$100 K to Sharon Olds
 

Thoughts?

http://www.usnews.com/news/entertain...0-poetry-prize

I have said for some years now that "good" "free verse" is not free verse at all. Many of my poetry friends have snorted at me over that statement. Not here though.

I still am not a big fan of Olds. Obviously, she is well accomplished and has lots to say. Does she deserve the dough? Yep.


Quote:

I have not, over the years, tried to write in a particular form, but when I look at my poems, I see that they have been written in four-beat lines (four strong accents, however many syllables the line has), with few end-stopped lines, and a lot of enjambment (the sentence pouring over the end of one line into the next). So I see myself as a formal poet: four-beat lines, and enjambment, and internal — rather than end-stopped — rhyme being my form. (I don't see myself as writing "free verse.") Sharon Olds

It's nice that the Academy of American Poets looked far and wide for someone to give $100K to and by pure coincidence awarded it to someone who had been Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets for six years. But I'm glad that their non-profit status allows people to make tax-free donations that they can use to award each other prizes.

Well, before Roger's illuminating remark, I was going to comment on how predictable this thread would become: some bitter comments towards a poet most people here don't appreciate, while A. E. Stallings, who won six times as much for the MacArthur but whose style more closely aligns with Erato's, was congratulated profusely by those same people (and deservedly so, and I like her work), but I didn't know Olds was the previous Chancellor, and that changes things most definitely. Once you are in, you are in, I suppose, whether you are Olds or a detestable mediocrity from Vietnam.

Alicia had not, as far as I know, sat on the board of the MacArthur Foundation or done anything whatsoever to ingratiate herself with them. Also, though we all know Alicia, she was not by any stretch a household name even among people who follow poetry.

As far as the insinuation that my attitude is somehow a judgment about Sharon Olds' poetry, you are making a wrong assumption simply to impugn my criticism of the system that gave her the award. I happen to respect her work, and I can even remember a poem or two of hers that made a strong impression on me decades ago. In my opinion, she has indeed been a major and important voice in American poetry. But she does not therefore need a handout from contributors who presumably would like to see their money used to promote poetry rather than for celebrity poets to exchange expensive gifts.

PS--
I now see that the Chancellor part may have changed your views, so I'm sorry for saying you were impugning my comments.

Roger, I wasn't being sarcastic. I foresaw that quicker that one could yell Flarf! the responses here would be negative simply because Olds' style is not that of the house. I attempted a back somersault that is also a front roll, both preempting the inevitable conversation that would ensue here while also taking back my assumptions after having read your remark.

News Flash: the poetry world is filled with incestuous little cliques, who like to sit around and give each other awards, often funded by other peoples' money.

In Other News: water is wet, and wind, though seemingly insubstantial, is capable of knocking down trees.

Best,

Bill

Lines from "Take Something Like A Star" by Robert Frost:

So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may take something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

I actually enjoy quite a bit of Sharon Olds's work, even if her poetic toolbox is quite different from mine, and her erotic subject matter isn't always my thing.

But I, too, was very annoyed that I didn't win. All that sucking up, all those boring dinner parties with committee members, all those favors done to their college-aged children, wasted.

I comfort myself with the thought that many poets forced to support themselves with day jobs in various fields unrelated to the po biz (e.g., obstetrics, insurance bonding, librarianship--oh, the horror) have still managed to find the time to write decent poems and get them before an appreciative public. So there's always Plan B.

I've been a fan of Sharon Olds's work for years, one of a small number of free verse poets whose work really hit me like a lightning bolt when I first encountered it. So I am glad to see the award go to someone I think is very talented. The incestuous nature of awards is troubling, and I personally think that giving prizes of lower amounts to more people might do more good than giving huge prizes to one. But, ironically, in America the size of the award is what gets people's attention, even if they have no interest otherwise in poetry.

Susan

Back in the early 90s, SO's work struck me like a lightning bolt too and she is one of two major poets to whom I have written fan letters. As the years went by, that lightning bolt cooled a bit, but still I admire her opus overall. No one has written more powerfully about the human life cycle or the human condition of enfleshment.

But I’ve got to agree with Bob, who pointed out on Facebook this morning that they just greased the palm of a former chancellor and a poet "whose career does not need any further boost either in terms of financial backing or recognition.” Here’s Wikipedia’s list of her honorifics, including a 25K grant from the very same Academy:

• 1981-1982 Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation[28]
• 1982-1983 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship[29]
• 1983 The Dead and the Living Lamont Poetry Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
• 1992 The Father, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and was a finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Award.[5][11][30]
• 1993-1996 Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers Award [31]
• 1998-2000 New York State Poet Laureate [32]
• 2002 Academy of American Poets Fellowship [33]
• 2002 The Unswept Room, Nominee for National Book Award in the Poetry category [34]
• 2003 Judge, Griffin Poetry Prize; for “distinguished poetic achievement at mid-career”[35]
• 2004 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Awards [36]
• 2004 Became member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences [37]
• 2006-2012 Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets [38]
• 2009 One Secret Thing, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize[39] and the Forward Prize [40]
• 2012 T.S. Eliot Prize, Stag's Leap [18]
• 2012 Stag’s Leap, named as one of “Oprah’s Favorite Reads of 2012” [41]
• 2013 Pulitzer Prize, Stag's Leap [42]
• 2014 Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Prize in American Poetry [43]
• 2015 Elected to become a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

So what’s the moral of the story.? Them that’s got shall get, them that’s not shall lose, ever after, Amen. And no one will save a wretch like me!

Olds has a number of poems that I've enjoyed, many more that leave me unimpressed. It's the Academy I find ludicrous. Yes, they take turns giving prizes to each other, but it's the membership drives that astound me most. They would give prizes to each other with my money, or so they plan.

I don't mind other groups, such as the MacArthur, giving huge prizes that one cannot apply for. As far as I know, it is their money to spend as they wish.

Quite a few years ago I beheld a very vivid dream (if you've heard this story before, stop me--oops, too late) of a shrine up on a hill, and earnest poets were making the long pilgrimage, and leaving offerings to the Muse in a jar. Then a somewhat mentor of mine came by, approached the offering jar, winked at me, saying, "You don't pay the Muse, the Muse pays you," then reached into the jar to gather the collection unto himself, and walked off. Yes, in reality, he won major prizes from the Academy.

Those of us in very little ole England marvel at the size of many things in the USA: your national parks, your roads, your cars (not as big nowadays as they used to be, admittedly), your shopping malls, your restaurant meals . . .

I can't comment on Sharon Olds' work as I'm not familiar with it, but it's mind-boggling that such a huge amount of money could be awarded to a poet.
Like Kate, I have to agree with Bob that "[her] career does not need any further boost either in terms of financial backing or recognition.”

It would be nice if she were to make a generous donation to a worthwhile charity, or something.

In the UK the equivalent of $6-7K is considered a big award for poetry.

Jayne