Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Melinda Smith


 * 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   delete. JohnCD (talk) 21:25, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

Melinda Smith

 * – ( View AfD View log  Stats )

Australian poet, no indication of coverage in independent, mainstream sources, no coverage on Google Books. Major claim to fame (likely minor and not notable) "David Campbell prize". Still, I am always happy to be shown that I am wrong, so if anyone can dispute this and provide good sources showing her notability, please do. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 03:09, 16 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Australia-related deletion discussions. Northamerica1000(talk) 05:47, 16 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Poetry-related deletion discussions. Northamerica1000(talk) 05:47, 16 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Authors-related deletion discussions. Northamerica1000(talk) 05:47, 16 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Delete same findings as nom. Also it claimed she won the David Campbell prize twice (2006 and 2011), but the source shows only once (2006) so I corrected (unless there is an error in the source but we can only report what the source says). -- Green Cardamom (talk) 17:57, 16 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Delete same findings as nom. Checked Australian news sources, no mention at all. Highly dubious.Deathlibrarian (talk) 23:38, 24 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Comments by Paulknight34b:
 * Thank you, you are right about the David Campbell prize reference. Added further detail about the reach of the bus program and the significance of the Writers Showcase, as well as adding a quote from the review of First... Then... by Peter Pierce, editor of the Cambridge History of Australian Literature, in Canberra's mainstream daily The Canberra Times.  Also added Australian National LIbrary Catalogue and Google books references for the books, and extra awards.  Hopefully the article better reflects: the degree of public reach her poetry has had, mainstream and quality critical attention to her books, her place in the Australian National Library Catalogue, and the other awards and plaudits she has earned during a successful and continuing career as a poet.


 * Poetry in Australia is not a very mainstream activity in terms of pop cultural impact, and the sort of exposure and recognition in terms of third party commercial publishing support for - soon to be - four books, government funding, awards etc. that Melinda Smith has achieved is only reserved for very few practising poets, so if Australian Poetry in the modern era is to be regarded as notable at all, then a career such as hers is about as recognised as it gets... Putting it another way, if Melinda Smith does not count as a notable modern Australian poet, then essentially we have none.
 * Some other independent critical sources regarding Melinda Smith's work:
 * ‘Melinda Smith writes with exuberance and verve in a variety of forms, old and new. She is personal, opinionated, quirky, and you never know what a poem of hers will do. It is like some firework of unknown make and provenance, spluttering into incandescent life with more than a hint of danger’. John Whitworth (author of Writing Poetry and editor of the Faber Book of Blue Verse )
 * “[T]he work of a poet who…deals directly with life as it is. She takes the reader on journeys into the past, through childhood, and across relationships. Humour is lightly relied upon to arouse a sense of memory, [for example] in ‘Wheels’ where ‘at sixteen, humans grow a car / and never leave the road again’. Her poems have a tenderness of expression and … use the transforming power of imagery to connect with her readers: ‘The trees are trying to forget / but their bones are black with remembering’.” Geoff Page
 * “No Bed” and “Discretion” included in The Quadrant Book of Poetry 2000-2010, anthology edited by Les Murray, 2011
 * The poem “A birth” was selected to be printed on free postcards and distributed throughout Australia in September 2010 as part of the national ‘Get Reading!’ promotion. http://melindasmith.wordpress.com/resume/
 * --Paulknight34b (talk) 01:53, 17 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Hello Paulknight34b - do you have information on what publications the first two quotes are from (John Whitworth and Geoff Page)? They look like book reviews and reviews can count towards notability. Being anthologized in the Quadrant Book would count towards notable if there were multiple independent book reviews of the anthology that mentioned Smith in the reviews. The free postcards, we would need to see independent press coverage discussing this in some depth to show it was significant. -- Green Cardamom (talk) 06:39, 17 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.


 * Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Mark Arsten (talk) 15:19, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

 
 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.


 * Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, —Tom Morris (talk) 17:31, 5 October 2013 (UTC)


 * delete lack of reliable sources to meet WP:BIO or WP:CREATIVE. LibStar (talk) 14:07, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * This is a weak keep, based on having mostly primary sources, but hopefully this can be fixed. Bearian (talk) 17:48, 8 October 2013 (UTC)
 * you haven't actually said how a notability criterion is met, I'd expect an admin to do this in an AfD. LibStar (talk) 23:11, 8 October 2013 (UTC)
 * 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.