In other news, Best New Poets can now be found on both Facebook and Twitter. "Like" us and follow us for BNP updates.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Deadline Extended To May 25th
The Open Competition deadline has been extended to May 25th, which means you have 1 additional week to submit your best work. Our readers will begin reviewing submissions on May 26th, and we plan to announce the final results in mid- to late- August.
In other news, Best New Poets can now be found on both Facebook and Twitter. "Like" us and follow us for BNP updates.
In other news, Best New Poets can now be found on both Facebook and Twitter. "Like" us and follow us for BNP updates.
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Great. Extend the deadline beyond The Rapture. Now all the Believers that didn't get called up will enter, decreasing my odds. Great.
ReplyDeletethrow some numbers our way?
ReplyDeletehow many submissions this year?
how many readers?
how many semi-finalists in mind?
I'm with "anonymous" above... I'd love to know how many submissions and a bit more about the selection process.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous and Nora,
ReplyDeleteThis year we received around 1400 submissions, which means 2800 or so poems. We have six readers, but may add more if needed to keep the project on schedule. The number of semifinalists is impossible to estimate, but we always encourage our readers to be inclusive when evaluating submissions. (In other words, if a reader is on the fence with a submission, he or she should err on the side of passing it on to the guest editor.) We don't want to exclude exceptional work from our guest editor's pool. As in previous years, we won't release the names of our semi-finalists, just our final 50.
Hope that's helpful.
That's very helpful. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGreetings Team!
ReplyDeleteWondering if there are any updates for the poets in waiting? :) Kind thanks.
your hope shines
ReplyDeletelike the light
from a dead star
We're wrapping up the first reading round and should pass finalist poems to D.A. Powell this weekend.
ReplyDeleteRemember that we don't release the names of our semifinalists, just our final 50. In addition, no one will receive notification of their status until the list of the final 50 poems is released in August -- in other words, ManuscriptHub won't offer any clues.
I'll update the blog with some statistics next week to keep everyone satiated! As always, best of luck!
I hope you decide to pass on as many poems as possible, at least 10% of the poems submitted. It does not seem onerous for D.A.P. to look at 200 poems, or 300 poems. If my name were to be on the cover of the book, I would want to see at least that many, that the book may reflect my aesthetic more than that of the nameless screeners.
ReplyDeleteD.A. has expressed the same, Anonymous. We'll be sending a good number of poems his way.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, the screeners for BNP are never "nameless" - their names appear in every edition. We like transparency around here. And before our reading round begins each year, we encourage our readers to judge outside of their personal aesthetic.
That's good to hear
ReplyDelete"I'll update the blog with some statistics next week to keep everyone satiated! As always, best of luck!"
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to this and thanks again.
Anonymous 2
One other question...if a poem has had two readings does that usually indicate it's moved on to the next phase or are there usually more than 2 readings and if so, will they show on the Meridian website? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 2
The number of readings could mean a number of things -- someone entered the wrong rating the first time, one reader wanted another's opinion, a reader accidentally clicked the "submit" button twice, etc. But it's never an indicator that a poem has moved on to the next round.
ReplyDeleteThere's no way to tell if your poem will be moving on by looking at its status in ManuscriptHub. I know from firsthand experience how tempting it is to try to look for clues, but, frustrating as it is, there are none to be found in our submission system. No one will know their status until August.
Do both poems of a single submission move on together, or sometimes just one?
ReplyDeleteWe consider the poems separately. Two CAN move on from the same submission, but many times only one does.
ReplyDeleteso what are the numbers?
ReplyDeleteWe had a brief delay. Numbers this weekend.
ReplyDeleteNot enough data yet to justify a full post, but I'm sending 175 submissions (of around 1350) to D.A. Powell. For many of those submissions, both poems are included in the finalist packet. I'll try to get an actual poem count soon. Great work this year.
ReplyDeleteHi Jazzy,
ReplyDeleteI had a quick question. You mentioned that both poems are being sent from many submissions. What do you do in the event that Powell chooses two poems by the same person? It might be statistically unlikely, but it's a definite possibility, especially if someone does "shotgun" the contest--woe betide them (I don't mean that).
Can this happen, and if so, how do you deal with it?
Great question. When I unblind the top 50 poems, it's possible that there will be at least one poet with more than one poem in the pile. That's why I've asked our guest editor to choose a top 50 (unranked), and an additional 15 poems (ranked). If there's a poet with more than one poem in the bunch, I'll come back to the guest editor and ask him to pick the stronger of the two (or three, or four...depending on how many this hypothetical uber-talented poet has in the top 50 pile.) The stronger poem stays, the less strong poem is pulled. I'll then pull the #1 poem from the "runners-up" pile for the anthology. Unless, of course, THAT poet is already in the anthology, in which case I'd move on to runner up #2.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jazzy, both for your response and the great system you all have set up.
ReplyDeletezzzzzz
ReplyDeletewake me up in august
How close are we to getting the results? Will they be available by August 1st? 5th? 10th?
ReplyDeleteI can't give an exact date as these things take time, but we're aiming for an announcement in mid-August.
ReplyDeleteanything new???
ReplyDeleteFinalists will be contacted in the next week to determine eligibility. Announcement to come soon after. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteGreat. As if I don't spend enough time checking my email; now I gotta check overy 10 seconds! Oy.
ReplyDeleteIf it helps, it won't be today!
ReplyDeleteToday? Just kidding. Good luck poets!
ReplyDeletePeople! If this is the only place you're submitting to, you're doing it wrong! Instead of checking for these results every 10 seconds, use that time to go send stuff somewhere else. Or write some new poems. I swear it helps keep you from obsessing (and from crashing too hard when you don't get the answer you want - as I know from lots of experience). :)
ReplyDeleteI just heard from a friend who's been contacted. I guess it's over for the rest of us. Congrats to the chosen few!
ReplyDeleteC'mon jazzydanziger, say it ain't so!
ReplyDeleteIt ain't over until it's over, peeps. Keep a little faith.
ReplyDeleteHave all the finalists been notified?
ReplyDeleteThey're probably determining eligibility among the finalists. Can't announce til they're sure everyone selected can come on board.
ReplyDeleteSad!
ReplyDeletesomeone notified here: http://twitter.com/#!/m_ritger
ReplyDeleteso, have most contacts been made? is tidying up the details all that remains?
ReplyDeleteno news today?
ReplyDeleteYes, updates please! Has everyone been notified?
ReplyDeleteI like that even though there's apparent parity in the anthology between genders everyone who has announced so far on Twitter is a dude. That said, much deserved congratulations to both the dudes and dudettes who comprise the "chosen few." I think everyone who enters this contest should purchase a copy of BNP when it comes out. Or, better yet, haggle with Meridian at AWP and wind up with a year's subscription to a great journal and an anthology we can all learn something from.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to read a new poem by Gerardo Tony Mena (saw that he got in from twitter), I really enjoyed his Winning Writers Winning poem.
ReplyDeleteJust popping in to answer some questions: we're notifying finalists in batches, ensuring eligibility as we go. Hence the delay. I can't say much more, but I can say that I know you're eager to hear news and I'm working to get it to you as soon as I can. Happy to answer questions in the meantime.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, agreeing with Anonymous above, we hope you will all purchase a copy of BNP and support your fellow emerging poets.
And say hi to me at AWP in Feb.
Thanks, jazzydanziger--are there still finalists who have not yet been notified?
ReplyDeleteSee: I told you there was reason for hope! Anybody want to assign random and wholly inappropriate reasons to the order in which they contacted the fifty? I'm guessing it was an algorithm derived from last name and area code. Or they made a Cartesian mapping wherein the X-axis was "intensity of OCD" and the Y-axis was "propensity to sweat under pressure," and then they made sure to contact the most OCD and sweaty folks last, thereby dramatically increasing their site traffic, while simultaneously helping those folks make it through this damn heat wave by increasing their sweat output by 40% at the very least.
ReplyDelete