One Night Stanzas

Photo by Perpetually.

As anyone who’s had their poetry published will tell you, you get a pretty awesome feeling when that first ever acceptance letter hits your doormat or whizzes into your inbox. Your first ever publication - however small a deal it may seem to other people - is a momentous and potentially very important occasion: and it should be celebrated! However, there’s nothing that brings you back down to earth more than the challenge that accompanies your acceptance letter - summarising yourself within what usually feels like an impossibly small space!

Read This asks for 3 - 4 lines of bio, and this is roughly what you can expect from most smaller zines. Larger publications may limit you to a word-count; sometimes as little as forty words. This may seem completely impossible - particularly as (even if the tiny word-count doesn’t bother you) knowing what to put can be a bit tricky sometimes…

First and foremost, the bio is there to tell the readers who you are, so that hopefully they’re remember you, and recognise your stuff if they see it elsewhere. Therefore, you need to give them the basics. Bios are traditionally written in the third person, and your name - be it your real name or the pen name you’ve chosen to write under - should appear early on; it’s the most important detail! The order of the rest of the bio is up to you, but most people tend to follow their name with their age, location or profession… or all three. For example, my opening few words might be:
Claire Askew is a 22 year old poet and tutor from Edinburgh.
Obviously, though, you don’t have to give away any information you don’t want to. As a very young writer, I always used to include my age in my bio, but then later decided I’d rather leave people guessing. If you’re cagey about revealing your whereabouts to hundreds of readers (or perhaps if you’re just worried about your mates identifying you!) then it’s OK to leave out your location… or you can just avoid specifics altogether for a more mysterious air, e.g.:
Claire Askew currently works in education and lives in the UK.

So, what else? Well, once you’ve made sure the reader knows who you are, you can do pretty much anything; but try to make sure you’re not just listing boring facts. At Read This we once received a bio from a guy who gave his name, then listed all his family members and where they lived… which was a) nothing to do with him, and b) nothing to do with his poetry! If you’re clueless as to what to put, one common route is listing past writing credits. If you have a few, pick two or three of the ‘best’, or the ones you’re most proud of. If you only have one or two, stick them down, even if you don’t think they’ll mean much to anyone - your readers will be impressed, I guarantee it, regardless of what you think!
If you don’t have any writing credits to your name, or don’t want to go down that route, never fear! Something else people often do (and I personally love reading this kind of bio!) is write about the creative process, or what inspires them. My inspiration bio, for example, might read:
Claire Askew is a poet and tutor from Edinburgh. She likes to write poems about old ladies, ex-boyfriends and her fair home city. She is inspired by sunny days, the music of Tom Waits and Beat Generation literature.
My friend Florian’s bio shows you how you can take this inspiration idea and inject some wicked humour. If you want to be memorable there’s nothing more effective than a good one-liner, so if you feel like cracking a joke (yes, even in a big serious magazine), then go for it! (Check out Flo’s funny bio at the bottom of this post!)

Hopefully you’ll manage to come up with some cool ideas to fill your 40 words or 4 lines - there are just a few more things to bear in mind. As tempting as it may seem, try to resist making things up to put in your bio. For a start, your readers will probably be able to sniff out a fib, and if you one day become rich and famous, you may well be forced to confront your devious deeds! Also, try not to go over your given limit too much, particularly if you’ve been given a strict word-count. If they say 40 words and you write 43, that’s fine. Writing 65, however, kind of isn’t (though it happens, sometimes, annoyingly - and people get away with it, which is very frustrating for everyone who’s desperately cut words)! Similarly, if you’re told 3 - 4 lines, 5 is probably fine but 8 probably isn’t, etc. If you do write too much and can’t think of anything you can take out, send your bio anyway - just be prepared for the fact that the editors may amend it a little themselves!
Lastly, if you think you can swing it, it’s always worth asking the publication in question if they’d let you include a link in your bio. That way, if you have your own website or any of your work online, an interested reader can check out some more of your stuff with just a click. Most publications are totally happy with this - as long as the website you link to is to do with your writing and isn’t just advertising magic viagra or something - but if they don’t make it obvious, just ask and make sure. And if you’re online but don’t have a website, you can always include your email address.

If you’re still wondering quite how to put your bio together, or if, like me, you’re just of a nosy disposition, have a look at these bios (a pick of the best that have been sent to Read This). If you have a fabulous bio you’ve whipped up and you don’t mind sharing, stick it in the comments box and show off your expertise. And, as always, if you can think of any other bio-writing tips, get in touch - I’m always happy to hear from you!

“The young man who has been described by one local newspaper as “Florian Raith” grew up in the deep, dark forests of Lower-Bavaria, where he remained for most of his life. On seeing the sea for the very first time in his late-teens, he decided to become an artist. Since then he has written numerous poems, three of which are good (according to his mom, who does not speak English well but is otherwise a decent, god-fearing woman).”

“S M feels ancient when he reads the rest of the contributor’s details. He remembers when no one cared about trainers. He loves Edwin Morgan’s Demon poems, Norman MacCaig, Bob Dylan and playing the banjo. Living in Edinburgh, he does his best to convince teenagers that poetry and writing are not freakish activities! Occasionally he is successful!”

“F S has two obsessions, poetry and handbags. She feels the handbags must be symbolic of something but is not sure what. Twelve years ago she became a teacher by mistake.”

“P S is Australian, and recently spent 10 months in Berlin, dabbling in the separate but surprisingly related fields of Erotic Art Production and Culinary Implement Logistics (porn-editing and dishwashing). Many years ago he did a class in Creative Writing at University, and realised that he could put words down on paper in interesting ways.”

“The last bio R P wrote came true, so she will try doing that again. Buoyed by a humble string of successes with her poems, R plans on conquering the ‘rest-of-the-world’ demographic via poetry. She intends on making writing her full-time career. She has no backup plan.”

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Tags: advice for young writers, publishing, resources for young writers, writing a bio, young poets

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Inspiration, Publishing (zines). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.