We Just Launched Something New
Introducing the Learn library — a free, growing collection of articles on poetry, publishing, craft, and literary tradition.
We’ve just published the Ink & Ribbon Learn library —
a growing collection of essays on poetry, publishing, and literary tradition.
It’s free.
It’s substantive.
And it will keep expanding.
👉 Explore the Learn Library
https://inkandribbon.org/learn
As a nonprofit press, we believe education is part of the mission — not a footnote to it.
Poetry has always been passed on this way:
Through conversation.
Through mentorship.
Through someone taking the time to say: this is how it works — and why it matters.
This library is our attempt to do that well.
What you’ll find inside
We’ve structured the library around three kinds of need:
Foundations
If you’re new — or returning seriously — start here.
What a poetry press is
How books are actually made
What “slow publishing” means
Practical Guides
Clear, direct, and useful.
How to submit to literary journals
How to format a manuscript
How to write a cover letter
These are the guides we wish existed when we started.
Poets & Traditions
The section I’m most excited about.
Context that deepens reading:
Movements
Forms
Major poets
Not summaries — but entry points into understanding.
Where To begin
If you open just one or two pieces, start here:
Frank O’Hara and the New York School
Casual voice, urgency, and the poetry of the everyday
https://inkandribbon.org/learn/frank-ohara-and-the-new-york-school
Gerard Manley Hopkins and Sprung Rhythm
Inscape, instress, and a new music of English verse
https://inkandribbon.org/learn/gerard-manley-hopkins-sprung-rhythm
The History of the Sonnet
From Petrarch to Terrance Hayes — how the form endures
https://inkandribbon.org/learn/history-of-the-sonnet
Or explore everything here:
👉 Browse the full library
https://inkandribbon.org/learn
We’ll be adding new work regularly —
more poets, more forms, more practical guidance.
If there’s something you want us to cover:
Reply to this post
or
admin@inkandribbon.org
— G. K. Allum
Founding Editor & President
Ink & Ribbon Press
Thanks for the enriching and enlightening piece on Frank O’Hara. For me, the immediacy of his poems creates a nobility of moment. A bologna sandwich reference made me see it in my mind and want one in my belly. - Dwight Lee Wolter.
Thank you the structure is so needed in this chaos