Foetry: American Poetry Watchdog

Exposing the fraudulent "contests."

Aaron McCollough chose Down Spooky by Shanna Compton for the 2004 Winnow Press Open Book Award in Poetry. Prior to the contest

Compton had published an essay by McCollough in the book she edited, Gamers.
McCollough gave a reading at Compton's home.
McCollough reviewed Compton's chapbook, also called Down Spooky, in detail on his weblog and encouraged his readers to purchase her book.

Notes:

Winnow Press had ethics guidelines in place prior to the contest, however they were not followed.
When Editor, Corinne Lee was presented with evidence of collusion, she instead accepted statements from the two friends denying the charges, and sent the book to print.
To her credit, Ms. Lee offered refunds and a copy of a book published by Winnow to each entrant who complained.
McCullough is judging the prize again this year for some reason.
In addition to his role as a Foetry judge, McCullough was on the winning end of fraud too.