 |
 |
Forgive my jumping in, Geraldine, but I found this pointed, vastly frustrating re the sexual orientation question, and ultimately wonderfully endearing, especially: "So the bottom line is we are all charity cases and I am easily humiliated! Poets have always been charity cases. It is our lot in life. And I won 20 quid on a scratch card last week so I think that may be the way forward....no strings attached...and more money than I've ever won through my writing." Best, Judy On 16 October 2011 01:40, Geraldine Monk <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > ** > Hello Jamie, > I don't think the objection was as much ideological as practical - we did > not do the sort of writing that competitions sought, so to enter would have > been to throw good entry fee money down the drain. Grants at least allowed > a broader range of creative approaches however the grant application > process gradually became a vehicle of humiliation as trained arts > administrators took over with their executive speak and blue sky brain > storms. The stupidity of the questions on application forms increased and > seemed designed to annoy or wrong foot you and I finally saw red when the > last grant form I saw actually asked me what my sexual orientation was! I > complained that the question was deeply offensive and they wrote back and > said it was 'government policy'. I was so livid by this intrusion of the > State into the state my knicker drawer (so to speak) that I sent a copy of > the form off to my MP for an explanation. At the time it was Richard Caborn > (who apart from his support of the Iraq Adventure was actually a very good > M.P.) - he was as taken aback as I was and assured me the government didn't > give a toss what or who turned me on and wrote to the offending Arts Board > clarifying that no government policy existed. A rather flustered response > came from the Arts Board. It was a Pyrrhic victory as I didn't get the > grant. > > So the bottom line is we are all charity cases and I am easily > humiliated! Poets have always been charity cases. It is our lot in life. > And I won 20 quid on a scratch card last week so I think that may be the > way forward....no strings attached...and more money than I've ever won > through my writing. > > Cheers, > > Geraldine > > > >