I am becoming be-grumped by all the hysterical poets running around shouting PAXMAN SAYS THAT POETS ARE SELF-REGARDING! AND HE ISNT EVEN ONE OF US! GATHER THE WAGONS ROUND, A NON-POET HAS EXPRESSED AN OPINION ON POETRY! You see what youre doing, hmmmm? We are making a caricature of ourselves and proving his point precisely. Get a grip, you frilly-shirted fools. I have seen only one post that actually looked at the real story and congratulated the excellent shortlisters Liz Berry, Colette Bryce, Kei Miller and others..... The Forwards ALWAYS have at least one non-poet judging, but they dont just pick a random unread person and throw them in. No-one makes a fuss about Cerys Matthews or others... Paxman is an intelligent and widely read man with opinions on poetry and has as much right as anyone else to be there. You know, with Helen Mort and Vahni Capildeo and Dannie Abse on the judging panel, I think they will probably do alright, no? When I worked for National Poetry Day I got a great insight into how the big prizes and events work. POETS SHORTLISTED FOR POETRY PRIZE is not news. What the Forwards do, is they generate an entirely spurious debate, they type up a press release and throw it to the Guardian, and the Guardian reports it verbatim. Et voila, the shortlist for the Forward Prizes is now in the news. So. Cast aside your knee-jerk reactions to a famous person youve never met. And ask yourself - what do you think of that shortlist?
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 09:30:19 +0000
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