The American Dissident
A Literary Journal of Critical Writing
In the Samizdat Tradition of Writing against the Machine
A Forum for Examining the Dark Side of the Academic/Literary Industrial Complex

Censors of Note

Poetry Foundation

Once you permit those who are convinced of their own superior rightness to censor and silence and suppress those who hold contrary opinions, just at that moment the citadel has been surrendered.

—Archibald Macleish

 

The following correspondence bears witness to my vain attempts to get Poetry Foundation to list The American Dissident, a bona fide 501 c3 nonprofit literary journal, next to other journals it lists.  Check out my review of Christian Wiman's Hard Night with accompanying cartoon.  Wiman is one of the Foundation's faithful toadies. 
 

 

Date:  Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:12:02 -0700 (PDT)
From:  "George Slone" <
todslone@yahoo.com>
To:  "Michael Marcinkowski" <
mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>

Subject:  re: Listing

Hi,
Would you consider listing The American Dissident, a literary journal of unusually critical writing on your site?  If not, why not?  The AD is a nonprofit 501c3 organization. 
 

 

Date:  Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:29:07 -0500
From:   "Michael Marcinkowski" <
mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>
To:  "George Slone" <
todslone@yahoo.com>

Subject:  re: Listing

 
George,
Thank you for letting us know about The American Dissident and for your interest in the site. We'll review the link and see if it would be 
relevant to link to it from a site dedicated to poetry.
 
Thank you again,
Michael Marcinkowski
Senior Web Producer
The Poetry Foundation
444 N. Michigan Avenue
Suite 1850
Chicago IL 60611

 

 

Date:  Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:54:27 -0700 (PDT)
From:  "George Slone" <
todslone@yahoo.com>
To:  "Michael Marcinkowski" <
mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>

Subject:  re: Listing


Michael,
A true test for democracy in literature will be your not deciding against listing The American Dissident because of its critique of Poetry Foundation, Christian Wiman et al. 
Sincerely,
G. Tod Slone

www.theamericandissident.org

 

 

Date:  Fri, 22 Jun 2007 03:35:21 -0700 (PDT)
From:  "George Slone" <
todslone@yahoo.com>
To:  "Michael Marcinkowski" <
mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>

Subject:  re: Listing

 

Michael,
Thanks much for your rapid reply.  It would be in the interest of POETRY (the magazine and the genre) for you to list The American Dissident because the journal is unusually critical and bold regarding the typical academic or pseudo-academic journals listed.  BTW, The American Dissident is a 501 c3 nonprofit.  It has also criticized Wiman and Barr, but shouldn’t poets be open to such critique?  When you review the link, you might wish to especially examine the highly caustic essay I authored, recently published by Modern-Review: http://www.theamericandissident.org/ColdPassion.htm.  Not one academic lit journal out of 50 would touch it... and that is precisely the problem with those journals, editors and poets:  THEY SEEK TO KEEP THE GATES OF THE AGORA OF IDEAS HERMETICALLY SEALED.  Does Poetry Foundation intend to follow their example?  My fear is that it definitely does and that its huge endowment will succeed in stifling the voices of poets not permitted in its agora.  

Sincerely,
G. Tod Slone, Editor

The American Dissident


 

Date:  Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:56:37 -0700 (PDT)
From:  "George Slone" <
todslone@yahoo.com>
To:  "Michael Marcinkowski" <
mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>

Subject:  re: Listing

 

Several times I’ve written you in the hope you might list The American Dissident, a 501 c3 nonprofit literary journal, on your website.  The journal’s fundamental premise is quite pertinent, if not extraordinary in the world of literature and academe: 

 

Vigorous debate is crucial for any thriving democracy, yet established-order literati tend to reject it, as if instinctively.  For the sake of democracy, poets must be more than mere wordsmiths of unusual wit and professors more than mere scholars in narrow fields of specialization.  They must be willing to "go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways" (Emerson) and thus let their lives "be a counterfriction to stop the machine (Thoreau)."  For truth, they must be willing to risk career, perquisites, and good standing.

 

The Academy of A m e r i c a n Poets censored me this past July for simply attempting to realize that fundamental premise (consult the censored transcript at www.theamericandissident.org/AcademyAmericanPoets.htm). Do you support that incident of censorship?  Your silence will serve as a response. 

 

 

Date:  Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:09:18 -0800 (PST)
From:  "George Slone" <
todslone@yahoo.com>
To:  "Michael Marcinkowski" <
mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>

Subject:  re: Listing

 

Michael Marcinkowski, Poetry Foundation:
Vigorous debate is the cornerstone of any thriving democracy, yet you, Wiman, and the Poetry Foundation seek to keep the doors of debate firmly closed to outsiders.  With the huge mass of money at your disposal, my fear is you will shamefully succeed.  With the little funds at mine, I fight tooth and nail to make these facts known.  But my battle is a lost cause, though a good cause.  You are as fascistic as Bush.



ALL MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS COPYRIGHT ©G. Tod Slone, 2008, The American Dissident www.theamericandissident.org.