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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Deadlines

The Walt Whitman Award (first book publication prize from the Academy of American Poets) deadline has been extended to December 1. I don't have a manuscript ready, so I haven't been paying attention to deadlines and don't know when the original one was. But whenever I hear news of a deadline extension, I think it might possibly be an opportunity. My reasoning is that the deadline might have been extended due to a lower-than-hoped-for number of submissions, leading perhaps to a better chance of rising to the top.

Is that the conclusion everybody else jumps to when they hear of a deadline extension? Or is it just me? Maybe it's just a marketing ploy to get more manuscripts and collect more entry fees. Maybe I'm just super naive (okay, not maybe, but once again...)

I wish I did have a manuscript ready, since I would LOVE to think there was a chance that judge Jane Hirshfield would see my work (although I'm no longer eligible for first-book contests, so never mind).

And what kind of word is deadline anyway? We're under enough stress due to actual deadlines; you think we'd name it something more....forgiving? Less daunting? Or maybe it's good to just express our stress in our vocab.

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