Guest Editors Reflect, Part Three

From 2021 to 2022, five guest editors curated three issues each of Poetry magazine. (A sixth guest editor, Charif Shanahan, is currently working with Poetry.) We asked those five guest editors to reflect back on their time for the exhibition “Poetry” Magazine Cover Flats, May 2021-September 2022, which is currently on display at the Poetry Foundation and will next travel to the Poetry Center at the University of Arizona. Read previous installments on the Editors’ Blog, and check back next week for the next installment.

Going through the three issues I put together for Poetry, I am still blown away by both the design and the poems. These poets and their voices are brilliant reflections of what poetry is capable of when nurtured. I am always looking forward, and the poems I was fortunate to work with were the wheels carrying me. Furthermore, I cannot say enough about how humbled I was by the inspiring and educational conversations I had: with colleagues, with poets, with readers, and others. I could not have asked for a better community of interlocutors. I came to Poetry to learn; it was one of the best educations I could have asked for.

I’m still so thankful for the opportunity I was given. Among hundreds of applicants and through a thorough interview process, I was chosen to create these three issues. During a tumultuous time, Poetry put their prestigious magazine and reputation—and everything that goes with it—in my hands.

It was a time of transition, and I was eager to be a part of that, maybe too eager. I wanted to be a part of every moment, to appreciate the myriad of opportunities that the Poetry Foundation provided. I pulled myself in a million directions to learn whatever I could during my short tenure there. I knew what an honor it was to be selected to work with and help lead Poetry’s amazing team during a unique time in the organization’s history, and I didn’t want to waste a moment of it.

I now realize that growth cannot happen overnight, nor should it. It must be built with the goal of sustainability. As anyone in nonprofit work can tell you, burnout plagues the industry. The mission looms so large in our minds and hearts that we sacrifice to it, and not only is that harmful to ourselves, but it becomes a system of harm that affects everyone we work with and, ultimately, for.  

I continue to admire how Poetry has rebuilt itself from top-to-bottom with the help of our community. It’s not easy to reevaluate what has been built. When I became co-publisher of Noemi and the Review Manager of Lambda Literary Review, both positions provided chances for me to help evolve the organizations. How could I honor the past while also making critical changes? One of the hardest parts is being amid the work, trying to see it from the outside. It’s easy to make promises, but following through is harder, and it deserves time. I saw so much of the back work during my time, the meetings and debates, as well as long hours. Seeing these efforts come to fruition has been a lesson I try to honor in my own organizational work.

And the beautiful thing is, I know Poetry isn’t done growing yet. But what a brilliant start. Bringing in the varied and unique perspectives of an amazing group of guest editors was a way to open the conversation. I have been thrilled with how Adrian and the rest of the team have continued pushing themselves. Whatever Poetry looks like in the future will be built not just on the words put in the pages, but by the connections and relationships built therein.

I was with Poetry for less than six months, but the relationships I made there are still ones I rely on to this day. Institutions will come and go, Rome will fall. But if we build community and come to the table with openness, that is where we learn the most, and that is what will last. And by “community,” I mean also the 1:1 relationships that we rely on for perspective, for guidance, for support, and for joy and love. 

I am so grateful to Poetry, to the editors and readers. Of course, to Angel, Fred, Holly, Lindsay, Michelle, and Ydalmi. People who are no longer there, like Hannah, whose creativity excited me, and people who have come after me, such as Charif.  

I’m extremely proud as well. Looking back, I see a Suzi who was eager but impatient. I hope now to be a different Suzi, one who appreciates a more methodical change and sees that kindness and growth begin within, with understanding and sustainability. The work I did at Poetry was just a part of the story, and while I am excited to see what my future holds, as well as Poetry’s, I am also enjoying the process, from the ground up.