Who we are
My late mother and our dear dead friend "Mrs. Dan" in front of our old Mercury sedan at Coon Cottage, West Helena, Arkansas, circa 1963.
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 a love of the written word.
"We" are steadfastly me,
Anthony "Uplandpoet" Watkins, and whomever else I can rope into being a bit of help.
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In fact, you you would like to edit or read and judge submissions, let me know. You might end up being an Associate Editor
Even in 1968, at our old home in Shorter, Alabama, the littlest one was the noisiest.
And nearly 50 years later, I still am.
As we start out, this is a very much a "one man band",
so a bit about the "band"
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Contact us at: betterthanstarbucks2@gmail.com
At age 5, I fell in love with poetry, because I could make up my own rules. I have pretty much been living by the self-made rules all my life.
In 1995 I started a local print literary and arts paper called Scene, Arts of the Treasure Coast, with a little insert called Sleeping Bear Press. After 7 years of long tiring hours and great fun, I gave it up in 2002. Along the way, it morphed into Abundance, a Harvest of Life, Literature, & the Arts.
In the past decade I started a group on Shelfari that soon filled up with a few thousand wonderful people. We are struggling to readjust to life on Goodreads, as they are now merging. We called that site Better than Starbucks.
Speaking of Goodreads, I am a three-time winner of the Goodreads Newsletter Poet of the Month!
I also have a few other publishing credits, but as I usually post my poetry two or three places on line, I rarely submit them for consideration. One of my dear friends on Shelfari pointed me to a class on Coursera, Modern Poetry, from the University of Pennsylvania. It has changed my life and I highly recommend it to EVERYONE. It is led by Prof. Al Filreis, and his able band of Teaching Assistants! As of last year, I have been honored to join the as a Community Teaching Assistant.
There is more about me, and I could go on for hours, but nobody but my mother would want to read it, and she passed away back in January. Love to Mom, and I hope you all come to love this “little paper.”
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Our goal is to offer a living website that combines the old salon feeling of our soon to be destroyed Shelfari group and the old literary journal that served three counties in Florida for 7 years. If you can think of a way you can help make us better, please let us know.
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I have never been the best at anything, but i have always put myself forward as a willing servant to do what i think needs to be done, and to take help from any who care to, and are able to, offer it.