Best & Worst Literary Moments of 2015
- blueshiftjournal
- Jan 2, 2016
- 6 min read
Hello. It’s me.
It’s that time of the year again where we look back on the last 365 days, perhaps thinking to ourselves once in a while over a warm mug of tea, “Seriously, the world’s still this messed up?” In no discernable order, Kate, Sima and I put together our list of the best and worst literary moments of 2015. Hope you enjoy (and also, don’t):
Worst: [PANK] STANK
“Groundbreaking magazine saved from brink of death, returns with 19th century disregard for offensive material. Mag demands refund for defective resurrection.”
–Sima
“We liberals would like to apologize to [PANK] for placing health and safety above your desire to publish harmful poetry. Please accept these bodies as payment.”
–Tyler
Under the leadership of Roxane Gay, the old [PANK] published work that dared poetic boundaries while maintaining a natural, necessary respect for them. Unfortunately, Roxane sold [PANK] to John Gosslee, Chris Campanioni, and Ashley M. Jones, who later published the above submission guidelines. “Vindictive protectiveness.” “Fear and false liberalism.” Mmmmm. New [PANK], if you really think it's a problem that potentially harmful voices have been “silenced” by liberals, have been “denied or made invisible” by liberals, I think it’s safe to say [PANK]’s fallen. Hard.
Best: Marlon James First Jamaican to Win Man Booker Prize
Bob Marley? Murder? CIA and crack? It’s everything a girl’s ever dreamed of!
–Sima
In a unanimous decision, Marlon James became the first Jamaican writer to win the Man Booker prize for his book, “A Brief History of Seven Killings.” The book is not for the faint of heart - with crude language, graphic sex, crime, violence, and more, it’s a fictional history on the attempted murder of Bob Marley in 1976. But don’t get us wrong, many biting laughs are dashed in between too, and once you pick it up, you won’t ever put it back down.
Worst: Kenneth Goldsmith's "The Body of Michael Brown"
White man takes black boy’s dead body, claims it as art, gets paid for it. Is it just me, or are these conceptual poets giving anyone else the creeps?
–Tyler
One of the clan of conceptual poets (don't get me started on them), Kenneth Goldsmith, in an attempt at "conceptual poetry," read Michael Brown’s autopsy report for thirty minutes, editing only the last line on Brown’s genitals, and called it "The Body of Michael Brown." If that’s not messed up, I really don’t know what is.
Eh(?): Harper Lee’s New Book, Go Set a Watchman
You’d think it’d be the book that causes the controversy – Atticus as a racist? Really? – but instead, it was the manner in which the book was published that caused the summer storm. Lee, who currently lives at a nursing home, mysteriously decided to release this prequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. Or rather, her estate did. The fishy facts - the media never had direct contact with Lee herself. Did she really want this book published, or was it her lawyer/editor/someone else?
Worst: BAP ‘15, Michael Hudson Included Under Pseudonym Yi Fen Chou
My new Spirit Name in poetry is Kenneth Goldsmith. I’m going to go make lion noises into a Red Solo cup now until someone gives me tenure.
–Kate
Hey, maybe next time I’m trying to get published, I’ll just call myself John Green or Stephen King or Scott Fitzgerald or some other white name, fat lot of help that would... oh. Shit.
–Tyler
I don’t think this guy needs any more attention, but damn, firing back feels great. For those who don’t know, Michael Hudson, a white man, got published in BAP ‘15 under an Asian pseudonym aka yellowface. A personal message – don’t let this guy ruin the rest of BAP ‘15 for you, please. There are some killer writers – Lawanda Walters, Laura Kaisischke, David Kirby, Dora Malech, Donald Platt, James Galvin, Madelyn Garner, and more.
Best: Juan Felipe Herrera Appointed First Latino Poet Laureate
Slightly bitter because I loved Spanish poetry before anyone else, and don’t anyone tell you otherwise.
–Sima
Latino poet laureate my ass, next you’ll be saying the president’s black.
–Tyler
Worst: Rattle’s New Yorker Issue #48 Publishes 17 White Poets
Presenting Rattle's brand new All-White issue, sponsored by Moon, Cigarettes, and Angst. Note: perspectives on reality suspended indefinitely at Rattle.
–Sima
For Rattle’s 48th New Yorkers Issue, each of the seventeen writers published were white, raising questions and criticisms from the rest of the writing community. In particular, Apogee Journal poetry editor Joey de Jesus publicly criticized Rattle for failing to publish any black or brown writers in this issue. Some screenshots of the exchange, including Rattle’s inappropriate responses, can be found here.
AWP ‘16
The Good: Bye Bye Vanessa Place
When you’re selling booklets of 20 one dollar bills for $50 to people and call it poetry, the only people you ever get to judge are your own customers. Sold out in an hour? Really guys? Vanessa Place, another conceptual poet (shudder) and former memeber of the AWP panel selection committee, came under fire for retyping Gone with the Wind on Twitter in an attempt at drawing the author’s estate into a copyright lawsuit - even though seriously, no one, like no one, asked for her help. Her tweets included racist text and images, offending many writers of color who, amazingly, didn’t want a questionably racist woman selecting panels for AWP. Thankfully, AWP removed her from the committee. Good on you, AWP.
PS. Vanessa, let’s talk about those jars of dirt you sell. Please stop selling jars of dirt. You’re upsetting the dirt.
The Bad: Disability Panels, Laura Mullen & David Fenza
Damn it AWP, you were on a roll... Once decisions on panels were made, Laura Mullen, writer and AWP member, asked on Twitter whether a gender/race breakdown could be released on rejected panels for AWP ‘16. Instead of replying on Twitter, AWP director David Fenza sent a personal email accusing her of “casting aspersions” on AWP. In further efforts to silence her, he copied both her department and associate chair to the email, implicitly threatening both her employment and reputation. Thankfully, his intimidation actions backfired, sparking a writers’ petition to demand more inclusivity and transparency from AWP:
The Ugly: Kate Gale’s “AWP Is Us”
Mmmm because if you’re not shooting people, you must be pretty damn inclusive. I’m gonna go scream at a door now.
–Tyler
AWP sounds like the noise I made once when I rolled out of my bunk bed sideways. It’s also an approximate representation of the trajectory of the conference’s reputation this year.
–Kate
In response to this petition and other calls for transparency, Kate Gale, Managing Editor and committee member at AWP, wrote this article. In “AWP is Us,” she makes light of the pressing issue of inclusion at AWP, while also listing a startling number of gay and Jewish stereotypes, also referring to Native Americans as “Indians.” Even worse, Fenza defended her article, saying her intentions were in the right place, that people should “[say] something positive about this great trade show we participate in every year.” Sorry Fenza, no one’s here to pat you on the back.
Best: Melissa Lozada-Oliva Takes Down Taylor Mali’s Policing of Female Speech
Someone give Melissa a medal, a car, anything, give her literally everything.
–Tyler
As someone who’s had to, like, justify my speech an unacceptable amount of times in my life, kudos to Melissa Lozada-Oliva for telling the haters just where respectability politics can shove it.
–Kate
Taylor Mali: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCNIBV87wV4
Melissa Lozada-Oliva: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me4_QwmaNoQ
This year, in a fiery response to Taylor Mali's policing of female speech, Lozada-Oliva defends female conversational tics as a “defense mechanism” and “protection” against subtle sexism women face daily - for instance, when men try to tell girls how to act, dress or speak as though men have any right to chide girls on how they act, dress or speak. “It’s like maybe I am always speaking in questions, ‘cause I’m so used to being cut off," she says. "It's like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemmingway were geniuses for turning women into question marks." Killer poem, and definitely a highlight of 2015.
Agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think by commenting on Facebook or shooting us an email at blueshiftquestions (at) gmail.com!
Hope you enjoy, and happy new year.
The Blueshift Staff
