November & December 2019
Vol IV No VI
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
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Staff, listed in order of when they joined.
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Anthony “Uplandpoet” Watkins ​Publisher, Founder
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Vera Ignatowitsch Editor-in-Chief, Managing Director, Formal & Rhyming Poetry Page Editor, Content 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 (July, 2017 – July, 2018)
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Rameeza Nasim Asian Poetry Editor (on hiatus)
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Michael R. Burch occasional Contributing Editor
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Christy Burbidge Associate Copy Editor
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Elaine Wilburt Copy Editor (November 2018 to 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.
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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 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).
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We would welcome new editors for any of the many genres we have published and will continue to publish. Each of our section editors has what is essentially a franchise in their category or genre.
Contact us at: betterthanstarbucks2@gmail.com
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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We are actively looking for section editors, and an art director.
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Missing pieces of the puzzle also include:
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
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.