I'm making a list of all the contests I'm entering this fall and spring. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm finally sending out my manuscript to the contests. I fear for my baby. But anyways, while I was reading up on deadlines and judges for the fall cycle I realized that a judge and I have had some marginal interaction: She took one of my poems for a journal she guest-edited this summer. She sent me a brief note thanking me for my submission and for my sexy knuckles. Just kidding about the knuckles. But let's be clear: I've never been a student of this judge, or taken a conference workshop with her. Though I did meet the judge once at ASU. She gave me hug! But that's it.
I refuse to get my first book published through connections. I don't play that game. I won't enter contests in which the judge is a former teacher. But I'm kinda of unsure about this situation. The poem she took for the journal is in my manuscript so she might remember me. Am I being too cautious? Am I crazy for even thinkng about this?
About Me
- Eduardo C. Corral
- Eduardo C. Corral is a CantoMundo fellow. He holds degrees from ASU and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, jubilat, New England Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, and Post Road. His work has been honored with a "Discovery"/The Nation award and residencies from The MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. He has served as the Olive B. O'Connor Fellow in Creative Writing at Colgate University and as the Philip Roth Resident in Creative Writing at Bucknell University. He's the interview editor for Boxcar Poetry Review. He won the 2011 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition.
6 comments:
yeah, I think you're being too cautious. If you keep going in that direction you'll be all "OMG I think this judge might have once read a journal I might have had a poem in" and you won't submit anywhere.
Then again, I'm biased 'cause I think you should wait to send yours out until mine gets picked up somewhere. I don't need the competition. ;)
You're crazy for even thinking about this. Just submit.
I thought about your dilemma overnight. I've had similar problems -- obsessed over whether to send to a particular competition because the judge liked my work -- and in the end didn't send. Seems nuts to cut your chances like that, though.
What about emailing the competition coordinator and asking their opinion? That gets you off the hook.
People are talking about Eduardo Corral:
"He literally squeezes editors into publishing his work."
"One hug, one poem."
"If he hadn't wrapped his arms around that woman, we wouldn't be talking about his pantoums."
To be clear, the editor in question doesn't sound like a "connection" so much as a "fan of your work."
Over at the Poets.net forum, we have started a poll and thread about your qualms:
http://poetryinc.net/index.php?topic=249.msg2659#msg2659
Yes, it gives you an "in", but your work deserves it.
Post a Comment