Monday, May 16, 2005

Chronicle of Higher Ed reports on Foetry

A good piece by Thomas Bartlett at The Chronicle (not sure if you can get it without a subscription) about the whole Foetry thing:

When Mr. Cordle discovered that he was no longer anonymous, he says, it felt like 'a punch in the stomach.' He was sitting on the couch, feet propped up, working on his laptop. While visiting a poetry-related blog, he noticed something strange: his name, address, and home telephone number. He checked another site and there they were again. 'The cat is out of the bag,' one blog declared triumphantly.

Ms. Halme happened to be in the room at the time. Mr. Cordle thought briefly about keeping it from her, then realized that would be impossible. When he told her, he started crying. Then she started crying.

When the tears subsided the anger began. Ms. Halme worried that her poetry career would be over now that everyone knew she was married to the man behind Foetry. She also knew that her publication history would be put under a microscope. The irony is that she is a successful poet: Two of her books have been published, one of them by the University of Georgia Press, which Mr. Cordle has criticized so relentlessly. She was a winner of a contest he deems unfair. As it happens, however, she didn't know the judge the year she won. 'It's not rigged every year,' Mr. Cordle says.

No comments:

Post a Comment