April 1st, 2009 / 11:42 am
Author News & Contests & Web Hype
Tao Lin wins Cave Canem First Book Prize & I talk to Prize Judge Yusef Komunyakaa
********UPDATE: APRIL FOOLS’********
The announcement isn’t up on their site yet, but after I heard from the source himself, I called Yusef Komunyakaa–who is judging the contest this year–and asked for clarification. “I wish you wouldn’t post about this conversation,” Komunyakaa said, “but I’m not telling you that you can’t. Anyway, if you don’t break the story, one of our interns–or Tao’s–is probably going to.”
Here’s a bit of info about the Cave Canem prize:
Established in 1999, this first book award is dedicated to the discovery of exceptional manuscripts by African American poets. The participation of distinguished judges and prominent literary presses has made this prize highly competitive.
As you can see, this is an incredibly audacious choice for Komunyakaa and Cave Canem to have made, since Tao Lin is neither a first-book author or an African American. “We thought about that,” Komunyakaa told me, “but after last year, when the judge declined to even award the prize, I thought it was time to shake things up. If Tao Lin had the courage to unironically enter a contest for which he was entirely unqualified at every conceivable level, then maybe we should try and reward that courage, as a message to other young African American writers out there.”
I asked Komunyakka if it had occurred to him that perhaps Lin’s entry was not, in fact, unironic at all. “Yes, that did occur to me,” he said. “Some people on the Graywolf board were especially concerned about this, but I finally just said, ‘Listen, what does it matter? A good book is a good book, and this kid’s stuff actually sells.’ It’s the name of our prize–and your press–that will be on the cover of his book, which we expect he will promote with the same machine-like relentlessness that is his trademark–which of course is how he ended up entering our contest in the first place. I said to them, ‘you want to see Cold-Pressed Organic Virgin Coconut Oil come out with that little Melville House logo on the spine instead of your wolves, be my guest. But this is the book I’m writing an introduction for.’
I’m a little baffled by all this, but I have to go start preparing for teaching this afternoon, so I can’t really give this thing the attention it deserves, but anyway, congrats, I guess.
Previous winners of the Cave Canem Prize include Major Jackson, Natasha Tretheway, and Tracy K. Smith. Tao Lin finds himself, as usual, in good company.
Tags: April Fools' Day, Cave Canem Prize, Tao Lin, Yusef Komunyakaa
1. If this is an April Fool’s prank, it is a pitch-perfect April Fool’s prank.
2. The only way to improve upon the pleasure this post brings would be to declare, truly, that it is a true and factual account, because it actually is.
3. Even though I am African-American, and even though I did enter the Cave Canem contest without winning it, I am not bitter, so long as Tao Lin wrote in an African-American voice. Such an act of dramatic empathy would be unexpected, and deeply moving.
4. Go Louisiana Tech!
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April 1st, 2009 / 12:21 pmpr—
Hey D’Anthony. Contact me here if you can:
peterrutt@live.com
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I don’t think that’s fair.
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In other news, I’m pleased to announce that PGP just signed Anne Carson to a three book deal. We’re releasing a book of short stories and a novel of hers simultaneously; it’s only the second time this has happened since Anne Beatty did it.
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Weird — and this on the same day they announced that Bill Knott will be the next poet laureate!
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black people
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My cock just won the nobel prize
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You are funny.
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This is awesome & so totally fitting because Cornelius Eady (founder of Cave Canem) just won the Asian American Writers’ Workshop Members’ Choice Award. Oh the irony!!
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April 1st, 2009 / 1:48 pmryan—
cornelius eady fucking rocks.
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i actually believed this until i realized it’s april 1.
good job justin
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April 1st, 2009 / 6:28 pmTim Jones-Yelvington—
I got fooled by the Moby Lives post this morning about Random House reneging Bush’s book deal.
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FUCKING JUSTIN! Fuck. I hate april fools day.
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this was original
april fool’s
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well played
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I am going to choose to believe this because I need something to be angry about today.
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I have seen Tao Lin’s penis–in fact, it was used as the basis for his story ‘the disappointed ant’–and I can assure you that Tao Lin is no African-American.
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I scratched my head, and looked around the room wondering if maybe I was in a fugue state when I read this. Then I saw the fucking calendar.
Nicely done.
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Nicely done
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heh, this was funny
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i believed it, and wished it was true, now i am so sad that it isn’t
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April 2nd, 2009 / 12:38 amMolly Gaudry—
So did I, so did I, so am I.
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this is great.
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LOL! So funny!
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YES.
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i believed this. even after i realized it was april fools.
at first i was flabbergasted. or gabberflasted — whatever.
then i thought hey, it is what it is, you know? I guess Tao Lin can write.
i’ve only really liked a handful of his work. but enough of it to think he could prolly kill some poetic shit in a contest if he wanted too.
im still kinda miffed i believed it and didn’t think of it first.
im jealous of justin instead of being jealous of tao lin like any african-american poet would be in this situation.
now that’s fucking weird.
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what i really liked was the part about YK telling Graywolf that he’d be writing the intro for the book no matter what logo it had on the spine.
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Given that the deadline to enter the 2009 Cave Canem Poetry Prize doesn’t arrive until April 30th, everyone can be assured that this is, indeed, an April Fool’s prank. I’m ever amazed & occasionally entertained (though not this time) by the inventiveness found in the blogosphere–not to mention how much time the environment steals from the writing of actual poems. Doubtless a generation-gap observation.
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This was a joke, a funny one on April Fool’s Day, and one that at least one prestigious African-American poet I know found very funny.
“Not to mention how much time the environment steals from the actual writing of poems”.
This is condescending to all poets.
This is not a generation gap observation. What it is, is common hysteria. Every new technological advance is met with this sort of silliness: the telephone, the radio, film, the television, air travel and so on. Here are some other distractions- housework, childrearing, having relationships, having jobs and exersize. Oh, then there is eating and sleeping. Gosh! I could’ve been writing a poem! Many poets well into their 50s and 60s utilize the internet to their advantage- to broaden their audience, to say the least. What you do at Cave Canem is wonderful, Ms. Meyers. And you have a very nice website that I am sure benefits your good work. But what Justin Taylor is doing for poetry is also good. Please remember that novels were once considered a terrible waste of time- when they were new- and had to be hid away by readers, because it was rot for their brains.
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April 2nd, 2009 / 10:14 pmSteven Trull—
pr? Be my girlfriend–even though I’m gay.
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April 2nd, 2009 / 10:33 pmpr—
I love that you are gay and I really want to be your girlfriend. Can I peg you? I know I’ve said pegging is not my thing, but for you dear Steven, I just want to try something new! Like people who try the internet for the first time!
On a more serious note, I truly cannot believe that any new technology, or form of human expression, takes away from any past art form, or form of human expression. Remember when painiting was declared dead? I didn’t believe it then and it turned out not to be true. Everyone spends time in ways that are particular to their cultural time. Some people do it — and did it–by taking long walks in the woods, which I still have the great privilege to do. No one technology will ever ruin another form of expression.
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thank god that’s a joke. Tao Lin is as Emo as you can get. He’s the Urban Outfitters of poetry. In fact, does Urban Outfitters carry his poetry?
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[...] And in a move that would give the-collective-rage-formerly-known-as-Foetry an aneurism, Graywolf decided that the Cave Canem Prize should really go to Tao [...]