Sydney Poetry

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The ethics of sponsorship

There has been some drama at the T. S. Eliot Poetry prize over the last weeks with two poets withdrawing over the partial sponsorhip of the prize by a hedge fund management firm. I've written a piece on it for Rochford Street Review:

http://rochfordstreetreview.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/kinsella-joins...

Just wondering what people think about the ethics of poets or poetry organisations accepting sponsorship from large and sometimes questionable Corporations? Is it any different from working for a company that doesn't align with your political, social or ethical views?

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Permalink Reply by Daniel John Kofler on September 13, 2012 at 22:55

I would not be comfortable with this. My question is why would they sponsor a poetry comp. in the first place?

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Permalink Reply by Justin Lowe on October 2, 2012 at 11:36

Joh Featherstone agonised over this with me one night many years ago re the Red Room taking corporate sponsorship, and I couldn't see any problem with it. There are poets happy enough to take grants from a government whose actions they won't always agree with, and yet who recoil from private backing as though the beneficiary were selling out. All a little "1975" for mine.