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Hi Ken, I am sorry to add this, but I think that maybe Landis Everson had some good cards, see here: http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=Content&pa=list_pages_categories&cid=163 He was a good friend of Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer and Robin Blaser. I do not want to say that he is better or worse than you, I thought I needed to add a couple of lines, and that I am lucky to have him on the Corner, as much as I am to have you. Take care, Anny On 3/19/07, Kenneth Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > Joseph Duemer wrote: > > Avoiding the work I should be doing, I wrote this last night > > <http://www.sharpsand.net/2007/03/17/poetry-contest/>on my blog. May > > be of > > interest. > > Is the whole contest business still an issue? When did it become so? > Maybe that's another way to ask how long have contests existed at all. > "For the best prose nonfiction, Ralph W. Emerson for 'Self-Reliance.'" > Whose student was Emerson's that the palm was thrown his way? > > Doubtless I have the sour grapes mentality of someone who's won exactly > one anything in 17 years of this Fame Is The Spur routine. Fame, I can > assure myself at least, lasts less than 15 minutes and is useful only if > you take the fact of the prize name and work your ass off afterwards. > Nobody will solicit you. I'm thinking that maybe there really are a few > suckers left (I was one) who think that the world will beat a path to > your door after you've won a contest sponsored by Margie. The award I > won was for a state prize that had no entry fee. The second contest I > entered was via the benighted Poetry Foundation, about two years ago, > and promised everything but 72 virgins to the poet who, having made it > to 50 or more, was publishing a first book: publication, ten grand, > maybe a big supply of chips for the roulette tables in AC. So I got one > real thing from it: I finished a book manuscript. At last, albeit > subject to change. Landis Everson, whoever *he* is, made it to 79 and > won. No argument from me. I don't know him or his work so passion, > envy, jealousy, and hate don't figure into it. > > I recall that when that website (Instant Mistrust Alert) Foetry exposed > the fact(?) that Jorie Graham basically had slanted contests she judged > so her former students won. Instantly, she became the Rosie Ruiz of > poetry. Remember Rosie? She's the lady who 20+ years ago took the > subway part of the way toward the finish line of the NYC Marathon and > then claimed she won. Her exposure destroyed her credibility forever, > as well it might. What's happened to Graham, aka "The Fixer"? > Anything? I gather she has a new job, at Harvard, surely made > relatively smooth for her because of her association with Helen H. > Vendler who, in her turn, has been a Graham champion forever. [Notice I > am omitting my private opinion of Graham's poetry]. > > It sums up as I don't know why things win or lose. It is, as Joe noted, > a crapshoot. I suppose that everyone objected to loading the dice. > > Maybe poetry as become just like American business: any advantage is not > to be despised, no underhanded tactic shall be eschewed, and the only > rule is to *win*. > > Which is sad. > > Ken > > > ------------ > Kenneth Wolman rainermaria.typepad.com > Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, face the facts. -- Ruth > Gordon >