Ken: It was you i think who mentioned Graham's looks as a possible source of envious sniping, hence my comment.
The problem of special pleading, to put it nicely, in contests is neither new nor limited to a particular crowd. More than once I've been told to submit work to contests by the supposedly anonymous judge. But I don't submit to contests, don't think they're useful as a way to evaluate poetry (the the exceptional winner, like Rachel, slips through occasionally), and find paying for the privilege offensive.
I did apply for a grant once (which I think is different from a book contest), it must have been in the 70s, and got it. It was a NY State grant. The judge, I subsequently learned, was Witter Bynner, who I never met and whose work I don't care for.
I think contests are a lousy way to assign value to poetry, for a lot of reasons, not least that I think the notion of winers and losers is destructive to the community of poets. More imporatnt, maybe, is that I neither read nor write that way. Much of what I value in poetry is the understated, the meditative, the shown-by-its -absence. That can include a seemingly invisible structure. To read for these tings requires a concentration similar in kind and degree to that required for writing poetry, and I think that few of us can turn that kind of focus on at will and sustain it for long periods. How can any judge pretend to segregate out of a pile of several hundred manuscripts the best twenty let alone the best one with any degree of accuracy, unless the choice involves an internal checklist of what's correct or not that excludes the possibility of surprise, or unless the choice is always for the most obvious or the loudest? The superb choices do happen. A look at the selections for the Yale Younger Poets series (the oldest first book contest, I think) is pretty sobering, however--occasional great, prescient choices, but a lousy batting average.
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Wolman <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Aug 5, 2005 9:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Georgia off my mind soon, I hope
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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