Distinguished Guests - 2012 Events Planning
 

Dear Eratosphereans,

Another is upon us begging to be filled with Distinguished Guest events! We already have some staples such as the must-have Sonnet bakeoff. However, there's room for suggestions for some new events or reruns of popular ones from years past.

- So, go ahead and suggest events.

- Suggest Distinguished guests and/or distinguished guest events

- Volunteer to be a distinguished guest (assuming you're distinguished enough!)

- Volunteer to be a distinguished event host (assuming you're sufficiently hospitable!)

Here's the listing of events along months - filled or waiting to be filled:

OK, take it away!

Cheers,
...Alex

So, could the winter-cold silence here mean all interest is now lost in DG events? You guys/gals realize how much time and effort you're saving me in not having to run around corralling distinguished guests and picking hosts for events, right? :)

...Alex

In this fabulous thread, some ideas were suggested, including a list-poem bake-off.

Thanks, Orwn ... list poems should be an easy one to pull off - I'll just corral one of my favorite & agreeable listers.

...Alex

For me it just means that I have a lot on my plate. I am interested, and I'm sure others are too.

Looking down the list, it seems we have enough bakeoffs, so more workshops are needed. Honestly, I've always enjoyed the workshops most of all, and learnt far more from the workshops we've had in the past than any other event on Eratosphere. The Haiku workshop with Lee Gurga and Steve Collington was the stuff of legend. People pay huge college fees to get an education like that!

The Women Writers event was magnificent, too. Can anyone think of anyone truly distinguished in their genre/field/obsession to come and converse with us for three or four days? Masterclasses.

I know such people usually get paid lots of money for doing things like this. Does anyone know anyone great who would rave at a sponge like me for the love of it alone, or for peanuts?

Cally

I agree with what Cally says, this sounds like a lot of bake-offs (now that I know what they are). I don't know who has been here in the past, so it is hard to suggest new names, but I like the idea of masterclasses and workshops.

I'll volunteer to be a host for something in the latter part of the year if needed.

But may I humbly propose a new event, one that won't necessarily require a judge and that might invigorate critique?

I propose we pick a week in which everyone who wants to may kick off a thread with a close reading of an excellent contemporary poem by somebody else. Explain to us why it's good. Show us everything there is to be seen in it. Then people can add ideas, or ask questions, or disagree, as they like.

I propose that the poem can be of any sort and that it might be more fun if we discussed poets who are not Sphere regulars and not our usual formal models.

I know we like to pick winners here, and I'm not quite sure what sort of winning this might lead to. But perhaps someone else will have an idea.

I like Maryann's idea.

I like Maryann's idea too. How contemporary is contemporary?

If one includes DtH, we now have 5 bake-offs planned for the year which I think is enough.

My thought was to find something published in the past five years, but if people really wanted to go back ten, that would be okay by me--preferably something published online, so we could link and not have to worry about copyright violations. I got the idea because I found a lovely poem in the current Virginia Quarterly Review.

I like the idea: defend, define or deflate the contemporary and steer outside of the usual traffic markers. I have several pieces in mind already.

Good idea, Maryann.

Nemo

Another vote for Maryann's idea.

Also a question: whatever happened to Robert Mezey and the proposed E. A. Robinson event last year? I was looking forward to that one.

That has the making of an interesting event, Maryann.

Andrew, it was something to the effect that the designated host for that event didn't act, and I was too busy and didn't look in, or errr, crack the whip . . . and when I looked up, it was too late!

Cheers,
...Alex

I have a poem in mind that I'm obsessed with lately, by June Jordan. I hope that's contemporary enough. I've even been thinking of presenting it in Musing on Mastery. It comes with her superb reading on YouTube.

That's too bad. Any hopes of a Robison event this year? How about a Hardy event?

I thought the Ruined Poems stuff was interesting. What about a ruined poem or smash palace event?

David R.

David, all good ideas. So, to everyone, the novel recommendations likely to make the finals are those that are popularly seconded by other posters and suggesters.

Cheers,
...Alex

I could teach a master class on bird hunting. Seriously, I'd be happy to reapproach Mezey on Robinson.

Thanks everyone. See the new additions in the quoted area of my first post in this thread.

I believe, we might have enough events now, so this is the last call before I wrap up this suggestions/comments stage.

Cheers,
...Alex

Is there a place on the site somewhere that explains what all these things are?

I'm newish--and don't know what a sonnet bake-off is, for example--and we have a several really new newbies on the site.

Does one pay for workshops? How does that work?

Someone, please just point me (us) in the right direction!

Thanks,
Charlotte

I'll give it a try, Charlotte. First of all, all the events on the Distinguished Guest board are free.

Bakeoffs, whether they are for sonnets, light verse, translations, or whatever else we decide, work roughly this way:

A host, or master of ceremonies, or organizer-type-person, puts out a call for submissions, usually a few weeks before a stated cutoff date. The call for subs tells us what poems are eligible, and how many we can submit, and how we should submit them (e-mail? PMs?) and to whom and by when.

Usually, it's the host to whom the poems are submitted. The host records who sent what, then takes the identifying information off the poems and sends them to the judge. Sometimes the host is a screener and sends only some of the poems to the judge; that can vary according to what the judge wants.

A little time passes in which the host and judge do their deciding. The event proper starts when the poems begin to be posted, usually by the host.

Of the poems the judge gets, he or she chooses the best ten, or once in a while the best twelve. Those are posted here on the DG board. Usually two poems a day are posted, for five or six days. Each poem gets its own thread (identified by something other than the full title, to foil the Googlebots), and the judge adds comments about the poem's good points (and occasionally its flaws). Other people add their comments. Finally, there's a voting period, and a thread on which people list their first, second, and third choices. The host tallies these votes and points, and a popular winner is chosen. Then the judge names his or her top three.

The event we call Deck the Halls is an end-of-year, holiday-season event that's run like a bakeoff even though we don't call it that. It's meant to feature poems that have been workshopped on the Sphere at some point.

Try playing with the features of the board that let you look Waaaaaay back to last year and before, and you'll see groups of threads with numbers; those are bakeoff postings.

I'll stop there and see if there are questions--or rotten tomatoes from those who are sure I've forgotten something. :D

Maryann, thank you! I just realized, rather belatedly, that you have answered all my questions.

Thanks,
Charlotte

FYI, I've just updated post #1 of this thread with most of the distinguished guests, hosts, and dates.

Cheers,
...Alex

I look forward to working the sonnet bake-off with Gail White.

FYI update -- E.A. Robinson festival: DG, Host and date now finalized!

Cheers,
...Alex

What an exciting year in front of us.

Thx Alex, and all the DGs and hosts. Viva la Sphere.

Alex, this all looks fantastic! I wish I had come back earlier, though, and seconded (thirded?) the call for a poetry workshop. I honestly don't mind what form it takes. Anything that challenges me, frankly! I've found in the past (in the real, as opposed to the virtual, world) that workshops stimulate my poetry, especially ones that demand assignments, or offer exercises.

Just a thought for later. And thanks again for all that's coming up!

Charlotte

FYI update -- The last of the bakeoffs, Deck-the-Halls: DG, Host and date now finalized! (See update in the first post in this thread.)

Here's to a good year of hot baking! And be sure to submit your sonnets now to Gail for our very first bakeoff here.

Cheers,
...Alex

Wow and double Wow, Alex. What a whizz-bang ending to a great agenda.

I am a rotten-yet-newish member who hardly knows what some of these things might be! But y'all get up to some interesting shenanigans, it seems.

I love Maryann's idea.

Flash Fest?
 

Does anyone know if there will be a flash fest this year? It's usually around this time (and I look forward to it).

I remember there was a vote a few months ago on events to keep and ones to can, and I'm not sure what the outcome was in terms of the flash fest.

Any info. would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Marybeth

Hi Marybeth,

I'm working on putting all the necessary elements to make it happen again this year. Stay tuned!

Cheers,
...Alex

Thanks, Alex!