Greatest Living Poet

It's all about the Clevelands!! Is Kent Johnson (among other things) a Foet? His buddy Tony Tost seems to have been among the jury that picked him for ILLINOIS ARTS COUNCIL 2006 LITERARY AWARD! A thousand dollar prize! How cosy! It's so disillusioning to have straight-shooters like Kent Johnson end up being careerist fakers. And just yesterday on Lucipo Kent wrote:

In fact, I've never entered a single poetry contest in my life, now that I think about it.

Here is a pretty thorough e-mail from Tost about his end of it.

But:

1) How did Tony get invited to be a juror by this committee? How did they know to be in touch with him? There are lots of other poets in the world. [Tony tells me there is a nominating process for jurors. Well, who nominates them?]

2) How does Kent keep on winning awards that he doesn't have to apply for? Isn't that weird? He was entered *twice*! [Note from a reader: an official release for the 2004 Illinois Community College Trustees Association Outstanding Faculty Member that was hosted at highland.edu as recently as yesterday has been suddenly removed.] {Kent does the Radioactive Monkey Dance at Lucipo} [Without the glasses, President Cleveland *does* kind of look like Kent Johnson, doesn't he?]