What is Mannequin Envy:

A quarterly journal of literary and visual art featuring poets, writers, and visual artists that are not afraid to bring it to you real.  


Why mannequin envy?

I orignally started the site in fall 2004 because I wanted to have a place to show my own poems that did not fit "the formula" and the work of a friend who had passed away in the spring. I quickly changed my focus to building  an environment that welcomed  perhaps less traditional and highly talented artists and poets. After two contests, I took in regular submissions in Spring 2005. Art and literature that has been overlaundered, starched and pressed makes my skin itch.  This is the fifth issue.

Why the name? Used with permission from a good friend, Douglas Gamrath in this poem, "We Room."
Make sure to check out his work featured here

We Room
entering a different room
the lighting is similar
positions are different
I experience mannequin envy

we keep our hands warm in each other
our step is march
our heels clack, noses bleed
from our own loftiness...

Some things we aspire to: brainstorm stage
prompt, personalized responses to acceptances as well as rejections
focus on promoting the work of poets, writers, artists
respect
professional yet friendly correspondance
finding poetry and art with an edge. without cliche, that makes something resonate in our guts even if we do not know why. Topics like changing seasons and sad yuppies discouraged. Poems with emphasis on describing a scene in flowerly beautiful language discouraged.
Non-pretentious.
No thesarurus