Vassar Miller <ahem> Cheatsheet

[alan]

Here's a page developed specifically for Scott Cairns' panel on contest ethics at AWP.

http://foetry.com/foetryfactsheet.pdf

Most of the conflicts of interest are documented, but I believe there are more.

On the sheet, you'll notice that Scott Cairns has been "outed" as posting as "Virgil" here at Foetry.

Virgil's rants can be found here: http://foetry.com/foetry_v2_archive/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=419

[Poet K]

I made 60 copies of the fact sheet and placed them on various tables around AWP.  People were picking them up, and a couple people even asked, in hushed tones, if I had heard about this site Foetry.

[poetastin]

Holy shit!


      :axe:


Maybe the AWP really does have a sense of humor, given their panelist choices.

[alan]

I made 60 copies of the fact sheet and placed them on various tables around AWP.  People were picking them up, and a couple people even asked, in hushed tones, if I had heard about this site Foetry.

You're awesome!!!!

[alan]

Hi Scott "Virgil" Cairns,



Thanks for stopping by.  I'm still watching you.  We're all watching you.  Step down as "editor" of the Vassar Miller Prize.  You are tarnishing her name.  Everyone here knows what you've done.

They can read your posts as Scott Cairns.  They can read the ones you posted as Virgil.

You are not fit to edit any poetry series or judge any contests.  You are not to be trusted.

[ScottCairns]

Alan, I just found this AFTER I'd written you via PM, explaining that I WAS stepping down, that I'd tried to last year but had agreed to continue for a year after being asked to do so. I trust that all this was posted BEFORE my concession posts to you, and that you are not just setting me up.

Is everyone similarly surveiled, or just me, brother?
Big (?) brother?

Adios,
Scott

[alan]

Just you! :twisted:

Yes, this was posted prior, and according to the surveillance, you had already read it.

Why would UNT Press ask that you not step down after you repeatedly showed a pattern of deceptive practice and put them at risk?  Seems odd to me.  Who, specifically, asked you to continue editing after you agreed to step down last year?

Did you create the Virgil persona before or after you began work on your anger issues?

I rather resent having my testosterone levels regulated by outsiders.

[poetastin]

It's like when Whitesnake returns for an encore--You wouldn't let us leave!!!

[alan]

It's like when Whitesnake returns for an encore--You wouldn't let us leave!!!

'tastin' -- I think of you as my brother.

[Steven Ford Brown]

Scott,
         it was dishonest of you to suggest you would step down and then remain in place. This contest situation is so bad at the Vassar Miller Prize that not only should you resign but UNT Press should begin an immediate investigation of the contest and your directorship and set up a fund for anyone who submitted who wants their money back. Throughout the course of this you have not taken seriously the issues raised about the contest.

I have been in touch with the estate of Vassar Miller and when I have time I hope to pursue this matter more. You should come clean about this whole affair. You do understand that taking the prize out of Texas, lugging it around the US to wherever you ended up teaching, never letting any Texas writers judge (Richard Howard doesn't count), and not advertising it in the Texas community is the same thing as looting cultural artifacts! You've taken this -her name- for yourself and your friends. It's an affront to the whole Texas literary community. As for judges in Texas there are fantastic writers in Texas who could and should be considered as judges: James Hoggard, Paul Christensen, Naomi Nye, Tom Whitbread, William Barney, Dave Oliphant, R.S. Gwynn, Walter McDonald, Tino Villanueva, Tomas Rivera, Bryce Milligan, etc. And by Texas judge I am talking about long-time Texas writers not some MFAer who just landed from somewhere else.

Your choice of judges is clearly the AWP crowd, maybe for career purposes it perhaps gives you more exposure there. Otherwise why name the Prize after a Texas writer, Vassar Miller. If there is no obligation to the writer and landscape and community you name the prize for then why not just have Bulgarian housepainters judge the prize? They'll work cheap.

I know for many years you thought no one was looking and you could just let Wilner select Merritt (in the same damn year they co-authored a poem together that won a literary prize in Nebraska!) and Santos turn to Holmberg in his office and tell her, "You won" without having read a single outside manuscript.

The best thing to do is to come clean and get out. I would also suggest that you get with the director of the press and talk to him because when I contacted him he was very arrogant (shades of Georgia and Iowa!) about the issues I raised. If the ship is not set right and the Vassar Miller estate is not considered in this (they haven't been in the past) then more will be done to force UNT to do the right thing.

I'm not sure what your attachment is to the contest (other than being able to reward your friends and attempt to extend your literary influence) but I don't want to hear one more thing about your contibutions and hard work and judging for paltry sums of money. I edited a press for twenty years and other than three NEA grants I financed all the books myself, which included early books from Mark Doty, Tomas Transtromer, Georg Trakl, Andrew Glaze, and books on Dave Smith, Carolyn Kizer and John Logan. I did this without institutional suuport. You get support from both ends -Missouri and UNT. You list the prize duties on your release time at Missouri, don't you? It factors into your univedrsity activities there and rewards and promotions.

I think we would be grateful if you take off the hair shirt, stop making excuses, come clean and get out of the business of contests.

[poetastin]

Does anyone know who won Vassar Miller '06?

Results were scheduled to be announced a month ago, but there's nothing on the web page, and whoever answers the phones had no clue, either.

[alan]

Mysterious.  Yes.  Cairns asked me to wait until the April 1st announcement to go after him.  But I didn't feel like I owed him a damn thing.

Maybe he's actually reading manuscripts and so it's taking longer.