...LOCUSPOINT is devoted to cronyism. I ask editors to publish their friends, their lovers, their friends' lovers, their brothers, their mothers, their enemies, and their frenemies. Editorial objectivity does not exist here—at least, not in the way it does elsewhere. These editors still select the best work: they just select work by people within their community. I think that's important to note.
ha haha ha haha...
I want to tear into Mr. Jensen's note, but I won't this time. Why? Because I respect Sarah Vap (guest editor of the Washington edition) so much as a poet. If she thinks a poem is good, I will read it. Though I'm surprised she included her own work in the issue. Editors should never include their own work in the anthology/ journal being edited.
NEVER.
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.
7 comments:
Eduardo, really...just let the bitterness go.
Eduardo,
I've been meaning to tell you a story about VCCA. This happened long ago, 1978 or 1979, there was a very talented poet, last name Woods
who was staying there and he went for a walk and was struck and killed by a passing car. My friend Martha Clark (poet, novelist) went to VCCA just after this tragedy. She was able to spend time there because he had won a Hopwood Award from Michigan. Woods's room was left untouched (like an altar), which haunted Martha. She wrote some amazing poems about the mystery around his accident.
It's been so many years, but Woods's poems were quite remarkable. Maybe they have some of his work in their library?
Let me know if you find anything.
M.J.
m.j.,
i'll ask around. i'm terrible with initials. m.j. stands for??
collin,
what bitterness? to question someone's project is not bitterness. i'm not crazy about locuspoint, but i'm do admire mr. jensen for enlarging the poetry world. we don't all have to get along on the blogosphere. or agree with each other.
i'm not like you. i don't call every other poet a "genius" or every book "brilliant" on my blog. that rings false to me.
i don't blog to garner favor with other blogggers or to amass pity buys for my projects.
that said, i must admit your blog is one of my favorites. i check it out everyday. but that doesn't mean i have to agree with everything you say. or even like you.
Eduardo,
My name is M.J.Iuppa
M.J. stands for Mary Jo, but most call me M.J., my family and long time friends call me Mary. It can be very confusing when people overhear the long time friends do this in public, such as Marie Howe. But it gets sorted out.
I do want to hear more about VCCA.
I love the pictures of the horses. It's fun watching them.
I bet you're writing a lot. My friends who have gone there accomplished a lot of work and they just loved the peace and quiet. Sounds good.
Best,
M.J.Iuppa
Hi Collin,
I want to make it clear that some of us do post in order to garner favor with other bloggers or to amass pity buys for our projects. And I can attest that in at least two-and-one-half cases it has worked.
Steve Fellner
If you have a project talking about poetry in a single medium city, as most of the Locuspoint editions have been so far, I don't think it's even possible to avoid the editor publishing people he/she knows and likes. If not, you're either ending up with a woefully incomplete portrait or an editor who doesn't really know the scene. This isn't a typical open-submission journal situation at all.
wow. i think i really went too far in my response to collin. ha. i do regret saying "pity buys" because when i start hawking my own book, i am going to count on those pity buys.
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