seattle indymedia center

Boycott the Wave Books Poetry Bus

author: Alan Cordle, Founder of Foetry.com
Oct 25, 2006 01:25

Matthew Zapruder would have you believe that the Poetry Bus Tour is the greatest thing since sliced (white) bread, but it's being criticized in poetry circles for a variety of reasons. The bus stops in Seattle tonight.

Don't expect variety when the Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour stops in Seattle. The organizers of this traveling circus, including Matt Zapruder, envision themselves as next-generation Ken Keseys, but their vision is limited. The bus tour quickly added some token women and minorities when the critics noticed the seats filling up with homogeneous poets. Even Poetry Snark weighed in with the Lost Tour Diary. AnneBoyer says the Bus Boys pass the hat and don't share the donations with the poets they recruit to read on tour. It's no surprise to me, founder of Foetry.com, that Wave Books doesn't like to share; after all, Wave was once known as Verse, and they pulled a fast one on the poets who paid to enter their contest. And at least one of the other readers for the Portland stop, Lisa Fishman, reaped the benefits of knowing a poetry contest judge. I'd encourage lovers of verse to steer clear and instead, to read a book of poetry Wednesday night: a book of poetry that's about the beauty of words, and not the poseurs, schmooze, and fumes of the short-on-ideas-bus.

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