Announcing The Poetry Vault
Liza Libes Poems Make Their Substack Debut
You might know me as a novelist and essayist, but really, I’m a poet at heart.
My poetry books are out in the wild, but unless you buy my books or read some really obscure literary magazines, there’s currently no way to access my poems other than reaching out to me directly. I strongly believe, however, that poetry makes the greatest impact when it reaches a larger number of people, so as of this morning, I have made the executive decision to bring my poems to Substack in a new feature section called The Poetry Vault.
The Poetry Vault will feature poems from across my writing career—from the poems I wrote when I was 18 to the poems I’ve written on a whim more recently. Some of these poems appear in my previously published poetry collections; others have never seen a pair of eyes other than my own. I’d like to gradually bring them all to you by permanently housing them on Substack.
Why did this take me more than a year to decide? Well, once I publish my poems on the Internet, they are no longer eligible for submission to literary magazines and various contests. If you Google me, you might find my poems in various obscure literary magazines, but even the most prestigious ones reach fewer people than I can reach with Substack today. And because I firmly believe that Substack is the future of writing, I know that my poems belong here, and I can’t wait to bring them to you soon.
I hope you love them as much as I love writing them.
Coming 7.25.2025
I've purchased your books (with no regrets!), but now I can look here for more of your work. The only thing I'll miss is the book cover art, which was a nice sequence of silhouette images. Not really the main point of poetry though are they? Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what you place in The Poetry Vault.
Really, I have been considering doing the same thing and with many of the same reasons and hesitations. I have a few poems published in small press journals, but the bulk of my work has never seen the light of day. This and one other thing are motivating me to jump onto Substack. The other thing also involves you, Liza. I already have a few Substack followers, although I've never set up a Substack of my own. Why? they followed me because of that comment I made on your "Leave Literature Alone" post. So long are its coat-tails, that even commenting on it generates followers!
👏👏👏❤️❤️❤️ Also, great your back on Substack! I’ve really missed you, Liza! :)