Surrender in the Battle of Poetry Web Sites

Edward Wyatt in the New York Times:

W. H. Auden may have lamented that “poetry makes nothing happen,” but that has not kept poets themselves – and their enthusiasts – from using the Internet to make trouble when they get riled up.

This week the poetry world is atwitter over the closing down of an Internet site that for the last year dedicated itself to exposing what it calls fraud among the small circle of poetry contests that frequently offer publishing contracts as prizes.

Alan Cordle, a research librarian who lives in Portland, Ore., has managed the Web site, www.foetry.com, anonymously since its inception a little more a year ago.

More here.