Oprah on Poetry (or poets at least)

I just found this, and wonder if anyone else saw this last year:

http://www.oprah.com/style/Spring-Fashion-Modeled-by-Rising-Young-Poets/

I don't know if I'm jealous of these young women for having Oprah's glitter dust scattered their way, or upset that they had to use their bodies, not their words, to obtain said glitter dust, but either way, I think it says something about our culture when the only way poets can receive attention is by modelling clothes well outside the salaries of most poets.

Oprah's Spring Fashions in Poetry

So, the "poetry issue" of Oprah Magazine came out, and the feature is... spring fashions modeled by "rising young poets" (by which she means, rising young female poets). Check out The New York Times essay.

The mind boggles. Take a look.

Poet Suheir Hammad (37, according to the Oprah article-- nice to know how old these poets are), according to the article, writes about "how people maintain their humanity in difficult circumstances." Like, maybe, wearing silly clothes?

--too bad the poets weren't even allowed to keep the duds. I hope they were paid!

(Mary Oliver also gets interviewed, but-- at 75-- apparently she doesn't get the fashion shoot. She does get the "here I am with a celebrity!" picture with guest editor Maria Shriver, though, in which (for the record) she is wearing a quilted fuschia jacket, rose turtleneck, and blue jeans. Very stylish, actually-- bold, yet comfortable. I like it. They should let her design the clothes.)

Oprah goes for rights grab

I'm a great fan of Oprah Winfrey, a celebrity who has consistently been on the side of writers, and a strong advocate for reading, Which is why I'm so terribly disappointed to see name associated with a clear grab-- very nearly theft-- of writer's rights.

Writers beware!

It looks so innocent-- she's asking for poets to submit their poems. How can that be bad? Maybe, just maybe, she'll make them famous. Well, she's taking advantage of the hopes and dreams of gullible writers here. It's a scam.

Read the fine print. It says that anything you submit, whether they publish it or not, belongs to them. Submit, and she owns all rights forever!

"Harpo shall exclusively own all known or later existing rights to the Submissions worldwide with the unrestricted right to use the Submissions for any purpose in all media now known or hereafter discovered without compensation to the provider of such Submissions."

Not merely all rights, forever, but they're even demanding rights that haven't been thought of yet! It's probably not even legal (they're not offering to pay for the rights)-- but don't count on the terms not being enforced.

Don't just walk away from this one: run!