The Lit Crit Contest has been over for a while and I have spent hours sending out all the critiques I received. Why? Because after all my whining about there not being enough entries, so many of you stepped up, wrote journals, encouraged others to critique, and I ended up with 36 entries. Not only that, someone decided to critique four poems and not enter the contest! So that makes 40 critiques in all.

What I loved about this the most was the overall quality of critique. The next time I hear someone complain that no one on deviantART knows how to critique literature, I'm going to throw this at them. "Look! You're wrong! We have wonderful critics and many of them are young writers themselves."

Sure, there is room for improvement in everyone's critique; just as writing needs to evolve, so does critiquing. This is merely a step in the right direction.

In the results journal, I intend to go over a few things that I personally like about the critiques and what I think can be improved. Of course, this is only my opinion, which may not be so interesting. The judges (`SparrowSong and *diamondie) will also comment, and I recommend you stick around for that.

Meanwhile, let me present to you all the excellent work that has come out of this project:

5 Critiques

By *fllnthblnk

Critique of diversionary (Poetry, Open)
Critique of Dream Cars (Poetry, Open)
Critique of Moon Milk (Poetry, Open)
Critique of Stereotypes Pt. 2 - Black (Poetry, Open)
Critique of Where do you lead? (Poetry, Open)

4 Critiques

By ~GrimEden

Please note that ~GrimEden has chosen not to have his critiques considered for the contest and in fact, wanted to remain anonymous. I suspect he does not want me to praise his work or draw attention to him, but I can't resist it. These are thoughtful and informed critiques, well worth a read or two.

Critique of diversionary (Poetry, Open)
Critique of Dream Cars (Poetry, Open)
Critique of Detour through a Street that Smelled of Curry (Poetry, Fixed)
Critique of Dim-Lit Tranferences (Poetry, Fixed)

2 Critiques

By =Negated

Critique of diversionary (Poetry, Open)
Critique of Averted (Prose)

1 Critique

By ~Aladdin-Sane

Critique of Dim-Lit Tranferences (Poetry, Fixed)

By ~Angelkitteh
Critique of Flight (Prose)

By *batousaijin

Critique of Moon Milk (Poetry, Open)

By `Beccalicious

Critique of Sunken Treasure (Prose)

By =Calyptra

Critique of Averted (Prose)

By *ceebab

Critique of Not From Here (Prose)

By ~Cirdanf

Critique of Dream Cars (Poetry, Open)

By ~dark-dear-heart

Critique of diversionary (Poetry, Open)

By `GeneratingHype

Critique of Car Park Politics (Prose)

By ~JoieD

Critique of Fahrenheit 451: Take Two (Prose)

By *justmeandmygoldfish

Critique of A Snowflake on my Shoulder (Prose)

By ~Kirielson

Critique of Not From Here (Prose)

By *Kitz-the-Kitsune

Critique of Stereotypes Pt. 2 - Black (Poetry, Open)


By ~LiKNa

Critique of Averted (Prose)

By ~livingtoxic

Critique of diversionary (Poetry, Open)

By *lpowell

Critique of A Snowflake on my Shoulder (Prose)

By *MatchstickART

Critique of Moon Milk (Poetry, Open)

By *Memnalar

Critique of Flight (Prose)

By *navear

Critique of Renunciation (Prose)

By ~nightmarehymn

Critique of Where do you lead? (Poetry, Open)

By *ordie

Critique of Where do you lead? (Poetry, Open)

By ~poisonedrose

Critique of Car Park Politics (Prose)

By ~rudhira

Critique of Moon Milk (Poetry, Open)

By ~sackermanmo

Critique of Bad Poetry (Prose)

By *salshep

Critique of Adeline (Poetry, Open)

By *TheKingofFall

Critique of Adeline (Poetry, Open)

By *tightwhitepants

Critique of Sunken Treasure (Prose)

By ~Twilights-Maiden

Critique of Mexican Lament (Poetry, Fixed)

By *wordworks

Critique of Car Park Politics (Prose)

I've gone over these several times, so there shouldn't be any errors, but if I have missed out anyone, please inform me by note so that I can correct it, at least in my own records.

I applaud everyone who entered this contest. Even with the lure of prizes, critiquing is a good thing to do. I've enjoyed reading all the entries and best of luck for the results!