Sunday, June 17, 2007

Ho-hum, Another Contest, More of the Same Old, Same Old

Yesterday, I received what I consider another piece of contest junk mail, this time from Hollis Summers Poetry Prize.

Yet another way to lose $20.00.

I don't even need to go into the full guidelines, but the following is, in my opinion, a deal killer:
The final judge for the competition will be announced when the winner is named in April [2008].
Post Foetry recommends that you avoid all literary contests that don't announce their judges in advance and don't have the Jorie Graham Rule in place (e.g., former students, current students, friends, family, etc. may not enter).

How can one know if the judges are friends, former teachers, family, or foes if one does not know who the judges are? See our ideal guidelines in our favorite link list. Please note that our ideal contest guidelines text is a dynamic document; we are still working on it.

Eventually, we'll have in place a list of contests to definitely avoid and a list that have in place ethical submission rules. The latter will have links to their websites.

Hmmmmmm....I wonder which list will be longer?

Readers, if you want to help out in this effort, please e-mail any hinky guidelines to me.

Best, Bugzita

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