Response From Former Editor of The Spoon River Poetry Review

A response from former Editor Lucia Getsi:

Hi there,

I am no longer the editor, having retired from that position after twenty years, but I am happy to answer. The fall issue, in a twice per year journal that has never been late in 25 years, has been published in December for the past 17 years. It is sent NFP mail, so it is usually mid December or even January before it gets to those on the mailing list, approximately 1200. I have seen the galleys--the winners are right in there, just like always. Does this contestant know that fall extends through the winter solstice on Dec. 21?

We have never, nor will we ever, announce the judges before the contest is judged and announced. You cannot imagine how judges are hounded if some people know who they are in advance, and most writers will not even consider judging a contest if their names are announced in advance. We try for blind judging, and keeping identities secret helps.

We've never had a complaint about our rules, after which many other journal contests have modeled their own. They are clear enough so that had I gotten such an email, I may have ignored it, but I doubt that our Publication Director did, as she answers everything. Many times, emails from those not in the computer address book are routinely routed to Junk Mail, and sometimes some slip into Junk even when they are.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lucia Getsi
20 year Editor,
The Spoon River Poetry Review
University Distinguished Professor Emerita,
English and Comparative Literature
Illinois State University

_________________________

Thank you for your quick response.

I still have some questions:

1. If the judge is kept anonymous, how does he or she know that she/he isn't awarding a prize to his/her current student, a friend, lover/spouse, or family member? (See Jorie Graham Rule)
2. Do you have a mechanism in place for avoiding this potential problem?
3. If a finalist turns out to have a personal or professional relationship with the final judge, do you disqualify him or her? If so, is that entrant's fee returned? (In other words, it would seem unfair to penalize an entrant who doesn't know the identity of the final judge before submitting).
4. I still don't see a link on your website about the 2006 winners, and our correspondent said he/she had entered the 2007 contest. Please clarify.

Best,

Jennifer Semple Siegel

Spoon River Poetry Review, Where are You????

Just when I think I'm "over it," someone reminds of why I got involved in Foetry and then Post Foetry...

Today, I received the following email from a poetry contest entrant:

I decided to e-mail you to ask about the Spoon River Poetry Review.

[Note from Bugzita: by the way, the SRPR contest rules seem waffly and incomplete, although offering a subscription in return is a step in the right direction, although it looks as though our correspondent has not been receiving his issues. In any case, the judge should be announced before entrants send in their money.]

I have received no word from that publication since I submitted poems to its annual poetry contest. I e-mailed them to find out and did not get an answer. It has been since April 15th since the deadline, meaning it is now going on eight months. Maybe that is typical of poetry contests?

I understand that things take time but since SRPR does not allow for simultaneous submissions I can't submit my poems elsewhere in the meantime. Why do they take their merry old time to get back and keep me from submitting elsewhere? It doesn't seem fair to me. Or else I should "get over it" as that may be the world of poetry - slow as glacial ice!!

I have noticed that there has been no Fall issue of SRPR in which the contest winners will be published. Winter comes and the Fall issue is nowhere to be found. None in the mail and none posted on SRPR's website. I guess I'm either impatient or a sucker. Do you have any insight into this?

Thanks for your time and indulgence.

First of all, you're not a sucker; you have done all the right things: followed the rules and waited patiently for an announcement of 2007 winners. Secondly, I think that the "no simultaneous submission" rule is complete and utter BS, which is mostly ignored, anyway. Trust me, as a former editor, I have first-hand knowledge of this.

However, if your personal ethics dictate that you follow contest rules that dictate no simultaneous submissions, then I would say that you are off the hook after six months. It's your work, after all. Who are editors to say that you must wait an eternity for their answer?

Evidently, they have yet to announce the 2006 contest winners, so, my friend, you may have a very long wait.

It troubles me that your email was ignored--if the people running this contest are taking money from entrants, then they owe their paying-customer base answers. At the very least, the editor or other representative should post a message on the website, explaining the reason for the backlog and apologizing for the delay. Otherwise, they just look like another fly-by-night outfit.

How about it, Spoon River Poetry Review?

1. Answer your customers' questions.
2. Post an explanation/apology on your website homepage.
3. SRPR editor: feel free to email a response to me, which I'll post here.

In the future, contest entrants should take care and consider contests that incorporate these guidelines.

Best,

Jennifer

Pavement Saw Press and David Baratier

In recent research I’ve been conducting, I came across the following post on the Poetics listserv out of Buffalo. It’s from David Baratier of Pavement Saw Press, from April of this year. I would post this correction on the listserv itself, but my membership has not been approved yet. Maybe it won’t ever be.

It frustrates me to see someone so self-righteously denounce Foetry.com’s work, particularly in light of the fact that I did not write _one word_ of the paragraph he attributed to me. Another forum member, Monday Love, wrote it. Baratier was completely careless in this post. And no, I’m not against all contests either. And I’m pro Monday Love too.

——————————–

Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2007 22:35:21 -0700
Reply-To: editor@pavementsaw.org
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group
From: David Baratier
Subject: Agni needs a spine
In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1The situation with foetry affects all of us. It is apparent from my
interactions with foetry that Alan Cordle is against all contests, even an
honest one. Foetry first went after me insinuating that I appeared in the
Denver Quarterly because I had Bin Ramke as a judge. That statement sat on
their site for many months even after the timeline was shown to them that
proved that the accusation was false. I am not sure why we were brought
onto their site except for an apparent need of Cordle to attack Ramke and
anyone who used him as a judge. The passage below written by Cordle is yet
another instance of his making things up without evidence:
————————- Let’s see. Please tell me if I got anything
wrong. David Baratier’s letters and poems have appeared in the Denver
Quarterly, editor Bin Ramke, professor, University of Denver. Baratier is
editor of Pavement Saw Press, in Ohio, which gets money from Ohio
taxpayers in order to establish, according to Pavement Saw Press’s mission
statement, a “non-university affiliated press” which helps Ohio’s economy
by attracting outside attention and publishing “works of national
signifiance.” Dana Curtis, Ph.D. University of Denver, wins Pavement Saw
Press Prize, picked by Ramke. Curtis is founder & editor-in-chief of
Elixir Press, based in Denver. Jake Adam York, director of creative
writing, University of Colorado at Denver, and Colorado Council on the
Arts fellow, wins Elixir Press Prize. Sounds to me like
university-affiliated Denver is the cat and the Ohio taxpayers are the
cream. It looks like, so far at least, there’s a nice little Denver system
in place here. Very nice. ———————————————-
Ok, Back to my side again The above written by Cordle is a total
fabrication. York and Curtis didn’t know each other in fact, at the time
Dana was in Minneapolis, not Denver I did not know Bin except for asking
him to judge the contest and I asked him because I called to find out if
they were going to run a interview I did with Simon Perchik (which
appeared as a feature in an early issue of Jacket) and while he was on the
line I asked if he would be interested. I’ll just stop here. The whole
thing is starting to bother me again. Our contest is blind judged, the
manuscripts are stripped of the name and publication credits, if we can
afford a judge, the judge is sent 25 manuscripts out of all recieved. If
not I end up judging the batch I am sent back from the readers. If I am
able to afford publishing two books (1000 run each) from the entries I do.
Then we pay to mail everyone at least their entry fee worth of books we
have published. I think we run one of the fairest contests there is, I
challenged Cordle to come up with a place that did better. I am still
waiting. Anyway, my experience is that we would have something false
written about us with no evidence, and once that material appeared on the
foetry website it became my job to “prove him wrong.” I should also
mention that Levine is one of our authors. And that (for the record, as to
avoid more wild speculation) his book won our contest before Tupelo was
publishing. I also do not see why Levine being accused of a problem with
the way he runs his press should affect the acceptance of his poems into
journals. This is heading into an ugly direction, what is next? Will AGNI
apologize about publishing poems if a poet is accused of running a
red-light? Maybe AGNI should apologize for all of the poems they publish
until they get a spine. Considering the student teacher problems with
poetry awards and with contests who have chosen a winner beforehand, my
amazement with Cordle is how inflated he is over the little he has
revealed. Be well David Baratier, Editor Pavement Saw Press PO Box 6291
Columbus, OH 43206 http://pavementsaw.org

Poet Paul Muldoon: New Poetry Editor at The New Yorker

In November, Poet Paul Muldoon will assume The New Yorker poetry editorship, replacing Alice Quinn who is leaving to edit and research the journals of Elizabeth Bishop.

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More...

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It will be interesting to see how the magazine's poetry department evolves from this change.