By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:50:17 +0000

First, I do not imply that Cave Canem is a school where people work year-round. And I make clear that Carl Phillips and Alexander did not teach together. Are you denying that Elizabeth Alexander knows Nikky Finney and Yussef Komunyakaa? Or that they have worked together? If so, please say so directly, and I will correct the post. And what about that Alexander and Komunyakaa are both honorary directors in addition to being listed on your site as faculty? Are you saying that they don’t know each other in either of the roles in which your site links them? Frankly, that would be as hard to believe as that Jill Lepore and Stephen Greenblatt don’t know each other when they both teach in humanities disciplines at Harvard. And if Alexander and Finney and Komunyakaa know each other through their Cave Canem work, that is the appearance of a conflict of interest. Your comment that “It is a very rare thing” that poets on a prize panel do not know each other seems rather to confirm that the three I mentioned *do* know each other.

Second, the National Book Awards are not “any prize panel”: They are one of the country’s highest literary honors, supported in part by taxpayers through the National Book Foundation’s federal tax exemption and government grants. Those taxpayers have a right to know that National Book Awards are being administered fairly. And with all of its resources, the NBF sponsor should be able to put together juries that have fewer appearances of conflicts of interest than do three of this year’s panels, including poetry.

If you would like your comment to remain up on my site, please answer directly my questions about the ties between the Alexander, Finney and Yomunyakaa instead of tap-dancing around the points I made.

By: robincostelewis

robincostelewis — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:37:25 +0000

This is silly – and dangerous. I’m a Cave Canem Fellow, very honored to be so. The research here is poorly done. Please, if you are going to criticize an arts organization, or its faculty, do your research properly. You present your information as if Cave Canem is a school where folks work and attend year round. It is not. To be on Cave Canem’s faculty means you volunteer one week per year, for only three years, to work with young poets very intensively on their writing. Faculty rotate every 3 years. Cave Canem is over 15 years old. Alexander, I believe, taught in the mid-nineties. Phillips just completed his tenure this past summer, 2011. Please speak carefully and do your research completely before criticizing an organization that has helped so many new poets find their way. It is a very rare thing that any prize panel – any prize panel – is ever made up of poets who do not know each other. And well. The poetry world is that small. People are on the faculty and teach together at Napa, at Breadloaf, at Squaw, and no one calls foul. Why only now? The lack of rigor here in your research saddens me greatly.

Comments on: Cozy Relationships Among National Book Awards Poetry Judges

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

By: robincostelewis