Jane, this is all very problematical. Couldn't you decline from choosing
the poetry for Horizon and get someone else to do it. This would ease
the pressure on you as general editor and also avoid such
misunderstandings as have appeared here.
On Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:00:14 +0100, Jane Holland
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I don't recall using the word impartial. I used other words suggesting
>openness and a desire not to position myself, say, wholly in the
mainstream.
>But that's not a declaration of impartiality. It's a declaration of
openness
>as an editor, which is not entirely the same thing.
>
>However, as a reader - I was going to write 'poet', but fear some
further
>ejaculation from cris cheek over that impertinence! - some
experimental
>poetry simply flies too far beyond the parameters of what I consider
to be
>poetry for me to feel comfortable regarding it as such.
>
>It's important to distinguish between public and private in this case,
even
>if that feels impossible for some people here. As an editor, my tastes
are
>far more catholic than they are as a private individual. Poets I might
>publish in a magazine or book are not necessarily the same poets I
might
>read for pleasure and/or instruction.
>
>When I post on the POF forum, I tend to do so as Jane, poet and
whinge-bag,
>not as Editor of Horizon or even as a Commissioning Editor at Salt,
which I
>also am. If you can separate the two in your mind, you may not be
quite so
>fierce about my personal reaction to what is, after all, a fairly 'out
>there' piece of writing (by which I mean KS' 'White Hot Andy').
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