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The WOM-PO (Discussion of Women's Poetry) List was started in December 1997 by Annie Finch with an invitation to a small group of poets, critics, and lovers of women's poetry. These people in turn invited other people to join, and the list has grown gradually by spreading through these networks. In April 2008, Amy King succeeded Annie as WOM-PO list moderator. Discussion on the list covers women poets of all periods, aesthetics, and ethnicities. It has been characterized by its high caliber, relatively low volume, and openness to a diversity of aesthetic perspectives. While it is not legal or possible to make the listserv an officially women-only space, we agreed it would be best at least to incubate it that way, so that early subscribers to the list could have the experience of posting a message to a group of women interested in poetry. This tradition and tendency has helped maintain a more female-friendly climate than is available on other poetry lists. Although we do not as a rule discuss our own work on wom-po (there are some wompo associated online workshops for this purpose--ask for details on the list), many of wom-po's subscribers are themselves poets of all levels of professional accomplishment, from beginners to national award winners. In addition to our ongoing discussion, which helps women poets by offering contexts and traditions for their work, wom-po also provides a forum for networking information of direct use to women poets and a supportive online newsletter. Subscribers are encouraged to participate in these other informal list traditions: posting poems by women poets of the past to the list on Fridays ("Foremothers' Friday"); posting poems by contemporary poets on Wednesdays ("Wom-Po Wednesday") and initiating, facilitating, and participating in directed discussions of particular books of women's poetry on approximately a monthly basis. If you are interested in facilitating a discussion of a particular book of women's poetry, please contact Jean Anaport. Wom-Po also has a website, maintained by Jilly Dybka and Ren Powell, at http://www.usm.maine.edu/wompo/. WOM-PO is usually a fairly low-volume list, but a stimulating and enjoyable one. Note: The University of Southern Maine limits message size to 100k. Eemail is not an efficient means of distributing large files. If you have a file that will be of interest to the list, please consider putting the file on the web and posting a URL instead
INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING THE LIST
* To send mail to the list for all the subscribers to read, address your email to: Wom-po@usm.maine.edu
* To access the list archives: http://lists.usm.maine.edu/archives/wom-po.html (Note: small icons on the upper right let you search the archives by person, date, and thread).
* You can manage their subscription to Wom-po (including subscribing, unsubscribing, requesting the digest version, and going on vacation) by using the web interface at
You can also use the following commands via e-mail. * To receive your messages as a digest (occasional long messages containing all the mail received for the list over a period of time, usually the last day) send a mail message to listserv@lists.usm.maine.edu, placing the following two lines in the body of the message: SET Wom-po DIGEST QUIT
* To stop receiving mail from the list for an indefinite period, send a mail message to listserv@lists.usm.maine.edu, placing the following two lines in the message body: SET Wom-po NOMAIL QUIT
* To start receiving mail from the list again at any time, or to start receiving individual messages again after you have been getting the digest, send a mail message to listserv@lists.usm.maine.edu, placing the following two lines in the message body: SET Wom-po MAIL QUIT
* To unsubscribe from the list permanently, send a mail message to listserv@lists.usm.maine.edu, placing the following two lines in the message body: UNSUBSCRIBE Wom-po QUIT
For all the commands shown above, please ensure that the commands start hard against the left-hand margin of your mail message - do not indent them (they are indented as shown above simply for clarity).
For more help with the list or if you have other questions, please send an email message to wom-po-request@usm.maine.edu
[NOTE: THE DIGEST VERSION DOES NOT ARRIVE AS RELIABLY AS THE MAIL VERSION. THE MOST CONVENIENT AND RELIABLE WAY TO SUBSCRIBE IS TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE REGULAR VERSION AND THEN FUNNEL ALL WOMPO MESSAGES INTO A SPECIAL MAILBOX USING THE "FILTERS" OR "MAILBOXES" FUNCTION OF YOUR EMAIL PROGRAM (SEE DIRECTIONS BELOW). TO SWITCH FROM DIGEST TO REGULAR MAIL, SEND COMMAND "SET WOM-PO MAIL"] A subscription to WOM-PO does not mean that your Inbox has to be flooded with WOM-PO messages. On the contrary, with a simple Filter or Rule on your email program, you can make sure that the emails stay in their own mailbox until you are in the mood to read them. At that time, if you are very pressed for time, you can scan them and delete most without even opening them. HOW TO SET UP A FILTER OR RULE TO CREATE A WOM-PO MAILBOX:
Most people prefer to set up a Rule or Filter through their email program that will funnel all messages from the listserv into a special mailbox. This takes about two minutes. To do it, create a new mailbox called “WOMPO" or whatever name you prefer. Then open the Preferences or Rules section of your email program, and make a new rule that any email including “Wom-Po” in the “To” field should be moved to the “WOMPO” mailbox. That way, emails from the listserv will not interfere with your Inbox, but will stay in their own mailbox until you are in the mood to read them.
Copyright©2006 Annie Finch |