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TRANSLATION BAKEOFF: Call for Entries!

Chris Childers's picture

Carissimi Eratosphericals,

As you may know, in August the Distinguished Guest forum will be hosting a reprise of last year's wildly successful Translation Bakeoff, headlined by Charles Martin. This year, Alex Pepple has done us the great service of procuring a similarly accomplished guest to comment on your poems, namely, Rachel Hadas (see biography below), who, if I'm not mistaken, is currently engaged with Edmund Keeley and others in editing (and translating for) a massive edition of Greek poetry from antiquity to the present.

Bake-off Begins Tomorrow

Catherine Chandler's picture

Dear Fellow Poets,

In choosing the finalists from the sixty-one sonnets submitted to me for this year’s bake-off, I relied on the wisdom of poets, the expertise of scholars and, of course, my own gut feelings, what I call the “goose-bump factor,” which may or may not be wise, but there it is.

My decision matrix was based on the following four main criteria (weights in brackets), all of which had sub-criteria as well:

(A) craft, sound, mechanics, images, mood (2)
(B) true to the spirit of the sonnet (3)
(C) universality/transcendence (2)
(D) goose-bumps (3)

New videos posted for Thaisa Frank's HENNA and THE ENCHANTED MAN stories.

The videos for Thaisa Frank's stories  in the Reload Issue have been updated with new readings from the author. Be sure to check them out at the links below:

Henna video
The Enchanted Man
 
...Alex

 

Sonnet Bake-off: One week to go!

Catherine Chandler's picture

In one week, I'll be posting the first two bake-off sonnets, with Mr. Turner Cassity's comments and a few of my own.

In her Introduction to The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, Phillis Levin states that the sonnet is " . . . a mode of introspection, a crystallization of the process of thought, of a self arriving at self-consciousness.”

This seems to be borne out in this year's bake-off, as no less than 72% of the sonnets submitted were written in the first person, 82% of which were in the first person singular.

Bake-off Selections

Catherine Chandler's picture

I know my mind and I have made my choice;
Not from your temper does my doom depend;
-- Edna St. Vincent Millay (Fatal Interview, sonnet XLV)

Dear Poets,

The deadline for the sonnet bake-off submissions has now passed. I made no final decision until after 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, just in case we had some submissions from as far away as Hawaii, but no, the last one was received at around 3 p.m. EDT.

Able Muse Guest Editors, Spotlight Poet Contest & More

The next issue of Able Muse will feature a number of guest editors in all areas, and a contest. With that, I’m pleased to invite the submissions on behalf of the guest editors. The pertinent details follow. In all cases, the submission guidelines for Able Muse are online here. The deadline for all submissions indicated below is May 1, 2009.

POETRY

The Gladdest Thing

Catherine Chandler's picture

In Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Afternoon on a Hill," she writes, "I will be the gladdest thing/Under the sun!/I will touch a hundred flowers/And not pick one." That's how I feel about reading and reading the sonnets submitted to me for this year's bake-off, very glad indeed.

Just a reminder that tomorrow (March 10) noon is the submission deadline. That's when "I will mark which must be mine" and then send twelve to Mr. Cassity for his comments.
 

Cathy

 

An embarrassment of riches

Catherine Chandler's picture

"From A Very Little Sphinx"
-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Come along in then, little girl!
Or else stay out!
But in the open door she stands,
And bites her lip and twists her hands,
And stares upon me, trouble-eyed;
'Mother,' she says, 'I can't decide!'

Dear Poets,

Sonnet Bake-off: One week to go

Catherine Chandler's picture

Into the golden vessel of great song
Let us pour all our passion; breast to breast
Let other lovers lie, in love and rest;
Not we, - articulate, so, but with the tongue
Of all the world . . .
Edna St. Vincent Millay

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