"Published?"
Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:52 pm
G'day all...
New member Mummsie (Sue) raised the question of poems appearing here being considered as "published". I had an interesting conversation recently with Carol Heuchan about this. (in case Carol is not known to you Mummsie, Carol is an accomplished writer and performer of bush poetry, and is often invited to judge written competitions.) She made this very telling point...
Most people would expect a competent judge to be pretty well up to date with what's going on in the contemporary bush poetry scene, and it's pretty fair to say that this site is a significant part of that. If a poem is posted on this site that the author intends to enter in a competition, the judge is put in what could be a difficult position. All competitions that I know of are quite strict about entries having nothing included that might identify the author; however, if the poem has been 'aired' in a public forum such as this, the identity of the author is public knowledge, and it is also quite possible that the judge has seen it on this site.
(This could conceivably lead to mutterings from some competitors about the winner being "pre-judged" on the basis that the author won on reputation rather than the poem on its merits. I am not aware of any complaints of this nature, but the possibility exists).
I personally have great confidence in our judges and their determination to award results purely on the merit of the entries, but I think that it is only fair to them that we don't make our efforts public before they are judged. It's a difficult enough job as it is, and I don't envy them one bit. Mind you, I've been guilty of doing this in the past myself but, having the benefit of hindsight, I now reserve any comp piece until the results are known.
Hope that this helps, Mummsie.
Cheers, Will.
New member Mummsie (Sue) raised the question of poems appearing here being considered as "published". I had an interesting conversation recently with Carol Heuchan about this. (in case Carol is not known to you Mummsie, Carol is an accomplished writer and performer of bush poetry, and is often invited to judge written competitions.) She made this very telling point...
Most people would expect a competent judge to be pretty well up to date with what's going on in the contemporary bush poetry scene, and it's pretty fair to say that this site is a significant part of that. If a poem is posted on this site that the author intends to enter in a competition, the judge is put in what could be a difficult position. All competitions that I know of are quite strict about entries having nothing included that might identify the author; however, if the poem has been 'aired' in a public forum such as this, the identity of the author is public knowledge, and it is also quite possible that the judge has seen it on this site.
(This could conceivably lead to mutterings from some competitors about the winner being "pre-judged" on the basis that the author won on reputation rather than the poem on its merits. I am not aware of any complaints of this nature, but the possibility exists).
I personally have great confidence in our judges and their determination to award results purely on the merit of the entries, but I think that it is only fair to them that we don't make our efforts public before they are judged. It's a difficult enough job as it is, and I don't envy them one bit. Mind you, I've been guilty of doing this in the past myself but, having the benefit of hindsight, I now reserve any comp piece until the results are known.
Hope that this helps, Mummsie.
Cheers, Will.