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  Who we are

   Better Than Starbucks

    Founded 1995 as Scene, Arts of the Treasure Coast,

    Renamed 1998 Abundance, a Harvest of Literature, Life & the Arts

    Revived 2016 as Better Than Starbucks

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    Staff, listed in order of when they joined.

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    Anthony "Uplandpoet" Watkins                    ​Publisher, Founder, Editor-in-Chief        

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    Vera Ignatowitsch                                           Managing Editor, Formal & Rhyming Poetry Page Editor, Layout & Copy Editor          

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    Kevin McLaughlin                                           Haiku Page Editor, Spiritual Adviser, Poetry Mentor 

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    S. Ye Laird                                                        Poetry Translations Page Editor (November, 2016 – June 2018)

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    Suzanne Robinson                                          Poetry  (Free Verse) Editor

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    Tendai Rinos Mwanaka                                  African Poetry Editor

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    Rameeza Nasim                                               Asian Poetry Editor  (on hiatus)

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    Michael R. Burch                                             Guest Editor, International Poetry

Who We Are, and How We Got Here

For the first four issues, this space ran on a bit about the publisher. At first, this was due to the fact that there was nobody here but the publisher. Now, as you can see, we have added several staff members so that we are a fairly fully staffed journal.

 

First came my trusted mentor and spiritual advisor, Kevin McLaughlin, to edit our Haiku Page, then Vera Ignatowitsch to edit Formal & Rhyming Poetry.

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S. Ye Laird edited Poetry Translations from November 2016 – June 2018, and Suzanne Robinson officially accepted the title of what she has been all along, the final judge of what goes on the General Poetry Page. We have a greater depth and breadth than anything I could offer when I was trying to wear all the hats!

 

We have also added an International Poetry section, with Tendai Mwanaka as editor of African Poetry. Rameeza Nasim served as editor of Asian Poetry from July 2017 until April 2018 and is presently on hiatus.

 

We welcome Michael R. Burch as a guest editor of International Poetry in May 2018!

Please continue to direct your submissions, questions, and thoughts to betterthanstarbucks2@gmail.com, but you might want to put your submitted work to the attention of whichever page editor seems most likely to want to see it. 

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Staff we have yet to find, but are actively looking for!

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We are still missing a few pieces of the puzzle:

A grant writer (we are a non profit in fact, but not in law). We need someone who knows how to help with fund-gathering to, first, pay contributors, and then, possibly, though none have ever asked for a dime, the various editors.

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The maybes, let's talk:

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an interviewer

a book reviewer,

a movie reviewer/critic

and either an art page editor or an art critic or both.

Mentors, Ghosts, and Spiritual Editors

poetry magazine, Mom, Mrs.Dan
poetry magazine, family portrait

Neither of these wonderful ladies are on our staff, as both are deceased, but they put this little muddy footed boy on the path to the love of the written word.

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                                      As of December 4,

                                        2016, we can add

                                          the ghost of my

                                        father. He never

                                      quite understood why

                                   anyone would work so hard  for something that didn't make any money,  but he always supported my efforts to create  a place for poetry, literature and art.

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