DISCUSSION LISTS
A great deal of literary and writing discussion happens on the internet - mostly informally via discussion lists. These are email groups which are 'owned' and/or 'moderated' by one person through Yahoo or the like.
How they work
Anyone on the list can 'post' an email message. When someone does, it goes to everyone else on the list. Other members can then read and respond to the message by posting their own message on the list, which everyone gets, and then...etc etc. You can choose to have your messages as 'individual emails' or 'digest'. When you choose the first you get each message as you would any other email, but the 'digest' delivers all the individual emails in one consolidated message. The second is useful if you don't want to have a lot of individual messages, but can be confusing to read.
The lists generally focus on one area. There are discussion lists on everything, but you might be most interested in lists on poetry and poetics for example. Some lists are casual, some lists are highly academic. Blusterhead has its own discussion list.
About the Blusterhead list
The Blusterhead list was originally set up as a discussion forum for Chris' writing students, though it is now fortunate to have a number of well-published writers there as well. It's so laidback it's virtually comatose, but worthwhile to be on, particularly if you live in the South Coast (NSW, Australia).
If you would like to be part of the Blusterhead discussion group, email: Blusterhead list for an invitation.