Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Lia Purpura


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. postdlf (talk) 21:19, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Lia Purpura

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WP:PROD deletion was contested on the grounds that Purpura had received a Guggenheim Fellowship, but I don't believe that that demonstrates notability as that fellowship is awarded to hundreds of authors annually. The article tries hard to make it look as though she is notable, but all of the awards seem to be local or very niche—for example the Beatrice Hawley Award was awarded by Alice James Books for a book published by, guess who, Alice James Books—and the sources in the article and found by the Google News search above all seem to be announcement of local readings etc., nothing that meets the requirements of WP:AUTHOR. Phil Bridger (talk) 17:49, 30 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 18:08, 30 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Poetry-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 18:08, 30 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 18:08, 30 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Authors-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 18:08, 30 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Delete. I agree, though numerous the miscellaneous awards listed for the subject are minor and not nearly of sufficient magnitude to meet WP:WRITER.  Triplestop  x3  19:43, 30 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep-
 * 1. Any biography - "The person has received a well-known and significant award or honor" - Guggenheim Award, Fulbright Award (Scholar), National Endowment for the Arts (fellowship), Beatrice Hawley Award, etc., etc.
 * 2. Creative professional - "(c) has won significant critical attention" - National Book Critics Circle Award - Works published by iconic literary magazines - The New Yorker, The Paris Review, etc., etc.
 * Tammytoons (talk) 23:29, 30 August 2013 (UTC)Tammytoons


 * Strong Keep -- I generally agree with Phil Bridger, but I disagree on the overall conclusion he gives here (though I agree on the specific case of the Beatrice Hawley Award not being enough in itself). As a point of fact, the Guggenheim is not given to hundreds of writers a year.  This year it was given to 197 researchers and creative professionals in all fields, about 30 of them tend to be writers of any sort and 5-10 are poets. But the numbers aren't the most important thing (in most recent years there have been 9 nobel science laureates -- that doesn't determine how many scientist bios we add per year); the fact is the Guggenheim is a major prize in poetry, one that guarantees tenure at almost every American university.  Three books of poetry (two from very important poetry presses) and a triple Pushcart winner are very substantial accomplishments.  Put with publications in the New Yorker and New Republic (if you're used to evaluating scientists, think of these as first authored articles in Science and Nature) and a series of other top venues (Iowa Review, Antioch Review, Paris Review, Ploughshares, Parnassus) and it's a staggering set of notable awards and accomplishments.  This is a much higher set of accomplishments than we generally require for scientists (being at the edge of the arts and computer science, I see job candidates from both sides often); we shouldn't let the generally admitted dearth of biographies for poets and other creative artists on WP cause us to think that the smaller number that do have articles here represent the lower bar on exceptional talent. -- Michael Scott Cuthbert (talk) 02:48, 31 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Add to this that her work has been the subject of multiple independent reviews: : Rough Likeness by Lia Purpura: -- Kenyon Review Star Tribune Sonora Review The Diagram; many more on her website -- most of the links no longer work, but are confirmed through a JSTOR, Worldcat, or other library searches. This is the sort of independent notability in the field that both the GNG and WP:WRITER are built around. -- Michael Scott Cuthbert (talk) 02:54, 31 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep. According to the Guggenheim Foundation her essays have won the Pushcart Prize four times (her cv says three, but either way). It may not be quite what WP:PROF intends, but she's held named visiting professorships at the Universities of Alabama and Iowa. Along with abundant literary journal reviews of her books, I found a few newspaper articles covering her or her work in nontrivial depth:  . (Also three reviews in Publishers Weekly  , which is not itself a small press). So I think she's received enough attention outside her own milieu to pass WP:GNG. —David Eppstein (talk) 03:25, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Strong Keep. As David Eppstein notes, the awards that Purpura has won are substantial and significant (the Guggenheim in particular is one of the most significant fellowships given to living writers), and, more importantly, they collectively (between the NEA and the Guggenheim and her Pushcarts and her nomination for a National Book Critics Circle Award, Purpura has received a large proportion of the awards for which living American writers are eligible; this is even more impressive considering she is fairly early in her career) point to a major and growing reputation in American Letters, not just as a poet, but as an essayist. -- Ander Monson (talk) 04:44, 5 September 2013 (UTC) — Angermonsoon (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.