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While the poetry world continues to grapple with the Best American Poetry controversy, perhaps its worth considering why anyone would try to game the system. Theodore Ross over at The New Republic explains how cheating is one of the best ways of getting published. He confesses to his own misdeeds, including ignoring submission guidelines and […]
...moreThe new Best American Poetry anthology, edited by Sherman Alexie, contains a poem by the very white Michael Derrick Hudson who used the pen-name Yi-Fen Chou to get his poem into publication. Now, Asian American poets are pushing to get readers interested in actual Asian poets, in addition to decrying Hudson’s attempts to game the system: […]
...moreFirst, in the Saturday Essay, Melissa Carroll praises the “refreshing” film, The Diary of a Teenage Girl. But despite the wonderful story, great acting, and a great soundtrack, something about the movie falls short, Carroll argues. Some aspects of the adaptation are not fully faithful to Phoebe Gloeckner‘s graphic novel of the same name. “Unfortunately,” Carroll writes, “Marielle Heller’s conclusions […]
...moreDear Aimee, So the latest thing (why is there always a latest thing) is that a white man used a Chinese name to submit poems that were then chosen for Prairie Schooner and then included in Best American Poetry 2015 which of course has a lovely poem of yours in it too! Your first appearance, you said. The scandal no one […]
...moreThere’s a storm in the poetry world, this one set off by the bio in Best American Poetry 2015 of Michael Derrick Hudson, who has been publishing under the name Yi-Fen Chou. I’m not here to talk about the poem, or about how (at least) silly the notion of collecting some poems from the previous year […]
...moreWhy did my mother kill herself and I didn’t that year and have not?…I ask myself at the farmer’s market when David shows me the black radishes that I use in risotto or when Sarah takes me to the ranch and the horses press in on me so I’m nothing but warmth and breath and […]
...moreA tale of a poetry reading, or maybe the word “cock” is inherently funny. Annie Finch tells you everything you need to know about the sonnet. Who was in Best American Poetry 2009? The answer probably won’t surprise you. W. S. DiPiero in Threepenny Review: “Certain art gets fresh with us. It stings with what […]
...moreLast week in my Poetic Lives Online column, I wrote a little about the immediate reaction to the Poets & Writers MFA program rankings. Well, it’s blown up a bit more in the last week, with the Association of Writing Programs weighing in on the matter. Seth Abramson, speaking for himself, responds quite capably here. […]
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