I don't mind these things - I don't enter as a rule - but the
competition organisers really should play by the rules they publish.
Then again I'm eternally being disappointed. Maybe I shouldn't be such
an optimist.
I think I read somewhere that the person running the foetry website
also has an axe to grind - his wife fared badly in one such
competition. Poison, poison. Putting on a whitecoat, I'd say this is
what happens when you give the labrats limited resources. Parents eat
their young, it all gets messy. But I can't say that I'd be immune to
such pressures in the same circumstances. I've never been tested.
I guess Goethe's "elective affinities" is a nice way of putting it
however I'd point out that there's a huge social issue here as well,
particularly in the smaller scenes. People meet at readings, at
funding meetings, organising events etc. They get on, they like each
other (or not), exchange work, maybe even kick-around ideas.
Inevitably, this spills over into reviews, competitions. It must be
hard to mark down someone who you like, and I refuse to believe that
'blind tastings' work. You're almost bound to know someone's style.
It always used to amuse me that the Sunday Times culture section used
to - or still does, I don't know - go through the "lineage" of other
paper's reviews, saying that X knew Y, so that X's favourable review
of Y's work can, in some way, be discounted, or sneered at in some
jokey manner. There's probably a subtext there if you stare long
enough.
Roger
On 8/2/05, Richard Jeffrey Newman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I received this from someone else. I will not vouch for the truth of
> anything it says, but given our recent discussion of contests and the
> reference to foetry.com I thought you might all be interested in reading
> this:
>
>
>
> Richard
>
>
>
>
>
> There have been several responses to my e-mail this morning regarding
> >> the latest on the Poetry contest shenanigans and lamenting the demise of
> >> the University of Georgia Contemporary Poetry Series.
> >>
> >> I think it is helpful to remember the series of events related to
> >> Georgia. The University of Georgia is a public university funded by the
> >> state and tax dollars. The Press has received National Endowment money
> >> (taxpayer money) to fund the poetry series. Bin Ramke was Director for
> >> 22 years. Suspecting the conflicts that eventually were revealed a
> >> request was made to the press for a list of the anonymous judges. The
> >> request was denied. An Open Records Act request was made and Georgia was
> >> forced to yield the list and correspondence related to judging. Ramke
> >> named judges regularly from the Iowa Writers Workshop and in return was
> >> published on three different occasions (if not more) by the University
> >> of Iowa Press and another University of Iowa imprint, Kuhl House. Ramke
> >> regularly appointed as judges (all the judges were secret and thus this
> >> was hidden from view) individuals who then selected their friends,
> >> former students and lovers as "winners" of the poetry competition. As
> >> the same time two things were happening: 1.) writers were sending in
> >> money (between $15,000-$25,000 annually) to the Georgia series; 2.) a
> >> large truck from a recycling firm would show up at Georgia to recycle
> >> the unread manuscripts of the entrants. Ramke notes in one letter
> >> released under the Open Records Act that he has only screened half the
> >> entries when he reaches out and solicits to be a "winner" of the
> >> competition Peter Sacks of Harvard (Jorie Graham's soon to be husband
> >> and English Department colleague -remember now that Graham is the judge
> >> for that year). To add insult to injury Ramke never asked Sacks to pay
> >> the $25 entry fee!!!!!
> >>
> >> This is one example of many at the Georgia Series. The conservative
> >> estimate that we have of the monies taken in at Georgia for the poetry
> >> contest over the years is $250,000. We assume most of the manuscripts
> >> were discarded unread. There was no need for a judge to read them since
> >> their pick was preordained. Jorie Graham read only one manuscript in the
> >> year she was the judge: Peter Sacks. The entry fee checks were still
> >> removed and deposited by the University of Georgia Press.
> >>
> >> What this has done is create a false literary history, a series of
> >> winners who never actually competed (the game was never played, the
> >> troops never got off the ship, etc) because the rest of the entry
> >> manuscripts (except for the $25 checks) were discarded. With their fake
> >> winning book, newly minted MFA (Iowa, Iowa!!) and a prize winning
> >> selection by the celebrity judges the "winner" was granted most favored
> >> status in the literary community. If only in most instances the actual
> >> poetry of the "winner" lived up to that lofty status. And as scrutiny
> >> has fallen on other contests, the same pattern is repeated. What was so
> >> interesting about Ramke is that he had a systematic way of empire
> >> building - of building up a series of obligations, staking out
> >> territory, of expanding his literary reputation at the expense of the
> >> unknown writers with their $25 checks.
> >>
> >> *********************************
> >> The University of Georgia Press Contemporary Poetry Series judging
> >> conflicts have been documented in numerous stories throughout the United
> >> States, United Kingdom, Israel and this morning in Australia at: The
> >> Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, The Oregonian, The Portland Tribune, The
> >> Detroit News, The Daily Iowan, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The
> >> Guardian (UK), In Higher Education.com <http://education.com/> , The Los
> Angeles Times,
> >> Mobylives.com <http://mobylives.com/> , The Providence Journal, The San
> Francisco Chronicle.
> >>
> >> The fallout has been swift:
> >>
> >> After twenty-two years as director, Bin Ramke has resigned as director
> >> of the University of Georgia Contemporary Poetry Series.
> >>
> >> Jorie Graham, Boylston Professor Endowed Chair, Harvard University will
> >> no longer judge literary contests.
> >>
> >> The University of Georgia just announced it is discontinuing the
> >> Contemporary Poetry Series. There will no longer be a book series or
> >> annual competition.
> >>
> >> http://www.ugapress.uga.edu/info_aup_submitcps.html
> >>
> >> The Vassar Miller Prize published by the University of North Texas Press
> >> charges a $20.00 fee to enter its annual competition. The Press solicits
> >> entries on an annual basis. The prize is named for poet Vassar Miller,
> >> called by Larry McMurtry "the only writer worth reading in Texas."
> >>
> >> After documenting the many conflicts in the selections of judges and
> >> winners (all of whom have connections to the director or the judges) and
> >> the fact that the prize has never had any Texas judges or winners and in
> >> fact is not even based in Texas, the director of the series has just
> >> now resigned. There will be discussions as to how to continue the
> >> contest under a new director.
> >>
>
>
>
> http://www.spiralbridge.org
>
>
>
>
>
> _____
>
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
>
>
> * Visit your group "SpiralBridgePoets
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpiralBridgePoets> " on the web.
>
> * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> [log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
> <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> Service.
>
>
>
> _____
>
--
http://www.badstep.net
|
