[New-Poetry] Big Bucks in Poetics

[Christopher Kelly]

Also, sales of Plath's work in US produced a significant revenue stream for TH. 



----- Original Message -----
From: David Bircumshaw <david.bircumshaw at ntlworld.com>
Date: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 2:17 pm
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Big Bucks in Poetics
To: "NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp;	Views" <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>


> I think the problem in this matter occurs where a fair number of 
> people 
> make careers out of having /status/ as poets, and thereby gaining 
> grants, residencies, lectureships etc as their main source of income. 
> So 
> the focus becomes not writing well but acquiring a validated (by 
> whom?) 
> membership of a profession without accountable standards, formal 
> qualifications, objective measurements of credentials, unlike doctors, 
> 
> teachers, lawyers etc, or demonstrable and agreed standards of 
> proficiency, as in  serious theatre or music. It's like Freemasonry in 
> 
> being both public and reclusive but unlike Freemasonry the methods of 
> 
> acceptance into the fold are unknown, but certainly this focus on 
> 'making it' weakens the standards of writing.
> 
> Btw I think Hughes also relied on his income as a farmer to some extent.
> 
> -- 
> 
> David Bircumshaw
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> 
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