Poetaster Squabbling Gets High-Tech

Poet Jim Behrle noticed something funny going on with the Amazon.com customer reviews for the recently published Best American Poetry 2006, edited as usual by David Lehman with Billy Collins doing this year’s heavy lifting. Behrle’s careful persual of the review from “Poetry Lover,” who raves that “Lehman’s foreward (sic) has become the most entertaining ‘look back’ at the year in poetry around,” revealed that the account in all likelihood belongs to Stacey Harwood, Lehman’s wife. Behrle then tracks the disappearance of the lavish review, along with subsequent alterations to the “Poetry Lover” profile which obscure Harwood’s involvement.

Now, it’s only fair to point out that Behrle seems to have a bit of a “thing” for Lehman, since most of the recent posts on his blog are about how Lehman and his guest editors have run BestAmPoetry into the ground. And he’s not exactly straightforward about it, either: In one post, he mocks the anthology because “prices [are] already being slashed,” when his sole proof is that Strand Books is selling it at a 50% discount. Well, yes, that’s what they do over there.

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