolishness" by Jerry House
04-02-13 - Tuesday - Jim Winter at Edged in Blue
04-03-13 - Wednesday - Kathleen A. Ryan at Women of Mystery
04-03-13 - Wednesday - Bill Cameron at Thinking With My Skin
04-04-13 - Thursday - Michael A. Arnzen at Gorelets.com
04-05-13 - Friday - Alison Dasho
04-06-13 - Saturday - Deborah Lacy at Mystery Playground
04-07-13 - Sunday - Clare Toohey at Criminal Element
04-08-13 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Clandestine" by William Anderson
04-08-13 - Monday - Marian Allen
04-09-13 - Tuesday - Bill Cameron at Thinking With My Skin
04-09-13 - Tuesday - Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme
04-10-13 - Wednesday - Keith Rawson at Bloody Knuckles, Callused Fingertips
04-11-13 - Thursday - John DuMond at Nobody Move!
04-12-13 - Friday - Aja Beech at Process Press
04-13-13 - Saturday - Scott Emerson at Brain Nuggets
04-14-13 - Sunday - Deshant Paul at FocusChaos
04-15-13 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "A Close Call" by Matthew Wilson
04-15-13 - Monday - Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine
04-16-13 - Tuesday - Peter Rozovsky at Detectives Beyond Borders
04-17-13 - Wednesday - Kathleen A. Ryan at From Cop to Mom & the Words Between
04-18-13 - Thursday - Clare Toohey at Women of Mystery
04-19-13 - Friday - Charles Rammelkamp
04-20-13 - Saturday - Alec Cizak at No Moral Center
04-21-13 - Sunday - Patricia Abbott at pattinase
04-22-13 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Christine" by Aig'ner Wilson
04-23-13 - Tuesday - B.V. Lawson at In Reference to Murder
04-24-13 - Wednesday - Ian Khadan
04-25-13 - Thursday - Jay Stringer at Do Some Damage
04-26-13 - Friday - Elizabeth A. White
04-27-13 - Saturday - John Ricotta
04-28-13 - Sunday - Kieran Shea
04-29-13 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Swine" by Ruth Sabath Rosenthal
04-30-13 - Tuesday - Donora Hillard

The Lineup Blog Tour: Gerald So, Guest Blogger

Crime Fiction is rife for poetry, and the editors and poets of the latest issue of The Lineup: Poems on Crime prove that point. The poems in this collection are sharp, tough and pithy. Good poetry is. Today I welcome Gerald So as guest blogger.

Gerald So and his 'partners in crime' are on a Blog Tour to publicize the Fourth Annual issue of The Lineup: Poems on Crime, edited by Gerald So, Reed Farrel Coleman, Sarah Cortez and R. Narvaez.  Read what Kevin Burton Smith wrote  about this Collection. There's nothing like a poetic review of poetry!  Gerald has asked members of the crime-fiction community to post about The Lineup each day in April, National Poetry Month in the United States (and Canada). Read the other stops with comments, interviews and analysis. Here's the full month's schedule.

Gerald So is best known as fiction editor for The Thrilling Detective Web Site (2001-'09). He also served as president of The Short Mystery Fiction Society (2008-'10).  Since 2008, he has co-edited THE LINEUP: POEMS ON CRIME, whose fourth annual issue went on sale April 1. 
GERALD SO:

The idea for THE LINEUP came to me in 2007 from A.E. Roman, author of the Chico Santana P.I. series (CHINATOWN ANGEL, THE SUPERMAN PROJECT). Knowing of my poetry and my work as fiction editor for The Thrilling Detective Web Site, Roman asked if I had ever thought of putting together an anthology of crime-themed poetry. I told him I hadn't, but would explore the idea.

I e-mailed a handful of people I thought had the right sensibilities and book design know-how. Patrick Shawn Bagley, Richie Narvaez, and Anthony Rainone responded. A year earlier, Anthony had had an article published in MYSTERY SCENE MAGAZINE--"Raven in a Trenchcoat: Hardboiled and Noir Poetry"--in which he traced criminal undertones from classic to postmodern poetry, featuring Patrick and me, among current poets. Richie I knew from his Web site, Asinine Poetry, but I had also accepted a P.I. story of his, "El Bohemio", for Thrilling Detective.

I invited the four of them to co-edit with me, but Roman had no time to read submissions, so Patrick, Richie, Anthony, and I shaped the concept from there. The first annual LINEUP, published in July 2008, was by-invitation-only. We've accepted unsolicited poetry since Issue 2, and have published on April 1--the start of National Poetry Month--since Issue 3. Patrick and Anthony have stepped down to write their novels, but two of THE LINEUP's earliest contributors--Sarah Cortez and Reed Farrel Coleman--have come aboard.

THE LINEUP has featured new and previously published poetry by David Corbett, Ken Bruen, Sophie Hannah, John Harvey, Manuel Ramos, and Stephen Jay Schwartz, to name a few. As of Issue 5, which opened to submissions March 1, we accept only unpublished work. We hope this encourages poets and writers who discover--as I have--there are some moments, some images, poetry captures much better than prose.

THE LINEUP is currently carried by Murder By The Book in Houston, Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, and The Mysterious Bookshop in New York. Buy online HERE

Thanks again, Janet, for inviting me to guest-blog.

Gerald So
http://poemsoncrime.blogspot.com