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
-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Wolman <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Aug 4, 2005 12:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Georgia off my mind soon, I hope
I read the essay to which Jon refers. If anything it makes the issue
even more morally contorted. I do not for a second believe ANYONE is
lying: not Rachel, not the people who allege (the magic word?) that the
much-despised Jorie Graham is a fix-artist. I don't know anything about
Bin Ramke so I can only spell his name.
The idea there is some pattern of conspiracy here makes a bunch poets
sound like the CIA. I don't think any of us are that organized. You've
heard the expression "herding cats"? It seems like the person who can
get a checkbook to reconcile gets to be Editor.
Jorie Graham's name keeps coming up. I suspect a lot of people hated
Jorie Graham before her name ever surfaced with regard to a contest. I
believe people begrudge her the academic clout of her champion Helen
Vendler, her work at U. of Iowa workshop, the fact she's drop-dead
gorgeous, a whole bunch of things. She's an easy target.
Anyway, something seemingly extraneous strikes me. At the end of the
original, unsigned email received by Richard Newman, there is a URL:
www.spiralbridge.org. I know Spiralbridge Poets because I was their
featured reader on November 28 in Montclair, NJ. Someone else on this
list who is a member put my name before the guy who runs it. Does that
amount to a fix? I ran a workshop for them earlier that day. On the
grander scale, how a small regional operation like Spiralbridge gets
implicated here is beyond me. Why would someone print something
controversial and potentially libelous with the organization's name on
it? All I got from them was whatever I collected from the workshop, 25
minutes of platform time, and comped Eddie Palmieri tickets. Beyond
that? Spiralbridge is a very loose confederation. Did someone speaking
for the organization have a part in this, and if so, why put the
organization's name on it? THAT is bothersome. It sounds very much
like someone inside Spiralbridge is nursing not a quest for justice but
a major-league resentment and is playing fast and loose with the group's
name.
Since this is going nowhere I'm going somewhere, namely to lunch.
Ken
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