Thank you to Lee Herrick and In the Grove, for the Pushcart Prize nomination of my poem, "A Genesis of We, Cleaved." Recognition is always nice, affirmation that my work and I must be doing something right.
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Tara Betts has recently posted on being a working poet, and that earning honoraria is a part of this working. A local API poet/educator invited me to speak in his Asian American literature class a while back, and he and I had a good conversation about being paid. One thing this poet/educator told me, as he spoke from experience, is that there is this interesting expectation, from community groups, from various institutions, that artists shoulder the burden of being educational and artistic institutions' unpaid labor. That is, we are generally expected to be unconditionally philanthropic, to donate our talents. Alternately, there are institutions who believe their "payment" back to us will be publicity opportunities or opportunities to sell books, chapbooks, or other product. Then there are the softer reasons for non-payment, reasons of "good karma," and for the "good of the community."
This oftentimes does not take into account transportation expenses/gas money, time off work for many of us have day jobs not related to poetry, travel time, and then the work itself of public speaking and performance.
In my experience, there are many organizations and institutions that have been able to be generous with not just the paycheck but the accommodations, the transportation, and food(!), and this is very awesome. There are groups and institutions who cannot afford much and are generous with what they have, offering modest honoraria, rides, a place to stay, in respect of our time and work. In terms of publication, I am frequently offered contributor copies of these publications, and I think that's generally just right.
And there are the folks for whom I have and will continue to donate my work and time. It is my decision to do so, for various reasons which are mine to determine. That said, I believe it is perfectly professional to ask about honoraria.
Anyway, this is just to say that I believe in valuing the work of artists, in not demanding our labor be free. That's all.
