There’s long been a debate on whether art should be valued simply because I (or you) like it via a totally subjective stance.
Recently, I was privileged to be invited to be one of the two final judges of the 100 Days of Dante poetry competition run by the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing with the Society of Classical Poets. My co-judge was poet and professor at Fordham University, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell whom, at the point of being paired with her, I knew nothing about.
Because she was a co-judge, I decided to buy a couple of her collections (specifically, her “Still Pilgrim” and, more recently, “Love in the Time of Coronavirus”) to check her out. To be frank, I was more than impressed. I thought: Here is a major American poet writing in the great tradition. Why hadn’t I heard of her before?…