* Site Map * BuddsView.com * JazzzyTina.com * VeronaBotsford.com * SpudKat.com * BloggingPoet.com
* Contact * Poetsarus * Submissions * YellowDog08.com * BlogsboroVideos * BloggingPoet411.com
« Beware The Dainty Pirate | Main | Greensboro: Billy Told You This Would Happen »

Nominations To Begin For 2008 Poet Laureate of The Blogosphere

I'm pleased to announce that BloggingPoet.com will again host the Poet Laureate Of The Blogosphere Election for the 4th year in a row with nominations beginning April 1, 2008. The Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere is the only laureateship chosen by readers.

Previous winners are Amy King, Ron Silliman and Jilly Dybka.

Rules for 2008 are as follows:
1. Those nominated must have a history of posting poetry to their blogs for a period of no less than 1 year prior to March 1, 2008.
2. Anyone can nominate their favorite poetry blogger.
3. Nominations will begin on April 1st and will end on April 20th.
4. Voting will begin on April 21st and will end at !2:00 midnight on April 29th.
5. The winner will be announced on April 30th.
6. As in years past, Billy Jones, aka. Billy The Blogging Poet, aka. me, will not be nominated as I am hosting the event.
7. English language only as I'm too dumb to know a poem in any other language.
8. Previous winners cannot be nominated.
9. Like it or not, all decisions by the judge (That would be me.) are final.
10. All nominations must be made in the form provided on April 1st. E-mail, write-ins, protests and other means to nominate will not be accepted.

The number 1 most common complaint I hear about this election is that it hasn't been advertised and isn't as well known as it should be. Well guess what? As I'm broker than ever before it won't be advertised again this year. Unless, of course others want to spread the word.

The number 2 complaint I get is that to the casual observer it would appear previous winners don't post poetry to their blogs. That was okay with me as I knew all 3 posted poetry to online forums and ezines but this year rather than field-off the complaints I've instituted rule #1.

And to deal with other complaints I've instituted rule #9.

I guess the Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere isn't all that big a deal as previous winners are yet to be household names but like so much of what is done here on the Blogsboro Network it's designed to shine some light on a few who have worked hard and seldom received the recognition they deserve.

Update: Speaking of shining more light, the winner will be given the chance to be interviewed at Living In Poetry.

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

References (1)

References allow you to track sources for this article, as well as articles that were written in response to this article.

Reader Comments (17)

April Fools?

Mar 24, 2008 at 08:26PM | Unregistered CommenterWalden

Hardly Walden,
April is National Poetry Month in the US., Canada and several other countries and this is the 4th year I've hosted the contest. Thanks for stopping by.

Mar 24, 2008 at 10:04PM | Unregistered CommenterBilly The Blogging Poet

Sweet, I will be nominating someone. Thanks for providing the contest!

Mar 25, 2008 at 11:15AM | Unregistered CommenterWalden

Count me in on spreading the world. I will wait till the form is up on April 1st though so that my readers can go straight to the form and nominate someone.

Mar 25, 2008 at 01:57PM | Unregistered CommenterSara

You can count on me to spread the word, too, Billy. I've put the info up on Poetmeister 4 Poets! and will also put up a reminder on April 1st when the nomination form is available. Thank you, Billy, for hosting such a wonderful contest/event!

Mar 26, 2008 at 05:04PM | Unregistered Commenterpoetmeister

Billy, your post is up at Word Catalyst for this info. Let me know when the actual form is available and we'll change the link if needed. Thanks for all you do for poets everywhere!

Mar 27, 2008 at 03:24PM | Unregistered CommenterShirley

I've posted the announcement on my blog and will update when nominations open. I'll also post it at Totally Optional Prompts on Wednesday.

Have you considered asking some of the other poetry prompt sites (eg. readwritepoem, Writer's Island, Cafe Writing, Poefusion) to post the notice?

Mar 31, 2008 at 04:25PM | Unregistered CommenterTiel Aisha Ansari

Teil,
Thanks for the links and the suggestions as I hadn't thought of them.

Mar 31, 2008 at 05:46PM | Unregistered CommenterBilly The Blogging Poet

i nominate Canadian blogger and poet and fiction writer and renaissance man, rob mclennan. his blog is www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

thanks!

Apr 2, 2008 at 11:59AM | Unregistered CommenterAmanda Earl

Do you ahve a list of nominations to date?

Apr 2, 2008 at 12:55PM | Unregistered CommenterDan Gambiera

Dan,
Not yet. All that are being considered for nomination are in this thread. Some won't qualify but I'll not start weeding them out until later in the process.

The most common reason they might not qualify is not having been at it long enough and I know there are some above that don't qualify for that very reason.

Apr 2, 2008 at 01:01PM | Unregistered CommenterBily The Blogging Poet

hmmm.

is self_nominating frowned upon? actually, i'm not sure if my blog is eligible, given proviso 7. my works are a mixture of code + english. it requires a type of poetic unpacking. + the blog *is* made up of poetry itself - it isn't a blog _about_ poetry or critique/theory of such. the blog has been around since 2003 tho? [read: nekkid attempt at brownie_point getting;)]

anyhoo if the above does + doesn't apply then here, have this:
http://netwurker.livejournal.com/

some additional info [*cough* self_glorification *cough*] can be found at another blog o mine here:
http://knott404.blogspot.com/

chunks,
][mez][

Apr 3, 2008 at 07:00PM | Unregistered Commenternetwurker.mez

I nominate rob mclennan.
www.robmclennan.blogspot.com
thanks!

Apr 4, 2008 at 07:43PM | Unregistered CommenterLainna Lane

Hi,
Thanks for the effort and for providing the contest! I will post the announcement on my blog POETRY 4 KIDS.
Just a question? Why do you have the rule "Those nominated must have a history of posting poetry to their blogs for a period of no less than 1 year prior to March 1, 2008?"
I want to nominate a great poet Angelica - The Ramblings of Angelica, she has over 150 entries, but started blogging 5 month ago.
If your blog is around for 2 years and you posted 13~ poems you are qualified?!

Have a great day,
Milou

Apr 5, 2008 at 01:04PM | Unregistered CommenterMilou - Poetry 4 Kids

Milou,
The reasons for that rule are four fold. One is to keep it limited to those who are not already celebrities as someone with a household name could easily buy enough advertising to secure a win which would take away from many more deserved poets.

The second reason is that I'm reacting to popular opinion and a lot of discussion with many others based on previous years. This is our 4th year and we've learned most of these rules the hard way.

The 3rd reason for this rule is to help weed out spam.

And number 4 is because I don't want to see the Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere to be someone who starts and soon abandons a blog simply to snag a title.

I know your friend's 150 poems in 5 months seems like a lot of work but there are people already nominated who have penned and posted thousands of poems to their blogs. I've witnessed hundreds of poets post a poem a day for 5 months or longer then simply quit. If your friend has merit there will always be future years.

Apr 5, 2008 at 03:39PM | Unregistered CommenterBily The Blogging Poet

I nominate Jordan Stempleman

http://jordanstempleman.blogspot.com

Apr 12, 2008 at 12:05PM | Unregistered CommenterAmish

I nominate Shimmy for Shimmykat's blog....

http://shimmykat.blogspot.com/

Apr 16, 2008 at 12:11PM | Unregistered CommenterW.B. Keckler
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.