As a bit of fun, I have plugged the geographical location of about 75% of the poets published to date in Algebra of Owls into a map generator to produce a quick visual overview of where our contributors have come from.
Here is a zoomed-in map of the UK (which is pretty crowded on the big map).
It’s a reminder of the benign influence the Internet can still exert.
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Ooh, there’s a big gap around me, I feel that’s a gauntlet laid down.
Just out of interest have you done a ballpark gender split too?
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I did a little while ago. Almost bang on 50/50. Not by design because we don’t consider the identity of the poet at all, we just go for the poems we like best.
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That’s what I guessed it would be which is awesome.
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I just did a recount. To date we have 127 men and 128 women. I think that if a journal genuinely takes no account of identity, you might expect it to look like that. The exception might be if a given journal receives substantially more submissions from one gender or the other, which might then be reflected in the acceptances. Our contributor base is biased to the UK, for example, simply because the majority of our submissions come from the UK and…statistics. We also reflect a wide range of experience/history, with both prizewinners and previously unpublished poets – because we don’t care. We don’t buy into positive discrimination of any kind, whether it is gender, geography, publishing history, whatever – it irritates me when you see statements like “We favour Northern poets” or poets from Yorkshire…. Why? Is not the poem paramount, the quality above all else? I suspect some poets with ‘reputation’ might actually dislike this and expect preferential treatment. Well, tough titty. Send us a poem that gets our attention, because nothing else works.
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Who else is clinging to the north Norfolk rump with me?d
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All details confidential. But, Norwich.
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Good idea, though I was in the missing 25% (bravely stifled sob!).
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Ooops! Sorry.
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Interesting. And the previous comments 🙂 The competitive in me would like to know how many submissions you get to select from in any period.
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https://algebraofowls.com/2017/11/01/editorial-our-processes/
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Thanx AoO. Actually had read this some time before but age and infirmity are my go-to excuses for memory challenges 😉.
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