[Maryann Corbett]

I notice this little blog announcement way down at the bottom of the board:

Light Verse bakeoff

and it seems to me that more noise should be made about this, so I'm making some in the place where it seems likely to be productive.

[Barbara Baig]

Thanks, Maryann. Now (pardon my ignorance) can you--or someone else--explain what a bake-off is?

Barbara

[Maryann Corbett]

Bakeoff basics (but check the DG board for things specific to this event):

During a submission period, people submit poems of a certain limited kind (sonnets, children's poems, light verse, whatever) to a person who is going to coordinate the proceedings (usually called the host, or the screener). Usually these can be either published or unpublished poems.

When submissions close, the screener records whose poems is whose and then takes identifying information off the poems. Then the poems go to the judge. Maybe all of them go, if there aren't tons of them, and maybe the host picks a subset.

The judge picks a favorite ten, or sometimes twelve, and posts them on the Distinguished Guest board, usually two per day. The judge says what he or she likes, or doesn't, about the poems, and then other people do that too.

At the end, we pick a popular top three, and the judge picks his or her top three.

Hope that helps!

[Barbara Baig]

Thanks very much!

Barbara

[Jayne Osborn]

Ah... thanks for bringing this up, Maryann - it's going to be a good event.

My understanding, from Alex, was that it was going to happen in August. I think Alex, Distinguished Guest Julie Kane and I, as Host, need to settle on a definite date and get the Light Verse Bake-off under way. (**See below, added in.)

WATCH THIS SPACE!

Jayne

**The Translation Bake-off is now under way so I don't think we can have two running concurrently. Ours will be when Translation is done, I expect.