Dara Wier's recent books include Remnants of Hannah and Reverse Rapture (awarded the Poetry Center & American Poetry Archives Book Award). A Selected Poems is forthcoming from Wave Books, and it will be Wier's eleventh book! Her poems can be found in Pushcart, Best American Poetry, Norton, Soft Skull and various other anthologies, and in American Poetry Review, Conduit, Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, jubilat, slope, Turnrow, New American Review, Volt. A limited edition, (X In Fix), is in RainTaxi's Brainstorm series. The Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the American Poetry Review have supported her work. She's a member of the poetry faculty and director of the MFA program for poets and writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and co-director of the Juniper Initiative for Literary Arts and Action. Click here pre-order Wier's Selected Poems, which comes out in September.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Week Five: Guest Judge Dara Wier
Dara Wier's recent books include Remnants of Hannah and Reverse Rapture (awarded the Poetry Center & American Poetry Archives Book Award). A Selected Poems is forthcoming from Wave Books, and it will be Wier's eleventh book! Her poems can be found in Pushcart, Best American Poetry, Norton, Soft Skull and various other anthologies, and in American Poetry Review, Conduit, Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, jubilat, slope, Turnrow, New American Review, Volt. A limited edition, (X In Fix), is in RainTaxi's Brainstorm series. The Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the American Poetry Review have supported her work. She's a member of the poetry faculty and director of the MFA program for poets and writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and co-director of the Juniper Initiative for Literary Arts and Action. Click here pre-order Wier's Selected Poems, which comes out in September.
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5 comments:
Wow, Dustin. Just. Wow. Your guest judges have all been great, but this is huge.
And I think its great to have a judge whose poems are a bit on the odd side. Makes it a bit easier for those of us who don't write "mainstream poems" whatever that means.
Okay, I'll shut my mouth now.
Fabulous. Just fabulous. Suck it, Ott. (I just couldn't resist...)
W.F.,
Dara is definitely a very interesting and qualified judge and I look forward to seeing her comments, as well as the work -- and I agree that odd is great.
However, I think that if your mouth comes much closer to Dustin's a** you are dangerously close to violation of rule #3 re: previous and present relationships (like Emily, I can't resist!).
I do find it odd that no one called you out on your ridiculous over-the-top behavior over the past few days. You more than paid Ott back for anything...and you certainly never went so far as to call yourself anything like a "blowhard," as he did.
Bring it in your poetry -- there's been some great work on the fly, let's keep it going.
(And if you have a problem with comments from the audience, as I anticipate Mr. Italian Potty Mouth might, please remember that you signed up for this...see Dustin's previous posts re: rules and previous references to Project Runway et al). You can't be selective on these things....
best,
an audience member
Michele,
Thanks for your comments. If you remember, I thanked you for your words yesterday, so you should know by now that I have no problem with comments from the audience. Rather enjoy it.
I take "Mr. Italian Potty Mouth" as a compliment.
As for the proximity of my mouth to Dustin's ass, I'm surprised you can see me from your vantage point up Martin's. I had an opinion about the judge (a stellar selection) and I shared it. This is quite within the boundaries of the rules.
Also, I have no need to refer to myself as a "blowhard" or anything of the sort. Martin Ott did nothing but whinge about the judges, complain about the "smallness" of "American poetry" (because, you know, its AMERICA'S fault he never won a week, not his), and talk about how many contests he's won and publications he's had.
If you've been reading the judge's comments during the course of the contest, you'll know that no amount of sucking up affects Dustin (or any of the other judge's) opinion. In fact, Dustin has been harder on me than any of the other judges.
Just because your golden boy blew the rules of the game and got his ass booted out doesn't give you the right to take potshots at those of us lucky enough to still be around.
Bring it in my poetry? Bet your ass I will.
I do not have to like what you say in order to believe in your right to say it. And in your case, thank God for that.
By the way, my ridiculous over-the-top behavior is probably my only charm.
Without that, I'd be just another Martin Ott.
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