I’m in the process of editing something so all these strange questions come for me. I have no answers. Well, not exactly. And not while I’m in the midst of this process. What might a book be saying or declaring? Is what it’s not saying as important? But how can we know what it’s not saying? Does a book actually say anything? Didn’t someone write? Well, did they? OK, does even the writer know what they re saying? Could you write a book about what the book isn’t about? What are the words not saying? Is it the words, each of them, or the phrases, or the sentences or lines? Who is or isn’t in the poem? Who is knocking on the door to come into the poem? (Oh, so, here’s a metaphor!) Who doesn’t give a shit? Are these simply random, stumbling questions? Are any questions random? Is it a return of the repressed? What are the book’s gestures? ‘Wo es war, soll ich werden’, anyone? Is the book a symptom of something? So, the book
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The way I read it was Barry making a point about the way the Black Inc anthology was compiled, which is the editor's and/or publisher's prerogative, nuthin' to do with us chickens (don't know whose decision it was in this case to not ask for submissions, tho' I assume it was the editor's).
Anthologies are always difficult; you could argue the editor is always leaving something out. I'm often critical of them because of that, and have been criticised similarly when I was an editor. It must be hard to be 'representative (if, indeed, that's what an anthology should be) when essentially all you've got are the poems published in a year.
I was a bit miffed that the editor of Black Inc previous year (06) and then UQP 07 chose the same poem of mine, but them's the breaks. Still, you can mount fair criticism about what is left out so long as you pony up with reasons and examples. Do you think that the case wasn't made?
Thanks for stopping by.
i guess that what my comment was about: at least partially (as an editor) you have to be 'seen' to be doing the right thing. too many abr selections, & it will 'look' bad.
of course my opinion that abr isn't the venue for the greatest aus. poetry is neither here nor there.
but dammit, i will have my opinions...
Or put another way, the process is as important as the product (urgh, that sounds a bit ugly).
In other words, someone's always looking at what you're doing.