Joe here. I co-authored The Complete Idiot's Guide to Slam Poetry with Marc. Prior to meeting Marc, I had never heard of "Slam Poetry." A friend and colleague of mine, Mikal Belicove, was working as acquisitions editor at Alpha Books, which is now owned by Penguin. He called me up one day and asked, "What do you know about Slam Poetry?"

I replied, "Never heard of it, why?"

And Mikal said, "How would you like to write a book about it?"

I told Mikal that as long as I could work alongside an expert on the topic, I would be willing to collaborate. After all, I had a degree in Creative Writing and a couple poetry courses under my belt... certainly that qualified me for something. Mikal introduced me to Marc by way of a phone call, and Marc and I arranged to meet up in Chicago, my home town. (At the time, I was living in Indianapolis.)

When people in the Slam community hear my name, instead of saying "So What?!" I expect they're saying, "Joe Who?!" I'm what the Slam community refers to as a "virgin virgin," and I have a chastity belt welded in place--I doubt I will ever write and perform one of my own poems in public. When I attend Slam events and am introduced as the co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Slam Poetry, I always feel like a poser, someone who's simply capitalizing on the movement. Nothing anyone says or does makes me feel that way. Everyone I've met in the slam community has been very hospitable. I just feel as though I haven't paid my dues. I am not slam worthy.

The reason I'm saying all this is not because I'm some recovering Catholic trying to purge his soul of guilt but because I believe that for anything to be any good, it has to be honest, and that's more true for poetry than for anything else, including politics. The value of my contribution to this blog and to the Slam community hinges on my ability to be honest. And, quite honestly, I'm no slam expert. I leave that part up to Marc. 

So what's this blog all about, and why has Marc decided to finally ramp up his Internet marketing efforts? Well, I posted a brief explanation on Amazon, if you care to read it. Go to the book's page at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592572464/ref=cm_arms_pdp_dp/103-9128124-9714244 and scroll down to the post called "Selling the Last 300 Copies."

 

Enjoy!