Mark Weiss wrote:
>For the record, I don't think Jorie Graham is particularly pretty, but I accept that you do. I don't like her poetry and care not a fig where she teaches. But she apparently awarded a prize to her husband, which is odd to say the least.
>
>Mark
>
>
Uh...I am not sure it's wise for us to back-and-forth regarding Ms.
Graham's looks:-). Tho...wasn't it Esquire years ago that had some
"map" of American poetry, with either Strand or Merwin voted in as the
Hunka-Hunka?
I mentioned this some months ago: I did not like much of her earlier
material at all, but the recent poems--the prayers included in
Overlord--are quite moving and very unlike (as I read it) the magnetic
poetry stuff she threw at us in The End of Beauty. etc.
Tread REAL carefully here. I am totally ignorant of how contests work.
I'm in one that didn't cost me anything: that wasn't ethics driving me,
it was poverty. I know most require a fee. Why? Then, how accountable
is the judge? Does anyone monitor the judge's choices? For Graham to
be able to award a prize to her husband screams "nepotism" and "foul."
Yet it appears to have happened. Looking at Foetry's chart of Georgia
contest winners and judges, some of the contests appear to be beyond
reproach: Galvin (Rachel's _Imperium_), some of Strand's, several of
Gander's, etc. Then the same judge will turn up as questionable or
tainted. Is Georgia unique or is the opportunity for corruption--not
always exercised--a given? I'm sorry, but I'm a bit confused. One year
the judge is without reproach, the next year he or she is a
money-changer in the Temple.
Are entrants told the judge at the time the contest is announced? I
would steer clear of some contests if the judge is someone whose work
does not interest me or if I find it distasteful. It's at least
possible that would be reciprocal. In the no-fee thing I'm in, the
judge is that infamous man or woman behind the curtain. Or is it more
than one judge? Is it a committee of the Five Families of New York
meeting in a wood-paneled room? "These poets...they're animals...let
them lose their souls."
Another possibility intrudes. Is Foetry really www.sourgrapes.com? Are
these the jealous statements of a contest loser?
A third possibility, namely that none of this matters a hill of crap at
the end of the day, go do your own work, do as you see fit.
I've gotta program a new cell phone. First things first.
Ken
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