On Foetry...
I had not visited Foetry since the genesis, but yesterday I got sucked in again, via Laura Carter's blog. Here is my (Today) post... and likely my last (on Foetry... I ain't pulling no Schiavo/Tost/McCullough) post.
Dear Foetry,
I think you really do risk your credibility.
I was so excited when you began. I DO believe in your mission, and was willing to participate. But I think you need to be open about who you are. Which is why I use my name here (though I couldn't remember my password and so created a second account).
And as someone who often posts about such things, and gets in trouble often over these matters, I feel comfortable discussing this. I GOT TO KNOW BRENDA specifically because I criticized her on my blog, and she emailed me, and we had a DIALOGUE about her poems and reading style, and it was good for everyone, and we both learned something.
Jorie is someone I had personal interaction with, and could speak about personally, offering my name as collateral. I only ever recounted personal memories, things I KNEW to be true. And if Jorie wants to talk about the things I've said, I'll meet her face to face.
Rumors with no source are another matter. It is not fair to bash someone without being willing to risk your own reputation if they turn out to be unture. It IS cowardly. I stopped visiting Foetry because it turned into this, and only came back because I read Laura C's blog, and was curious. I won't be back anytime soon, unless you guys claim your victories, and your mistakes, openly.
Poetry is a small world. A community. If we cannot publish work we admire, because we once happened to meet the person at a a party, or we know their work from magazines we like, this is silly.
A student or close friend of a judge...winning a contest? That's wrong!
But if I were a judge, and found an amazing book by someone whose name I vaguely knew from a amgazine, or who had attended a panel I gave at AWP? Hell yeah!
A good book should be judged by its own merits. As long as the judge can be objective about those merits, its fine by me.
I am not on any inner circle, and the contacts I have were made mostly online, and not at Iowa. My AWP dossier includes mostly online folks, people who've mentored me without knowing me. Not Jorie or Jim or Mark.
But if someone knows me because I write, because through my blog they met my work and liked it... because on their own they sought my poems out? I earned that!
I don't sleep with teachers or fawn. I just write.
Again, I respect what you're doing, but I think you should consider your mission and not your own neck. Nothing terrible will happen if you use your name and piss some people off.
Trust me, it's okay to be disliked.
xoLaurel Snyder http://jewishyirishy.com
Dear Foetry,
I think you really do risk your credibility.
I was so excited when you began. I DO believe in your mission, and was willing to participate. But I think you need to be open about who you are. Which is why I use my name here (though I couldn't remember my password and so created a second account).
And as someone who often posts about such things, and gets in trouble often over these matters, I feel comfortable discussing this. I GOT TO KNOW BRENDA specifically because I criticized her on my blog, and she emailed me, and we had a DIALOGUE about her poems and reading style, and it was good for everyone, and we both learned something.
Jorie is someone I had personal interaction with, and could speak about personally, offering my name as collateral. I only ever recounted personal memories, things I KNEW to be true. And if Jorie wants to talk about the things I've said, I'll meet her face to face.
Rumors with no source are another matter. It is not fair to bash someone without being willing to risk your own reputation if they turn out to be unture. It IS cowardly. I stopped visiting Foetry because it turned into this, and only came back because I read Laura C's blog, and was curious. I won't be back anytime soon, unless you guys claim your victories, and your mistakes, openly.
Poetry is a small world. A community. If we cannot publish work we admire, because we once happened to meet the person at a a party, or we know their work from magazines we like, this is silly.
A student or close friend of a judge...winning a contest? That's wrong!
But if I were a judge, and found an amazing book by someone whose name I vaguely knew from a amgazine, or who had attended a panel I gave at AWP? Hell yeah!
A good book should be judged by its own merits. As long as the judge can be objective about those merits, its fine by me.
I am not on any inner circle, and the contacts I have were made mostly online, and not at Iowa. My AWP dossier includes mostly online folks, people who've mentored me without knowing me. Not Jorie or Jim or Mark.
But if someone knows me because I write, because through my blog they met my work and liked it... because on their own they sought my poems out? I earned that!
I don't sleep with teachers or fawn. I just write.
Again, I respect what you're doing, but I think you should consider your mission and not your own neck. Nothing terrible will happen if you use your name and piss some people off.
Trust me, it's okay to be disliked.
xoLaurel Snyder http://jewishyirishy.com
5 Comments:
I wasn't that nice. It's hard to be reasonable when you're having a conversation with an anonymous, hip-hop dragon.
LOL Tru dat!
Yo yo word to your mutha. Or rather, word to your fomo.
Yes, totally agree with you! I hate Foetry and their empty accusations. I fundamentally agree with what they're doing, but they manage it in the most ineffective immature way I've ever seen anything managed! Some people in poetry are insane. There's no sense of professionalism sometimes.
I thought Laurel's comment was really on track. What's a little dismaying about the "foetry" mess is just how little wisdom and spirit there seems to be these days in poetry land. --at least among those with an interest in this particular bubble of spleen.
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