White Oak Press / poetryamerica.com / League of American Poets

This site?
http://www.poetryamerica.com/

It doesn't look too good. I can't find any real contact information, and the whole site is about submitting poems to their anthologies. They have a writing tips page, but it's full of short, general tips like "Be like a diamond, having many facets making up a whole full of sparkling endeavors."

I submitted a poem made primarily from random lines from a science article. Let's see what happens.

Previously known as American Poets Society it is now going by the name White Oak Press. (Not to be confused with this White Oak Press http://www.whiteoakpress.com/ )

It appears to be similar to the infamous poetry.com.

A search shows they were talked about in the old Nepat here.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2785&highlight=poetryamerica.com#post2785

Here are some more warnings I found online.

http://www.todays-woman.net/poetry-scams-47.html

http://white-oak-press.pissedconsum...rt-of-scam-poetry-america-20080219113425.html

Is it me or does everything that has the initials "PA" end up being a scam?

(except Piers Anthony, he's obviously not a scam.)

I just got an email from these people {I use that term loosely in their case} about my poem "There Were Dragons". I found this forum when I googled their name, then I googled "association of american publishers", of which the email claimed they were a member of. Of course I didn't find them listed and the website brianm mentioned - http://www.whiteoakpress.com/ - even states on their homepage that they are not associated with Poetry America.
So in answer to your question, CrstlnWriter, even though I just heard of them today, I believe I know enough about them now to state, unequivocally, that they most definitely are a scam.
Just try sending your permission for them to print your poem {I'm not about to give them even that, however}, but let them know you are not able to purchase their anthology. I can pretty well guarantee that you will not hear from them again, except maybe under some other name in another attempt at your money later on.

Matthew "Dra'Gon" Stohler

As if we didn't already know this was a vanity anthology, I received further proof in the mail today. The White Oak Press anthology (no association with the real White Oak Press in California) accepted the putrid poem I sent to them. This may be the first poem submitted to a vanity anthology that was cobbled together from snippets of a biochemistry article, with the wording tweaked enough to avoid copyright issues...

According to the letter, my poem is "special and creative and is made even more meaningful by sharing it with others." So with that in mind, here we go. You can say you read it here first!

This reversible process was mediated
And the dual specificity protein phosphatase
Was a mediator
We presented the x-ray structure
Showing that
A malate ion was bound
In the catalytic center!

Did the active site stabilize the dissociative transitions?
And help in the departure of leaving phenoxide?
Perhaps.
Perhaps not.

Threonine side chains represent
A fundamental mode
And malate ion binding provides potentially useful insights.
--------------------------------------

According to the letter, "Many poets order extra copies of rgift-giving. This is why we have arranged a special affordable package for a case of six books." Eww. They're getting either desperate or greedy, or both. Folks, if you have written a poem you really want to share with friends, either submit it to a legitimate market, or just print it out and give it to your friends and families. It will cost far less, and you'll be a lot happieri.

Actually, I thought that was rather good!

Toothpaste said:

Actually, I thought that was rather good!

Click to expand...

I'm embarrassed to admit that it's still not as bad as some of the purposely bad poems other people have submitted. I'll have to aim lower next time...

AnneMarble said:

This reversible process was mediated
And the dual specificity protein phosphatase
Was a mediator
We presented the x-ray structure
Showing that
A malate ion was bound
In the catalytic center!

Did the active site stabilize the dissociative transitions?
And help in the departure of leaving phenoxide?
Perhaps.
Perhaps not.

Threonine side chains represent
A fundamental mode
And malate ion binding provides potentially useful insights.

Click to expand...

I am going to set this to music. It's beautiful. The exclamation mark really makes it, in my opinion.

Hilarious sting!