ISSUE 3
I am beyond grateful to my predecessors who left me a remarkable legacy to work with and to continue the work of. As the first editor to work on The Orange Couch inside the walls of our Lincoln Park location where the orange couch lives, it has been a lovely experience to collaborate with my fellow tutors on making this issue come to life.
As with the previous two issues, we remain in the pandemic as we prepare for publication. Our challenge here was not just establishing a connection in our virtual modalities but creating a welcoming and vibrant environment in our face-to-face appointments while taking the appropriate precautions to ensure the health of our community. As tutors and as writers, we at the UCWbL have done our best to create a collaborative environment that aims to aid in the revision process through the implementation of our core values and practices. Our face-to-face appointments required physical distance and masking that made deciphering facial expressions and words a bit more difficult at times as well as persevering through other physical and emotional turmoils the pandemic continues to have. In spite of these additional challenges, I am proud of the genuine connections we as tutors get to experience every week from those who let us be a part of their writing process, including everyone who submitted to The Orange Couch.
At the UCWbL, we believe that “All writers, no matter how accomplished, can improve their writing by sharing work in progress and revising based on constructive criticism.” This third issue is a reflection of this belief. We are immensely
proud of all the work you writers have done and your initiative in seeking feedback to refine your craft. We had several volunteers read through submissions, and I can confidently say we appreciate the trust you place in us as editors to edit your pieces and offer suggestions as well as the trust you all had in us to publish your writing, which can be so personal. I am so proud of the wide range of topics covered in this issue, from those pertaining to queerness to those describing art. We value all the work you submitted and are honored to publish it and share it with others!
I want to give a special thank you to the editorial board who spent countless hours reading through submissions and emailing different departments alongside our sole promotional board member; the facilitators of Writers Guild who promoted our magazine within their writing group and provided feedback on several pieces we published; Brooks H. for his wonderful poetry workshop; the wonderful staff involved with our social media marketing; every writer who submitted and provided insightful reflections on their work; and every single reader who without a doubt supports these writers in all their writing adventures. This issue would not be the same without you!
The Orange Couch Editor | June 7, 2022
Pinky Finger
We focused a lot on voice and perspective in the piece. Since it is me talking to myself, we discussed how to make that more clear. I also wanted to play with imagery and physical description which was tough for me but very fun.
hands
For “hands,” I completely reworked the stanzas leading up to the last stanza. I made the purpose of the “September’s moonlight” stanza clearer, capturing the narrator’s initial uncertainty about the connection, which I then made sure to juxtapose with the rest of the poem. I also made the “enchanted” reference clearer by explicitly stating it as a song reference and adding a reason for that song reference as well. Lastly, I made the cold vs. warmth theme throughout the poem much more noticeable at the beginning to keep the poem consistent throughout.
Yo Me Voy
Being told what others thought I did well was really helpful during the process as it helped me see more of areas that solicited a reaction from the audience and helped me take that information and apply it to other areas that I thought could also benefit from it. Knowing where an audience wanted more details was also beneficial, as it helped me see places where I thought an audience was intrigued by or where more information was needed to help make an impact.
Milkdromeda
The biggest change I made was in the second to last stanza where I added lines that connected to the first few stanzas. I brought back the voices and quarrels from the start, making it clear that they represent humans. I also tweaked the “And I watch,” stanza to make it flow better, changing envisionments to just visions, changing “radiating” to glimmering for an alliteration effect, and shortening the last line to keep it succinct. Lastly, I steered away from cliche at the end of the “Cut from the same cloth” line by changing what I originally had to a pause and then bringing in “But I’m afraid, you were too late” to bring back the pace of the poem.
Silver-Barked Trees
Someone thought it might be better to know a little background information about the characters, so I tried to mention the types of missions the girls usually go on. People also asked what type of relationship they had (platonic/familial/romantic) but I decided to keep it vague on purpose.
Spit Me Out
I worked with Angie a lot on structure and punctuation. I had never written poetry before so we also worked on genre conventions and general style.
Thirty
I received a lot of feedback on the clarity and comprehension of my piece. The feedback mostly revolved around long sentences that could be confusing or murky in meaning. Bringing this piece in, I was very insecure that it was contrived and was also concerned because it is a style of poetry I am unfamiliar with. I got a lot of great feedback on the effectiveness of the piece, the ambiguity of the central meaning, and how its themes could be brought to the surface more.
An Ode to Cleveland
I received feedback on the title, which I changed from Ode to Ohio to Ode to Cleveland. I also received feedback on certain lines and their wording. Additionally, I was encouraged to play around with stanza breaks, which I tried but didn’t like.
Honey I’m on Fire
I was told it was tight and the rhythm flowed well. There was one stanza where my syllables were inconsistent, and a few places where there was confusion on word choice such as “ones” for money and beginning the poem during a job search not in the scene most discussed. I was told that there was a lot said in a short amount of time and that my puns were effective.
The Right Spell
The feedback helped me see my work from the perspective of readers and see where some word choices might be less clear or where excessive wordiness might detract from the piece.
“Cowboys on LSD—intercepted missive—Not Suitable For Public Viewing—c0lor1z3d—EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY—Digital-Reprint—Surgeon General’s Warning: May Cause Liver Damage—With love, Mom.”
Since surrealism is a style I don’t dabble in too often, getting a read on what parts were confusing in the right ways, vs. confusing in the wrong ways, was very beneficial.
Pieta and Bob
My introduction I completely rewrote in order to more blatantly hint at the death of Bob. I also included more thorough descriptions of Lazlo and Bob in comparison.
Portrait of My Debit Card Signature
This was a self-assigned prompt, and since I had no idea of how it was/wasn’t working, getting a sense of that from the lovely folks at WG gave me helpful feedback on how to tweak my punctuation, wording, and get a sense of what flowed and what I could make more clear.
Altar to mothers / Ofrenda a las madres
I received feedback about the content and how to improve the direction of the story as well as give it more authenticity. I added three paragraphs to give the story more context and depth. I also changed the title of the piece.
ur so gay: a timeline
Concision and organization were big in this piece. I knew what idea I wanted to share and the tone I wanted to use, but Angie really helped me with the overall structure and how to cut down in order to make the biggest impact.
The Girl in Eternity’s Waiting Room
I like to write concisely, in a way that usually involves judgments that sometimes only I can make. Knowing when writing like this works and when it doesn’t is the most important part of peer feedback to me.
Pupil Slicer
I received a lot of helpful feedback on the images that were working and felt vividly described. Readers also told me what they felt the central theme to the poem was, and which sections were confusing or could be written clearer.
Sum, Our Song
I had a lot of positive feedback for my piece with most of the suggestions falling into the category of how to lightly tinker with the piece to bring out the best poem. I think the more general comments that I got helped me know how my poem would generally be received.
