Apparently, the Pushcart Prize people are a bit huffy about online poetry publications highlighting "instant" poems and--as a pushback--reaffirming their belief that good writing takes "time." Consequently, some of these online poetry zines aren't willing to submit entries for Pushcart honors.
Yielding the floor to Victor Infante (ex-OC, current New England) articulating where he stands on the issue (hint: read my post title): http://ocvictor.livejournal.com/931484.html
Showing posts with label poetry contests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry contests. Show all posts
Monday, July 9, 2012
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Time for the Wergle Flomp deliberately-bad-poetry contest to die.
http://www.winningwriters.com/contests/wergle/we_guidelines.php
Like a lot of poets, I'm aware that some poetry contests are little more than con jobs that will publish your poem--in hopes you'll buy a pricey book that it is anthologized in. And the contests are designed to separate people from their money instead of being a measure of true poetic worth.
But the idea of the Wergle Flomp contest--write something deliberately "bad" to send to a con-job contest and then send it to winningwriters.com--is more snide and asinine than good for the craft of poetry. Unfortunately, a lot of people enjoy the stick-pins-in sadism of Wergle Flomp because of the "I'm SO superior to you" virus in certain poets--particularly those with pretensions to literary worthiness.
If you go onto the Winning Writers website, take a look at their links regarding poetry contests. And refuse to go the Wergle Flomp route--so both the "con"tests and Winning Writers will get the message.
[UPDATE 3/29/09: Here's my response to the comment made by Adam of Winning Writers: Thanks for your letter, but I stand by my original post. Winning Writers' information on dubious contests should stand on its own without the throwing-of-literary-feces represented by Wergle Flomp.]
Like a lot of poets, I'm aware that some poetry contests are little more than con jobs that will publish your poem--in hopes you'll buy a pricey book that it is anthologized in. And the contests are designed to separate people from their money instead of being a measure of true poetic worth.
But the idea of the Wergle Flomp contest--write something deliberately "bad" to send to a con-job contest and then send it to winningwriters.com--is more snide and asinine than good for the craft of poetry. Unfortunately, a lot of people enjoy the stick-pins-in sadism of Wergle Flomp because of the "I'm SO superior to you" virus in certain poets--particularly those with pretensions to literary worthiness.
If you go onto the Winning Writers website, take a look at their links regarding poetry contests. And refuse to go the Wergle Flomp route--so both the "con"tests and Winning Writers will get the message.
[UPDATE 3/29/09: Here's my response to the comment made by Adam of Winning Writers: Thanks for your letter, but I stand by my original post. Winning Writers' information on dubious contests should stand on its own without the throwing-of-literary-feces represented by Wergle Flomp.]
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