July & August 2020
Vol V No IV
Not your ordinary poetry magazine!
If good coffee (or just the concept of coffee), great books, sharp wit, and great authors excite you, we are for you!
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Published bi-monthly
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
Anthony “Uplandpoet” Watkins Publisher, Founder, Fiction Editor, Contributor: From the Mind
Vera Ignatowitsch Editor-in-Chief (January 2018 – present,) Formal & Rhyming Editor (November 2016 – present,) Managing Editor & Content Editor (November 2017 – present)
Tom Merrill Advisory Editor (May 2020 – present)
Kevin McLaughlin Haiku Editor, Spiritual Adviser, Poetry Mentor (November 2016 – present)
Suzanne Robinson Poetry (Free Verse) Editor ((November 2016 – present)
Susan McLean Poetry Translations Editor (March 2020 – present)
Robert Schechter Poetry for Children Editor (March 2020 – present)
Joseph E. Petta Experimental & Form Poetry Editor (May 2020 – present)
S. Ye Laird Poetry Translations Page Editor (November, 2016 – June 2018)
Tendai Rinos Mwanaka African Poetry Editor (July, 2017 – July, 2018)
Rameeza Nasim Asian Poetry Editor (September 2017 - March 2018)
Michael R. Burch Guest Editor: International Poetry, Poetry Translations, African Poetry
(May 2018 – March 2019)
A.M. Juster Guest Interviewer (May 2019, January 2020)
Christy Burbidge Associate Copy Editor
Elaine Wilburt Copy Editor (November 2018 – present)
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.
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 Free Verse Poetry Page. We have a greater depth and breadth than anything I could offer when I was trying to wear all the hats!
Tendai Rinos Mwanaka served as our African poetry editor for twelve issues, and those issues continue to be available in our archives. Michael R. Burch has been a guest editor of International Poetry, African Poetry, and Poetry Translations (together with Vera Ignatowitsch).
As of March 2020 Susan McLean is our Poetry Translations editor, and Robert Schechter joins us to edit our new Poetry for Children section.
We would welcome new editors for any of the many genres we have published and will continue to publish. Vera Ignatowitsch continues to oversee African, International, Form and Prose poetry, her own Free Verse selections and Poetry Unplugged, as well as Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction. Each of our section editors has what is essentially a franchise in their category or genre.
Please continue to direct your submissions, questions, and thoughts to betterthanstarbucks2@gmail.com, and put the genre in your subject so that your work is copied to the attention of whichever page editor would like to see it.
We are actively looking for section editors, assistants, an art director, and someone to bring our records up to date. Seeking out poetry communities and posting calls for submissions is another thing we could use assistance with, as well as social media management in general.
Missing pieces of the puzzle includes:
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.
The maybes, let’s talk:
an interviewer
a book reviewer,
a movie reviewer/critic
an art page editor or an art critic or both.
— Anthony Watkins
Mentors, Ghosts, and Spiritual Editors
Contact us at: betterthanstarbucks2@gmail.com
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.
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.
— Anthony Watkins