Interesting points, Barry, & the list suggests just how many poets
there are & how far apart some readerships are: I've never even heard
of two of the past winners, & a few of the others I don't bother to
read. Whatever the reasons, I will say that I still think it's a Good
Thing Palmer won this year, just because I like his work that much.
Chacun à son gout & all that...
On the other hand, yes, of course, who gets such an award depends very
much on the make-up of the jury & how it works as a team....
Doug
On 8-Sep-06, at 11:07 AM, Barry Alpert wrote:
> Doug, I must say I'm not entirely surprised Michael Palmer received
> such an
> award, though I bet as deliberately-styled businessmen poets both Dana
> Gioia and Ted Kooser feel they would have been a more appropriate
> choice
> for the Wallace Stevens Award. It really comes down to who the judges
> were
> and even on the AAP site I can't find a listing of those presiding in
> 2006. But take a look at previous panels and you'll find that the
> choices
> for certain years become understandable in terms of personal taste and
> whether a majority might agree to share the taste of the initiator:
> http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/107
>
> I was stunned when Jackson MacLow won this award in 1999, but now I'd
> bet
> that Marjorie Perloff, Robert Creeley, and John Yau simply outnumbered
> Frank Bidart & Sharon Olds, then one of the three brought up JML's
> name,
> and the other two agreed that he was neglected and deserving.
>
> I wonder what would happen to the virtually unquestioned prestige of
> literary awards within the "school of quietude" if every aspect of the
> decision-making process were transparent (i.e., recorded)? Barry
>
>
Douglas Barbour
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Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
Where philosophy stops, poetry is impelled to begin. He was
a man, far away from home, biting his nails at destiny.
Susan Howe
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