Thursday, January 26, 2017

Literary awards

I've received awards during my career, I've not, and on several occassions I've been a judge, giving awards to others. Some thoughts.

Hands down, the most satisfying awards are those I did not apply for. The others turn writers into marketers, a perversion of literature and its support.

Most awards would better support literature by being a lottery. This would remove personality and politics from the procedure.

Awards are not about writers and literature. They are about judges and personal taste.

Awards with entry fees make a bad situation worse.

The quickest, easiest way for a new arts organization to gain credibility is to give an award. A shameful reality.

Since awards are a crapshoot, respect for language and honesty would make them a literal crapshoot, that is, A LOTTERY.

No comments:

Post a Comment