Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I am shocked, reading the letters you elect to print, that not a single reader has complained about the extraordinary breach of journalistic ethics evidenced in the July/August issue. I refer, of course, to Dean Young’s review of his own book of poetry, Embryoyo [“Ten Tokes,” July/August 2005]. Needless to say, the review was highly favorable. (“An American bard at last!”) Why was Young allowed to promote his own work in such a shameless manner? Is the power he wields as a faculty member at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop now so great that it reaches even to the editorial offices of Poetry?