[Janice D. Soderling]

I'd like CW to prove that he has sufficient mastery of Swedish, French, Croatian and Spanish (not to mention the now-disappeared German translations) to warrant publishing translations under his own name.

Among the sites (all reputable ones) that have published CWs "translations" are

http://www.ezratranslation.com/uploads/Ezra_SP10_ARCH.pdf
http://www.cerisepress.com/01/02/yo-vengo-de-un-brumoso-pais-lejano-i-come-from-a-distant-misty-country
http://elimae.com/2009/02/Stars.html
http://www.wheelhousemagazine.com/archive/summer_autumn09/starry_night.html

Also the print journal Modern Poetry in Translation (I am aware of this one because I happen to subscribe to MPT, but I've no idea what other print journals have published CW translations.).

I didn't confront CW when this happened. I figured that sooner or later he would goof up. And he did.

And indeed, I would not go public with this information now, were it not that he is making such a big to-do on various sites about being an innocent victim who just happened to make a mistake. http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Poet-Christian-Ward-says-m-sorry-prize-winning/story-17838451-detail/story.html and elsewhere.

Statement from Christian Ward:
I read with interest the article printed in the Western Morning News on Saturday 5th January concerning allegations of plagiarism in the Exmoor Society’s Hope Bourne competition. I would like to offer my side of the story and clear things up.

On 21st December 2012, the Exmoor Society sent me a letter informing me that my poem The Deer at Exmoor [which won the 2011 Hope Bourne Prize] was “remarkably similar” to Helen Mort’s The Deer. It was before Christmas so I was unable to respond straight away.

I expected this to be a straightforward matter to be resolved internally by the society and was not expecting an article to even be written. Some of the quotes took me by surprise. I was disgusted, in particular, by James Crowden’s comment that I be put in the stocks and suffer something even worse.

On to my side: I was working on a poem about my childhood experiences in Exmoor and was careless. I used Helen Mort’s poem as a model for my own but rushed and ended up submitting a draft that wasn’t entirely my own work.
I had no intention of deliberately plagiarising her work. That is the truth.

I am sorry this has happened and am making amends. This incident is all my fault and I fully accept the consequences of my actions. I apologise to the Exmoor Society, Helen Mort, the poetry community and to the readers of the WMN.

Furthermore, I have begun to examine my published poems to make sure there are no similar mistakes. I want to be as honest as I can with the poetry community and I know it will take some time to regain their trust. Already I have discovered a 2009 poem called The Neighbour is very similar to Tim Dooley’s After Neruda and admit that a mistake has been made. I am still digging and want a fresh start.

I am deeply sorry and look forward to regaining your trust in me.

But all is not lost. If he is shunned by editors in the future, he may have a glorious future in politics.


Rule number one: IF you copy someone else's work into your computer or your paper files, label them, viz THIS IS NOT MY WORK. IT IS THE BRILLIANT WORK OF Helen Mort (or whoever). Accidents DO happen, but they don't happen repeatedly as shown in this scrutinizing of CWs modus operandi.

I may be wrong but I am disinclined to believe that he "accidentally" misappropriated Helen Mort's poem AND Tim Dooley's AND my translation AND at Anon AND Paisley A's poem OR that he is repentant.

A pity, for I believe that he is not entirely lacking in talent or he wouldn't have completed an MFA.

He seems big on initiative but short on smarts.