I keep getting ads for Wilson’s Revenge. I first heard of this book because I like to keep updated on Oklahoma news, and I came across this article from the Muskogee Phoenix “Oklahoma poet speaks of age, revenge, red dirt and Enid.” The article title intrigued me, but it doesn’t quote a single poem. A cinnamon roll recipe appears to be the only real press about this poetry collection. I’ve an entire shelf dedicated to Oklahoma poets, many of whom I have had the honor of meeting or sharing the stage with, but I won’t be investing in a copy of Wilson’s Revenge.
Instead of finding book launch events, professional reviews, or any small town press touting the glory of their new best selling local poet, when I tried to find out more, I only found some reddit posts questioning the book’s authenticity, claiming it was all AI generated text. A lot of it reads like insta-poetry, short form bite-sized one-liners. It’s suspicious that there’s no pushback from the publisher or the poet himself about these claims which are the first thing to pop up in search results about the book.
If he’s real, Wilson should show himself. If those poems are your life’s work then proudly claim it, publicly stand by your view points, and participate in the broader poetry community to put these rumors to rest. I know if someone was out there claiming I didn’t write my own books, I’d be all over the place defending my life’s work.
First off, the World Poetry Collective seems like a textbook vanity press. Authors should not be paying publishers to get published, and especially not in the range of $5,000 to $80,000. Most poetry books are lucky to sell 1,000 copies across their lifetime. Most likely won’t ever see a real return on that investment. If you really want to be published by someone else, please take the time to go through the traditional publishing process. In Oklahoma alone there’s publishers like Fine Dog Press, Turning Plow Press, Literati Press, and Mongrel Empire Press.
At a starting price of $35-$50 plus S&H for a printed copy, Wilson’s Revenge is a bit over priced for a mere 55 poems. Then there’s the money grab of $1000 if you wanted a signed hard back book. Plus stating “don’t edit me” with a debut book is a sign of pure ego. Real writers need to be humble enough to be edited. We all have our bloopers. Else what is the point of getting your creations vetted by other professionals and being published by somebody else? Most legitimate authors won’t charge you $1000 for an autograph either.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of great poets in Oklahoma who publish, tour, teach, and release books on a regular basis. Numerous Oklahoma poets whose work you can support whose books are real literature and most definitely not AI-generated. Not to mention more affordable for the average working-class poetry lover. And if you do have $1000 budget lying around just for poetry books, it would go much farther if you spread it around between the whole poetry community instead.
I’ll start off with a few other poets beyond myself who called Enid home. First off you have three women who served Oklahoma poets laureate: Bess Truitt, Carol Hamilton, and Betty Lou Shipley. You can read their work and the work of other Oklahoma state poets laureate in The Oklahoma Poets Laureate by Shawn Holliday. Two other great poets from Enid who have passed away are Louis Jenkins and J. Quinn Brisben. There are other modern poets from Enid like Don Stinson, Paul Bowers, and Sharon Frye, and my favorite modern poet from Enid is Quraysh Ali Lansana.
You can learn about Freeman Edwin Miller, Oklahoma’s territorial poet laureate, or Julious Caesar Hill, Oklahoma’s first Black poet laureate from Tulsa. There’s also many California poets with Oklahoma roots like Don Blanding, Kim Shuck, Suzanne Bruce and Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel. And of course, our past national poet laureate Joy Harjo.
Then there’s the Woody Guthrie Poets who have been performing across Oklahoma and publishing anthologies for nearly two decades now, including Paul Juhasz, Ky George, Durrell Carter, Nathan Brown, Cody Baggerly, Ken Hada, Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, Rilla Askew, Paul Austin, Ron Wallace, Hank Jones, Linda Neal Reising, Molly Sizer, Julie Chappell, Cullen Whisenhunt, Zhenya Yevtushenko, Quinn Carver Johnson, Catherine Katey Johnson, Matt Barnett, and so many more outstanding voices.
There’s many anthologies featuring Oklahoma poets including Oklahoma Poems… and Their Poets edited by Nathan Brown and Ain’t Nobody That Can Sing Like Me: New Oklahoma Writing edited by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, and the audio anthology of the Okie Bookcast. There’s the Oklahoma Review out of Cameron University.
Or you could invest in seeing poets live. There’s the Don Blanding Poetry Society in Enid, and the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival in Ada. There’s numerous ongoing open mics where you’re bound to find local poets in need of your support at Red Dirt Poetry, Full Circle Bookstore, and Poetry and Chill in OKC, Lost Street Poetry in Durant, Tidewater Winery in Drumright, McAlester Poetry Club in McAlester, First Monday Poetry in Ada, and Green Feather Book Company in Norman.