Dispatches from the Poetry Wars would like to heartily congratulate Charles Bernstein on his prestigious Bollingen Prize Award.
Yes, you read that right: Congratulations, Charles!
Following the inevitable feelings of envy and jealousy, we got to thinking. While we wholeheartedly approve of poets getting free money, in the present set-up, with the proliferation of more and bigger cash awards, it seems like money generally goes to money. And that also got us thinking, so we decided to launch our own award program with no cash involved, one that pays homage not to seemingly philanthropic capitalists but to the conditions so many poets and writers have faced in order to write. To that end, we hereby announce the following Dispatches Poetry Awards:
The Lorine Niedecker Mop & Bucket Award
The Helene Johnson Consumer Reports Correspondent Award
The Charles Olson Substitute Letter Carrier Award
The Tillie Olsen Hotel Maid Award
The Vincent Ferrini Electrician’s Union Award
The Hisaye Yamamoto Beat Reporter and Mother of Five Award
The Steve Jonas Book Club Scam Award
The Jack Kerouac Baggage Handler Award
The Douglas Woolf Hot Dog Vendor Award
The Jack Spicer Loyalty Oath Award
The Albert Saijo Executive Order 9066 Award
The Ted Joans Rent-a-Beatnik Award
The Ed Dorn Logging Award
The Gregory Corso Dannemora Award
The Etheridge Knight Medical Technician Award
The Jayne Cortez Voter Registration Award
The Audre Lorde Librarian Award
The Diane di Prima Busted by the FBI—Twice—Award
The Lucia Berlin Emergency Room Worker Award
The Simon Ortiz Uranium Mill Award
The Gloria Anzaldua Pre-School & Special Ed Teacher Award
The Pedro Pietri Garment District & Light Infantry Award
The Lorenzo Thomas Platoon Leader Award
The Frances Chung Public Math School Teacher Award
The Gloria Naylor Telephone Operator Award
We also plan to announce a series of International Awards, led off by The Arthur Rimbaud Gun Runner Award, to be followed by the Roque Dalton Crime Beat Reporter Award…
Stay tuned for details!