In
In
Dr. Len Roberts
ISP Educational Director
In the State of
But to Grace Cavalieri of the Poetry Faculty of St. Mary’s College, Southern Maryland, one of
But let’s hear Theresa Coleman, one of the victims of ISP/ILP/POETRY.COM. She told Charlie Hughes, a
Organizations like this SHOULD NOT be permitted to continue preying on innocent people and robbing them of money most of us didn’t have and had to borrow …I cannot express the deep, emotional anguish this has caused me…I almost feel like suing the BBB (Better Business Bureau, whose approval rating of ILP/ISP/POETRY.COM helps people get caught in their trap)… Now I am so angry with them that I cannot express how badly I would like to choke every one of those rip-off artists! …I am totally appalled that they have remained in business for so long” (Coleman’s testimony).
Fleda Brown: Professor of English and
Delaware Poet Laureate
Like Coleman, we too are totally appalled that ISP/ILP/POETRY.COM has remained in Business till now. Unfortunately, American laws have no succour for the likes of Coleman. And there are thousands like her, bleeding at all corners, after an encounter with ISP/ILP/POETRY.COM.
Now why would this poor woman plunge herself into debt to attend an ISP conference? Well, she is one of the several victims of ISP/ILP/POETRY.COM grand lies and deceit, who are made to believe they had won some big money, and lured into paying the conference registration fees which Professor Fleda Brown, another poet who associates with ISP, admits is “very high”.
David Wagoner: Former Chancellor, Academy
of American Poets
Len Roberts, a brilliant
Some eminent literary figures like Professor Stephen Dunn (Pulitzer Prize winner),
Grace Cavalieri, Dr. Herbert Woodward Martin, Professor Fleda Brown (Delaware Poet Laureate), W.D. Snodgrass (1960 Pulitzer Prize winner) Lucille Clifton, Robert Winsky, etc. also associate with ISP and their names are used to purchase respectability for ISP’s unwholesome trade.
W.D Snodgrass
Pulitzer Prize Winner
Roberts told this writer that most of the complaints about ISP occurred more than five years ago, before ISP hired him. But Theresa Coleman got her bitter deal from ISP in 2000!
Roberts insists: “The only valid complaint I find among all these criticisms is that the phrasing of ISP’s letter is misleading.” Now what does ISP gain by misleading people? Simple! To make them believe they have won some money in order to lure them to the conference for which they would pay ISP as much as $702.00 dollars as registration fee. By their own admission, in 2002 alone, not less than 2,500 people got into their trap. This way they can comfortably give away $74,000.00 to 36 “poets” and still smile to the banks with their millions. So, contrary to the claims in a recent feature article in a Nigerian newspaper, ISP holds elaborate conventions where interesting lectures are delivered on poetry by nationally acclaimed poets and university professors. More importantly, it pays all the prize money as advertised. Only it achieves that by robbing Joseph to pay Josephine.
Grace Cavalieri:Award-Winning American Poet
And Playwright
The ISP professors maintain that only those who fail to win prizes complain after the convention. But Charlie Hughes disagrees. “Those people who are disgruntled with ISP convention are not disgruntled because they lost a contest. They are upset because facts were misrepresented to them in order to lure them to the convention,” he told this writer.
Now how can
So, is there no law in the United States capable of stopping person(s) and institutions from continuing to deliberately circulate misleading letters with the sole aim getting at people’s money and plunging them into huge debts? Even if they have snaked their way through some legal loopholes to make their activities remain “legal”, can’t the US authorities listen to the anguished cries of all their victims and clamp down on them in public interest, as has been done in Nigeria here with even organizations like Umanah I. Umanah’s Resources Ltd in Port Harcourt, whose activities had not even begun to cause any harm to anyone, but was seen as potential time bomb?
Dr. Herbert Woodward Martin: Mellon Poetry Prize
Winner
This writer tried to make inquiries about ISP at the Public Affairs Department of the United States Consulate in
Is ISP a sacred cow, beyond investigation? Is it because of its fat taxes?
So what really is the sin of ILP/ISP/POETRY.COM? On their website, they call for poems. Any trash you submit is an instant hit. Then you will automatically become a poet with “unique vision” and great talent, certified by their “Acceptance Committee” as semi-finalist and eligible for publication in an anthology that costs $59.95 plus another $8.
One Of The Several "Awards" Dished Out By POETRY.COM
And if you want a 150-word introductory note to appear with your “poem”, you will pay another $25.00. Well, whether you pay or not, your “poem” will still be published. But, of course, many buy several copies out of joy that they are featured in an anthology. So regularly, they churn out these anthologies filled with near rubbish just to get at the money of any one that submits just anything.
Then after this stage, a certain Steve Michaels enters with a letter informing you of your nomination as Poet of the Year. The letter starts with some sort of announcement in front of an imaginary crowd declaring you the Poet of the Year and winner of the grand prize of $20,000! The purpose is to make you believe when you now read of your nomination that you have won the prize. All effort is deployed to make the letter (also sent out to more than a thousand others) appear personal and exclusive to you in order to lure you to register for the conference.
What is the necessity for this deception? What is really happening? Professor Fleda Brown explains: “almost every one who submits poems is ‘accepted’, so they should not understand their invitation as any particular honor”.
But how would these hapless souls know that letters coming from ISP/ILP, an organisation that parades the cream of
(Prof. Roberts, ISP Educational Director, is a most charming fellow, as Charlie Hughes confessed to this writer. After a series of interactions in the process of preparing this article, this writer was so affected by Roberts’s personality and manners that he almost gave up writing this article. Apart from his reputation as a distinguished poet and academic, this other personal quality may have influenced the decision of ISP to hire him for the job. He is always handy to charm aggrieved “poets” into silence with his warm personality, beautiful diction, and style.)
Stephen Dunn: Pulitzer Prize Winner
Now, the next in the web of deceit comes from Nigel Hillary of Noble House Publishers with another set of lies and flattery.
ILP//POETRY.COM subscribes to a Privacy Policy. So, how then does Noble House get people’s addresses and other details in order to write them to announce they had read their poems in the
Is Noble House just ILP/ISP/POETRY.COM in another name, since both are only all after your money? A question of Esau’s hand, Jacobs voice?
Both flatter you to high heavens with unspeakable lies about a poem they have not even read, which may even contain terrible errors that cannot be accommodated by even poetic license! At the end of the day, you will still be the one to “edit” your "poem."
The Bright Face Of Scam In American Poetry
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In its commitment to publish just any trash, look at ILP’s output posted on its website and compiled by Theresa Coleman:
*In 1997, they published 44 anthologies of “poems”;
*1998, they published 78;
1999, 52 came out (that is, one a week!);
*2000, they had published 46…as of August)…
Source: http://windpub.com/literary.scams/bigmoney.htm).
The Editor of the page estimates that with these publications, the ILP is richer with about $9 million dollars each year at just $50.00 per book. But by this writer’s estimate, based on ISP letters and documents available to him, they realize $84.95 plus additional $8.00 from each “poet” who orders just a copy of their book.
Also, “Greater Maryland Business Bureau reports that ILP has 500,000 customers each year. If only half purchase a single book, that’s $12.5million”! Hughes, also a publisher of long-standing, told this writer that based on his experience as a publisher, the production cost of an ILP book cannot be more than $10.00.
The question is: Can the ILP/ISP/POETRY.COM enjoy a conducive climate in
Or, as Ms. Cavalieri says: “Come to learn poetry and have fun at the convention, not to win money.”
Well, tomorrow, American officials will still come down here to sermonize about Nigerians “who obtain money by tricks (OBT or 419)” But can’t anyone out there stand up to them and yell: “Physician, Please, Heal Thyself First? Our boys are merely apprentices of their big brother in
Well, the fault may after all be ours: We gave room for those patronizing insults. Instead of registering our own equivalents of ISP/ILP/Poetry.com in
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Interview With The Dramatis Personae
Interview With The Dramatis Personae
Charlie Hughes
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Len Roberts
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye Interviews Dr. Len Roberts, Poet, Professor Of English, And ISP Educational Director
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scruples2006@yahoo.com
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scruples2006@yahoo.com
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