You may be correct Aaron, but I did find it interesting that Gail White (who knows a thing or two about sonnets) thought that this year's finalists were some of the strongest that she's read in a long time in a Bake-off. Whereas Tim Murphy and others thought this year's finalists were overall weak. As I believe you said in a post, a different DG would have picked ten different sonnets. In any case, thank you for your fine work on this contest and for your good nature.

C'est la vie,
Greg

Huge congrats to Julie (your fantastic and inventive sonnet was my first choice), Susan (your mastery of the form shows through), and Elise (excellent work with emotional impact—I remember voting for your winning sonnet last year)!! And huge thanks to Aaron (I had no idea!) and Alex on a successful and enjoyable bake-off.

As for the level of subjectivity, I think skill and beauty and emotional impact can be recognized on a more objective level than "choice," wherein the latter (emotional impact) can sway one's selection considerably. It was a hard choice to make really.

In response to the request from some members to post all 126 sonnets, I'm afraid that it's untenable. Discounting the onerous task of posting all of them here, there's the main roadblock that several non-finalists have communicated to me privately--in light of the latest discussions in this thread--that they don't want their sonnets posted, given that they've submitted them elsewhere for consideration for publication. Even without that, we can't post them here without first requesting for permission from all the authors, and then processing the responses that come back, etc.--which is yet another onerous task. So, sorry there are just too many issues that can't be resolved sufficiently to make that suggested/requested mass posting possible.

Cheers,
...Alex

Yup, as one of the ones who didn't make the cut, I'm happy to be encouraged to post it for critique on the metrical board but not to have it archived as part of the contest.

I did vote for "X," so I am glad it won. I own two of Elise Hempel's books, but did not think of "The Jitterbug" as one of her better efforts. That said, I am happy for Elise.

Congratulations to the winners.