Friday, October 31, 2008

Following on the 2008 Frost Awards

Dear Friend of Frost:


Many of you may be as new to blogging as I am. So bear with me as I try this new experiment. The object is to make the 2008 Frost Award as meaningful as possible for those of you who entered in 2008 (and those considering entries for 2009).

The 500 plus entries that we received indicate that the spirit of Robert Frost is very much a part of contemporary poetry, so I'd also like to encourage some discussions of why that may be so.


Therefore, if you entered the Frost Awards at any time in the past, or are thinking about entering next year, I'd encourage you to post to this blog. I will act as Moderator.

This year's judge, poet JD Scrimgeour finally selected a winning poem, "Double Wedding Ring," now posted on our web site at
this link

Scrimgeour also submitted a list of thirteen finalist poems from which the Frost board chose ten poems for honorable mention.

We are currently seeking releases from these poets so that their honorable mention poems can appear in this blog as well.

The finalists, now listed at the frost site were more widely dispersed this year-- all the more reason for each of them to produce YouTube videos of their finalist poems. We'll use this blog to point to those videos for all the finalists who choose to produce and release them.

There's a lot of potential in this new medium-- much more than mere talking heads. For example, You'll find 2007 finalist Howard W. Robertson's "Night On the Balcony of the Chalet" at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCE1_N9VuwI

The combination of an empty chair and a lyric voice gave particular intensity to Robertson's poem, "Night On the Balcony of the Chalet."

I hope this year's finalists will give YouTube performances a try. So in the very near future I'm going to devote some time writing about how the finalists might produce their videos.


With best wishes and thanks for your participation,

Mark Schorr
Executive Director

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