Foyle feedback session

[Arty]

Hey all. Those of us who entered the Foyle young poets of the year competition 2011 will probably know that winners were supposed to be contacted by today (16th September).

This year our very own Deva was commended, and here is her appreciation thread, go spread the love if you haven't already (http://www.youngwritersonline.net/showthread.php?t=7249)!!! Congratulations congratulations congratulations!

At the same time, I think a lot of us have been somewhat disappointed with the results -- considering how many of us entered, I definitely expected more people to be commended.

YWO prides itself on being a strong literary community, and we place quality of work pretty high on our list of priorities. I'm a bit concerned that maybe our styles have rubbed off on each other, or we're focussing on the wrong parts of poetics. A lot of us (although not myself) are looking to be published in the future, and if our work isn't marketable, how can we expect to break into the industry?

So, basically, the question I ask is this: where did we (apart from Deva) go wrong? Do we respect the judges' decision?

[Alice Glitterhorn]

I agree with the fact that it was disappointing that more people weren't commended, but I do sort of get the reason why (it's nothing against any of you). I've sort of mentioned this a bit the past week or so, but if you look at the vast majority of winning poems - I can't speak for commended poems since we don't get to read those - they are all in very similar styles.

Clear-cut, not laced with insane, whirling imagery (I'm going to use Caleb and his fantastic images here, since he's sort of on the extreme side of this). It's more simplistic and focuses more on the emotion of the story/image being captured, rather than focusing on the senses.

My commended poem was mostly in that style, which is why it was picked over some of my more favorite poems, I'm pretty sure.

Here on YWO, you can see pretty clearly in the critiques, that imagery is very important, if not the most important aspect, of poetry to us. We place heavy emphasis on getting the images just right, so most of the time we'll let actual emotion be pushed off to the side. That's just my take on it, and I have nothing against heavy use of imagery (personally, I love wonderful imagery slightly more than emotion), but it could be a reason for the lack of commendations. The more simplistic style seems to be what's popular nowadays.

[lalodragon]

I haven't seen the winning poems yet so I can't say if I respect them or not.
In another, tiny poetry contest I entered, I did not like any of the poems which won. They were long, free of imagery. I didn't read any through. My style, being entirely different, just wasn't what the judges wanted (or was bad). I really can't be angry except at the judges, and it won't do any good to be that...
Maybe my writing's just bad. What can I write but what I like? Anyway I didn't expect anything. And I couldn't have gone to Britain even if I won. :P I only wanted YOU darlings to win.... :(