Questionable Lit Mag Tactics
A heavily redacted inquiry
So I recently got an email from an online poetry magazine that said:
The $2000 [REDACTED FAMOUS POET] Fellowship for Poets
OPEN TO EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE!The [REDACTED FAMOUS POET] Poetry Fellowship is a year-long invitation to write with funding, education, mentorship and a community that cares. We welcome poets at any stage of their practice who are writing in English. One poet will be selected for the 2025 Fellowship. Five finalists will also be recognized.
In it’s inaugural year, this fellowship offers a $1000 cash prize, $1000 in workshop credits, a 1:1 conversation with [REDACTED FAMOUS POET] (our most favorite poet!) and a full year to develop a new portfolio of poems. You’ll also receive a lifetime membership to [REDACTED LIT JOURNAL], along with space to share your work and process through a quarterly column, an in-depth post-fellowship interview, and a featured portfolio on our website and socials.
In addition to the fellow, five finalists will receive $200 in workshop credits, and lifetime membership to [REDACTED LIT JOURNAL].
I have artfully redacted identifying names so that I do not make enemies and also in case I decide to submit - because I really like [REDACTED FAMOUS POET] too!
But here’re some things that stick in my craw about this:
By naming the fellowship after [REDACTED FAMOUS POET], I initially thought that that poet would be selecting the winner or working closely with the winner throughout the year-long fellowship. But…
It’s just a single one-on-one conversation with [REDACTED FAMOUS POET].
of indeterminate length, topic, or venue.
So the entire fellowship is named after [REDACTED FAMOUS POET] because you will get to talk to them, presumably on the phone?
It is not a $2000 prize: it’s a $1000 prize and an additional $1000 in [REDACTED LIT JOURNAL]’s fun bucks to be spent on something they entirely determine the value of.
The above information is all that I could find on their website - no definition of what “mentorship and a community that cares” actually entails. Are they reviewing your work and offering feedback? If so, what are the reviewers’ teaching experience? What is the virtual venue that the community gathers in? Instagram comments? Paid online courses?
It’s arguable that it’s not even a $1000 prize but a stipend for writing content for their website, newsletter, and social media.
Lifetime membership? Let’s see their membership offerings:
Leaving behind the benefits of these memberships and just focusing on this particular contest, which membership level will you get as a winner? And how is that appreciably different from the actual prize offerings?
I have questioned the monetary decisions of this particular publication in the past, and I am of two minds on all of it. On the one hand: if people will pay it, then get paid! On the other hand: are there other ways to fund all of this? Does this seem like rhetorical marketing trickery?
Look, I’d love to have a conversation with [REDACTED FAMOUS POET] but if you’re invested enough in poetry to pay $18 for a contest to talk to them, then maybe you’d get more bang out of your buck by going to readings and talking to poets IRL. Maybe even [REDACTED FAMOUS POET]’s readings.
And, truly, getting poetry friends and a real community (that cares!) is worth more for your work than a conversation with ANY famous poet. Those poets don’t know you, and this one, apparently, won’t know your work either despite the fellowship bearing their name.