Poetry world split over polemic attacking 'amateur' work by 'young female poets'

The essay in PN Review has split the poetry establishment, with some praising it as "stonking stuff" and "brilliant". PN Review editor Michael Schmidt showed the Guardian some of the many supportive responses to Watts's essay the journal had received. "Many of our readers seem relieved that literary criticism is at last being applied to writing that has, hitherto, been welcomed with open arms by journalists because it is easy to read, contains few challenges ... to insist that it can stand on a sure footing beside poetry in what I have now too often seen described as ‘dusty old books'," Schmidt said.