Ted Genoways Inserts Himself

Ted Genoways edits a quarterly called VQR and he writes poetry.

When he made an arrangement with the University of Georgia Press to launch The VQR Poetry Series, he told them he might want to include his own book in the series, and they told him that VQR would have to pay the Press a $2,000 "subvention," or subsidy, per title.

The first four titles of the Series appeared this spring; the fall list includes his own book, Anna, Washing.

You might think that Genoways is guilty of self-dealing, that he has taken advantage of his position. You might think that publishing his own work in his own series is sleazy or pathetic or worse.

But, no, here's how a UGA Press spokesperson, who apologized in her e-mail to me for being "long-winded," described the deal:

"At the time when we entered into the agreement with the VQR, UGA Press was looking for a partnership with a series editor or literary journal to flesh out our poetry list—we have been well known for our poetry for a number of years. However, we are also a non-profit press and because poetry does not generate a lot of revenue or usually even break even, we were also looking for a way to help support our continued presence in poetry. It's common practice in university publishing for authors to find subventions, or for subventions to be solicited in support of publishing a particular title or series. The subsidy we receive from the VQR covers a portion of the cost of producing the paperback book. It doesn't get even close when it comes to covering overhead or the staff time required to prepare the manuscript for publication and to market the book. So, subvention notwithstanding, the investment that we make in the books is substantial but worth it to us. However, as important as our poetry list is to us at UGA Press, we guard first and foremost our long and respected history as a university press.

"As a university press, we take seriously our rigorous vetting and peer review process as well as the transparency of the agreements we enter into. Our editorial board, which is comprised of senior faculty from UGA appointed by the University’s provost, approves all such—and they heartily approved the terms of the series. When we entered into the agreement with the VQR, we included the stipulation in the contract that ‘If the Series Editor chooses to include his own work in the Series, publication of such work shall be contingent upon the satisfactory peer review of the complete manuscript and final approval of the work by the Editorial Board of the University of Georgia Press.’

"With Anna, Washing, as per series agreement, the Press superseded the series editor and took over editorial duties. In accordance with our policy of anonymous peer review, we sent Ted's manuscript off to two established poets who have not been, and were not at the time under consideration for publication in the VQR Poetry series (i.e., they had no need of publishing through the VQR series and were fully objective). They evaluated Ted’s manuscript and Ted had to submit to and address the criticisms of his manuscript made by these peer reviewers, which he did. If he had not, his book would not have been published. We then presented Ted’s manuscript and its external peer evaluations to our editorial board. The members of the board deemed that his manuscript had been reviewed carefully, that he had satisfactorily addressed any reservations, and found that the manuscript warranted publication by the University of Georgia Press. Going through that process was non-negotiable for us.

"As was his privilege as series editor, Ted chose to suggest his own book for publication. There is a strong precedent of series editors publishing their own works in the series that they run. In fact, here's a rundown of the series published by academic publishers and who have published their series editors: Dave Smith at LSU Press; Laurence Lieberman at University of Illinois Press; Susan Hahn at Northwestern University Press; Cole Swensen at the University of Iowa Press; John T. Irwin (who publishes under John Bricuth) at John Hopkins University Press; Enid Shomer at University of Arkansas Press; and Robert A. Fink at Texas Tech University Press."

Actually, as far as I could tell after a little Googling, none of these editors had included their own books in their own series, although some had had their poetry published by the same university press they served as series editors and others taught at the university where the press resided, and one had been included in the series before she became its editor.

Perhaps precedent exonerates Genoways elsewhere.

In any case, the UGA Press has had favoritism issues in the past, most notably, in the Jorie Graham scandal, as summarized on Wikipedia:

"In January 1999, she judged the University of Georgia Contemporary Poetry series contest, which selected the manuscript 'O Wheel' from her now-husband Sacks as the first place winner. Graham noted that, at the time...she had not yet married Sacks, and that while she had 'felt awkward' about the award, she had first cleared it with the series editor, Bin Ramke, who made the actual award. As a result of the critical coverage from Foetry.com and elsewhere, Ramke resigned from the editorship of the series.

"Graham subsequently announced that she would no longer serve as a judge in contests, although as of 2008 she continues to do so. Throughout the course of the contest, Ramke had insisted that judges of the contest be kept secret, and until Foetry.com obtained the names of judges via The Open Records Act, the conflict of interest had been undisclosed. The University of Georgia Press now discloses the names of its poetry judges, who 'are instructed to avoid conflicts of interest of all kinds.' A statement now adopted in the rules of many competitions (including the University of Georgia Contest) to prevent judges from selecting students is often referred to as the 'Jorie Graham rule.'"