[Julie Kane]

My heart went out to this woman for being in the middle of a controversy she did not ask for. But, Mike, up until fairly recently, the poet laureate position in most states was a political appointment. Then a movement got underway about ten or twelve years ago to make merit and not politics the basis for selection, with nominations, application packets, and a committee established by the state humanities or arts council. This process is no more "culturally elite" than the bid process for state contracts. Some of the so-called "culturally elitist" poets who have been state laureates in recent years are me, Marilyn Nelson, Marilyn Taylor, Kelly Cherry, Dick Allen, Natasha Trethewey, and David Mason. And while North Carolina has a decent stipend for its laureate, I got $1,000 for two years ($500 per year), for which I drove my little Prius all over this state giving readings, talks, and workshops in charter schools, public schools, public libraries, senior citizens' centers, community centers, etc. (as did my predecessor, and as my successor is now doing), trying to bridge the cultural gap between poetry and a general audience. That is what the laureate position is all about. "Culturally elitist"? Oh, come on.

[Gail White]

Quite an interesting saga!
I know that in Louisiana the job of state PL is no sinecure -- it involves much inventing, organizing, and publicizing of poetry events, and it can't be done by just any competent poet. I don't blame Ms. Macon for retreating under fire.

[Janice D. Soderling]

My guess is that she gets most of the populist votes, and that she still (understandably) declines to take the position and that P.L. and/or the arts council is downsized or dissolved as an item in a money-saving bill.

I hope that won't happen, but that's my prediction.

Added in to clarify: "I hope it won't happen" is a reference to the possible elimination of the P.L. position and Arts Council from the state budget.

[Allen Tice]

She gets my vote, minor self-puff on her website or not. She gets my vote for what little I've seen of her production (though it's not my style), and she gets it for being extremely sensible when suddenly placed in an absurd position. In the end, her reputation cannot suffer much, if at all. I hope we haven't heard the last of her, and somehow, I doubt it.

[W.F. Lantry]

Seriously? This guy doesn't believe government should have any role in the arts (although they certainly don't mind supporting corporations with tax breaks that make arts support pale in comparison). This guy is from the same party as the ones who wanted to kill off Big Bird (for the same reasons), as the ones who called Obama "a snob" for saying everyone should have a chance to go to college.

To show exactly how much he disvalued the arts, he looked for someone writing the equivalent of 'Dogs playing Poker.' After all, that's the kind of art his voters understand, the kind of thing 'people have in their homes.' There are some awfully good poets who live in North Carolina, but very few of them are his voters. It's not hard to imagine why.

I have real sympathy for her, even with the resume padding (although that was a bit much, from a universitarian's point of view). She never asked for all this trouble, and it can't have been pleasant. But she's the victim here, and the perpetrator of all this grief is the governor, and all those who support and defend him.

Thanks,

Bill

[Allen Tice]

I think she will survive, and possibly flourish, because of her good sense in ducking what to many appears to be a political booby-trap.

I look forward to seeing a bit more of her ouevre, especially after her recent baptism of fire.

As to her lack of credentialization, and complaints about it, the complainers can examine my automobile license plate at close range (as long as they are not driving unsafely -- I like forty feet of sea room as a very minimum at 85 kph, but who knows about reaction times in this world?)

Politics? Bovalitics! Did the Renaissance Medici support free-thinking painters? Did Socialist Realism allow dissident artists? What is just as bad as anti-intellectalism is My-Way or the Highway policies.

We don't need politics in every corner of the arts. The best writers that we remember were often individualists who low-balled the regime.

Of course, Big Bird is not just art, Big Bird is CTW and PBS. We need CTW and PBS to counteract the might of corporate shekels. And well done, Big Bird and his ilk are a priceless resource and corner of sanity in an increasingly uprooted world. (Badly done, they could be the worst kind of poison.) How dare anyone disagree with what I have just written.

[Charlie Southerland]

The dear lady has just resigned the position because of all the negative publicity. I don't think she should have, but she is my hero for having real courage in the face of true smarminess liberal "I am better than youism."

She is a good dear decent lady who did not deserve this. I hope the guilty are ashamed of themselves. To hell with them.

[E. Shaun Russell]

Originally Posted by Charlie Southerland

The dear lady has just resigned the position because of all the negative publicity. I don't think she should have, but she is my hero for having real courage in the face of true smarminess liberal "I am better than youism."

I'm not sure it's a partisan issue, really. More than anything, I think it speaks to the perceived uselessness of the poet laureate position. I don't think it's useless, and clearly a large number of established poets and academics don't think it's useless, but it seems quite obvious that the governor thought it really didn't matter who was installed as poet laureate. I'm sure he's shocked by the blowback, simply because he couldn't possibly have envisioned people giving a damn about the position of poet laureate. That is what I take out of this whole snafu more than anything else.

Beyond that, I pretty much agree with what Bill says above. Establishment or no, it would seem to make sense that the more accomplished people at a particular task would deserve the appropriate positions. In this case, Macon (who I agree is not the issue here) is just a middling poet who is probably undeserving of the role of state laureate based on her lack of feasible credentials or background. Even if it is a question of partisanship, I'm sure there are many right-leaning poets who have a more proven, applicable background than Macon.

For what it's worth, I think she did the right thing by resigning. To me, that shows a lot more grace than trying to power through a hopeless situation.

[Roger Slater]

I think the folks who loudly protested the appointment, even if they had a valid complaint, might have been more sensitive to her feelings and prefaced their complaint about the process with warm congratulations to the appointee and offers to support her and assist her in promoting poetry. Even if she had been a Nobel Prize winner with five or six Pulitzers and a bunch of Guggenheims and Fulbrights adorning the wall of her corner office at Harvard, the objection to the appointment would be identical, i.e., that the appropriate process was not followed. Too much of the criticism here seems to have centered around her supposed lack of qualifications to hold the job, which really ought not to be the point.

[Janice D. Soderling]

I agree with Roger that Ms. Macon did not deserve the many hurtful statements since she did not seek the position, but her lack of skills and absence of a track record in the world of poetry made it inevitable that a hue and cry would be raised.

Possibly some political nepotism factors into the misguided appointment as well; the claim has been made that she is a cousin of Art Pope (mentioned with the caveat that it is risky to promulgate unverified facts and I haven't been able to establish that this is true).

I've been a fan of former N.C. laureate Fred Chapell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Chappell) for decades and a look at his qualifications gives one an idea of why the literati are saying that the P.L. position is degraded by this (seemingly) political appointment rather than given as recognition for services rendered to the arts.