Philip,
We simply nominate the best work (as defined by us!) selected from the published work that fall within the nominating period, not the names. If you check our nomination and publication records, you'll see that we've published poets and writers who were first-timers and complete unknowns, and nominated first-time published authors as well. Likewise, we've rejected poets and writers whose bios boasted prestigious publication credits or appointments ... (maybe they've been riding on their names/credits as you've alleged, or maybe they thought they could dump their subpar material on us.) Regardless, we simply publish and nominate quality work, regardless of who it comes from. But, could it be that the reason why you tend to see the same established names published or nominated is because they, more often than not, consistently produce the best work?
...Alex
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