In response to my question “Who decides whether a piece of literature is good or not“, Poetic Republic is sponsoring a new twist on the poetry contest – a democratic twist.

The contest is characterized by rounds where 12 participants vote on each other’s poems and the winners move on to the next round. Those who chose not to vote are eliminated immediately. The winners are declared by majority vote and in the final round, with 12 remaining contestants, all contest entrants are encouraged to vote. This is truly unique.

The entrance fee is 6 BP. The contest winners walk away with 50%, 25%, 15%, and 10% of 2 BP from the sum of all entrants. The profit from the proceeds are said to go to the Mines Advisory Group, a nonprofit agency that clears conflict remnants around the world.

The deadline to enter is April 30, 2009 at midnight.

For more information and the full details on contest rules, visit the Poetic Republic website. My recommendation to the contest organizers is to do the math and convert the British currency to the U.S. dollar equivalence if they expect to get entries from this side of the pond. At the very least, link to a currency exchange calculator.

New Poetry Book Review

On another note, I’ve published a new poetry book review – on Diana M. Raab’s most recent publication, Dear Anais: My Life In Poems For You.

And if you missed my review of The Trinity: poetry and art by David e. Patton, now’s your chance to catch up with that one. And don’t forget, you can join the WCP social club by clicking the Join button on the top right of any page of the World Class Poetry website and leave a comment on the book review pages.

Oh, and one final note: There’s a new publication listed on the World Class Poetry Publications page. Look for “bear creek haiku”. If you are a publisher or editor of a poetry journal or magazine that publishes poetry then add your publication to the list.