On the opposite side, a blinded contest is one of the few ways to do an end run around the inbred chumminess that plagues most publishers when they are not running a blinded contest.
Moreover, I am not sure that the generic quality of the winners is an indictment of the effect of the contests as much as an indictment of what gets praised in our vapid literary culture these days.
Hardly a ringing endorsement for the contests, I know...
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