SC Weekly – March 2026 – #2

~ a curated selection of discoveries ~

::: The Open :::

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoy this edition of SC Weekly (published on Sundays).

Please consider sharing with a friend who you think may enjoy this newsletter.

Thank you for reading and for your time.

With Gratitude,

~ Mark

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::: Personal Notes :::

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I spent the last few days with Louisa at AWP26 in Baltimore.

It’s been a whirlwind experience (like AWP always is) and I’ve loved the small encounters, these brief capsule moments with poets & writers I typically only have the opportunity to engage with via emails or texts or the occasional Zoom.

I’m incredibly grateful for all I encountered who generously offered praise for my work with ONE ART and dedication to the literary community. It is very much appreciated and I have done my best to let it soak in and really feel these heartfelt statements.

I’m hoping to write a follow up piece or two about the AWP experience. Maybe less about the conference itself than about what’s it’s like for me being out in the world mingling with people— especially since, well, I haven’t gotten out much (as they say) these past two years or so. Post-pandemic (though that still doesn’t feel quite right to write), has had a host of challenges and then chronic pain and other health issues since January 2022…

While taxing, there were waves of joy, all at once, these past few days. Something worth holding onto.

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::: ONE ART :::

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>> Upcoming Workshops <<

>> Upcoming Readings <<

>> Past recordings of ONE ART readings <<

>> ONE ART ~ Poetry Community (on Facebook) <<

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ONE ART’s 2026 Haiku Anthology is open for submissions.

Deadline: March 15

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ONE ART’s IN A NUTSHELL: an anthology of micropoems

Guest Edited by Julia Caroline Knowlton

In case you missed it, here’s a recording of the release celebratory reading.

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::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::

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‘Fast Response & No Fee Lit Mags/Journals’ (Trish Hopkinson)

Includes ONE ART.

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‘Popular (and good)’ (Seth Godin)

Worth keeping in mind for poets/writers/artists.

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‘We read over 7000 stories & essays. Here are our top 9 submitting tips!’ (Strange Pilgrims)

“what we’re really looking for is a reason to trust you as a writer”

“The best opening paragraphs we read … settle into a voice so specific and alive that we forget we’re reading a submission at all.”

“We’ve read plenty of submissions with fascinating premises — time travel, strange rituals, elaborate alternate histories — that somehow felt inert on the page. And we’ve read stories about a woman folding laundry that made us hold our breath.”

“More stories die from neatness than from chaos.”

“Please, for goodness sake don’t self-reject.”

“Look, most of us write really bad dialogue in our initial drafts.”

“Look at what Carver does: his characters talk about the objects on the table, the weather, what’s for dinner—everything except the thing the scene is actually about. The weight lands in the gap between what’s said and what’s meant.”

“In short, if your characters are saying exactly what they feel, you might be making the reader’s job too easy, and too boring.”

“Confusion, in small doses, is a gift to the reader. It means something is happening that requires their attention.”

“For real, read it…the whole thing! Open your phone, hit record, and read it like you’re reading it to someone you love. Then play it back. You will hear everything—the sentence that trips your tongue, the paragraph where your energy dips, the section where you start rushing because even you’re getting bored.”

“Most people think rhythm is a poetry thing… poetry gets to announce its rhythm. Line breaks, meter, stanzas, all of it is scaffolding that tells the reader: pay attention to how this sounds.

“Prose doesn’t necessary get that scaffolding. Rather, it must build its rhythm invisibly, inside the syntax, through the length and weight and fall of every sentence. Which means, in a way, rhythm matters more in prose because if it’s off, there’s nothing structural to catch it, the whole thing just fizzles and the reader puts it down without knowing why.”

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::: Podcasts :::

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‘Kai Ryssdal on Why the Economy Isn’t as Strong as It Looks’

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

I really enjoy conversations between Scott and Kai.

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‘Speaking Up at Work, Scott’s Guide to Fundraising, and The Case for Atheism’

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

I appreciate Scott’s points about speaking up in the workplace. It’s practical advice in a world filled with virtue signaling.

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::: The Trump Regime :::

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‘Claude is still top of the US free App Store, as users defect from ChatGPT following Pentagon deal’ (Sherwood)

Claude’s creator Anthropic has aimed to be the more ethical company and props to CEO Dario Amodei for thinking about safety over profit.

Unfortunately, as you are likely well aware, there’s much more to the Anthropic story in the news lately.

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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::

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Happy Read Across America Day — 40% of US adults didn’t read a single book last year (Sherwood)

Poetry prefers the fringe most of the time.

The Roman Empire continues to reign supreme.

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‘‘Leverage.’ ‘Reach Out.’ ‘Circle Back.’ The Corporate Jargon We Hate the Most.’ (WSJ)

This is funny.

I’ve gone from finding corporate jargon annoying but humorous to, sometimes, surprisingly useful. These are often shortcuts. IYKYK.

Some of these words and phrases are legit terrible and/or make zero sense whatsoever. (aka. “soup to nuts”) … Some of these words/phrases are things I say just being what I thought was myself and somehow corporate jargon appears to have trickled down to mainstream… but, weirdly enough, some of the language I’ve been using since middle or high school so it’s a little bizarre to me.

Anyhow, I wrote a goofy poem some years back playing with corporate jargon.

It reminds me of getting into football (NFL) at basically the worse time… ethically speaking.

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~ Alternative Ways to Support ~

>> Make a donation to ONE ART: a journal of poetry.