Nothing for Money OR How to Diminish a Prize’s Power
After Blake Butler, editor of the print lit journal NO COLONY, posted an aside about publishing and Pushcart-nominating anyone willing to pay $650, Shya Scanlon called his bluff, and quickly rallied 65 people, each willing to fork over $10, to put together a composite of 150 word prose chunks. That’s 9,750 words by 65 authors, each with claim to 1/65th of a Puschart nomination.
The entire point of Butler’s original offer, I think, was to comment on how easy it is to manipulate these sorts of literary prizes. In truth, anyone with anything published can be nominated for a Pushcart. All it takes is an editor willing to write your name on a piece of paper. And in a world of zero-overhead POD printing, anyone can be an editor. I hope that those in charge of choosing the Pushcart winner know how to filter out stuff like this NO COLONY thing (unless, who knows, this collective piece ends up being the bee’s knees).
Plus, I don’t know that anything of this scale, amid these terms, has ever been done. And more and more I am learning that firsts count for a lot when trying to sell yourself and your work. Look at Blake Butler, who recently sold destroyed (but still readable) copies of his book SCORCH ATLAS and has vowed to eat an entire copy of the book, one page at a time. What did these firsts help him achieve? A recent contract with Harper Perennial. (It helps too that his work is pretty damn excellent).
Participating writers include:
Me
Ryan Call
Shy Scanlon
Richard Thomas
Nathan Tyree
J.A. Tyler
Jackie Corley
Nik Korpon
Christopher J. Dwyer
…among exactly 56 others.
Ha. Well, it’s certainly funny. Although I don’t think an elaborate attempt to “punk” Pushcart will amount to much. Tis true that it’s crazy easy to get a nomination these days (hell, I got one), but I’m sure the selection process has been refined and hardened over the past, what, 30 years? You can manipulate the nomination process, but that’s about it. Sensationalist tactics to draw attention are cute and clever, and watching Blake chomp on his book definitely had me scratching my head head(especially after he announced his Harper Perennial deal), but…yeah. When the time comes, maybe I’ll spray paint myself and streak through a few major cities while shouting out my name and the title of the work through a bullhorn. I’ll make sure to have someone tape it. Then You Tube, then blog, then world. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt. Remember GG Allin? Loved that guy.
…But you’re right- at the end of the day, whether you’re eating pages, or throwing your own poop at people, good/excellent writing will always rise to the top. There are no shortcuts that I can see. The in between is just…filler, I suppose. Good fun. Perhaps good practice. Maybe even an opportunity.
Godspeed to you and crew nonetheless. You can’t win if you don’t play.
Nicely done Caleb.
I took part as well so I can say I’ve had two nominations yet no chance ever of a win, as I’m schizoid and that creeps people out.
Being in NH, I do indeed remember GG. In fact, my kids are playmates w/ Lisa Carver’s spawn.
Mel & Caleb: send me your addresses (mattjasper555AThotmailDOTcom) if you want to be spammed with a free paper copy of my book. Enjoyed your posts.