I suppose the result wasn't a total surprise, given the insular nature of the UK literary world. All the Oxford graduates I contacted had heard of Simon Armitage, while only those with a special interest in poetry had heard of Alicia. Come 2020 that will have changed, I'm sure.

...and the insular nature of the UK media. Not The Guardian's finest hour. They did a huge rave portrait of big Si, followed by two very biased columns. They treated the election like a football match where they were behind the English guy. Quite moronic really. My guess is that The Guardian people make a virtue out of not reading the TLS.

Duncan

Yup. Confirmation of the second-rate. Of course he's a bloody northerner which makes it worse. Oxford typically managed not to give me my vote out of sheer bloody incompetence.

And I suppose he's too high and mighty to write the poems he is paid to write. Year ago I reviewed his second book quite favourably. But only quite he buttonholed me somewhere and asked what I meant by it. The boy's got ego if nothing else.

Sorry Alicia. The congnoscenti gave you the palm (the bays) but the Guardian dullards were always going to win.

Never mind...

Classy post, John.

Thanks again all for all your good wishes and good works.

I've ended up learning a lot about the history of the election. Only one American (besides me) has ever been in the running, if you except W. H. Auden, who was a naturalized citizen--that was when Robert Lowell ran and lost in 1966 to Edmund Blunden (who, in the end, resigned before completing his term.) The Canadian Anne Carson ran against Christopher Ricks.

Evidently one of the reasons there have been so few Americans in the running is up until maybe 1960, you had to have an Oxford MA to run.

My hope is that numerous people who read about the election will be moved to learn more about this “A.E. Stallings” and will end up discovering what an excellent poet Alicia is.

Exactly, Gregory. That's the gist of it.

Mark makes a good point. Publicity is helpful for something like poetry, which usually receives so little. If any poets out there are curious about someone whom they have not heard of, but who has received such a prestigious nomination, they may check out her work, whose excellence speaks for itself. In the long run, poetry survives not on honors, but on people who continue to read it. I think Alicia's will be read for a long time.

Susan

To these election results I say: Pbftt!
Stuffiness wins again. The time for an American Woman OPOP is yet to come.