Claptrap Canon

Zach Wells comes down very hard on the Carcanet anthology Modern Canadian Poets, accusing the editors of, among other things, incompetence:

Legend has it that expat poet and tireless poetry activist Todd Swift, in what he has referred to as his “Flashdance moment,” stood up at a conference in Norwich and hectored Schmidt publicly about his offhand dismissal of Canadian poetry. Schmidt’s response? He gave Swift, along with fellow expat Evan Jones, the chance to edit an anthology of Canadian poems for Schmidt’s Manchester-based press. A cynic might say that Schmidt’s gift to Swift and Jones was just enough rope.

Read Wells' review here. More on the anthology here and here.