Some of you may recall the big flap about the Zoo Press fiction contest that Laila Lalami first brought to light in late 2004. This was back before I was blogging, but an open letter I sent to Poets & Writers was posted by Maud, and then some follow up information found its way up at Laila's site.
Now, thanks to Emma over at Maud's site today, news of another letter - this time from David Baker, Poetry Editor of The Kenyon Review. This time around it is the poetry contest having difficulties with Zoo Press. Turns out the fourth winner of the award, Priscilla Sneff, author of the collection selected as the 2004 Award winner, has yet to see her book in print. She's also yet to see the $3500 prize money. Another thing? David Baker states he has left numerous messages with Zoo Press Editor Neal Azevedo, to no avail.
That's so sad. I've heard of so many presses going under and being unable to make ends meet now, and it's heartbreaking. Maybe some of that big grant to POETRY magazine could go to the small, struggling poetry presses.
Posted by: Kiesa Kay | April 21, 2009 at 06:10 PM