Don't rely on Internet blog for facts
I AM WRITING to correct errors, based on anonymous Internet blogs, in Alex Beam's March 31 column (''Website policies rhymes and misdemeanors," Living/Arts).
I have, over the past 26 years, picked a few former students' manuscripts when they have reached me as finalists in pre-screened book contests. These manuscripts were, to my mind, clearly the best. Having had more than 700 students, many of whom have gone on to publish, it would be odd if a handful did not, over the course of my adult life, end up as clear winners under the circumstances.
On the other hand, in 1999, as a judge for the Georgia Press contest that selects two ''established writers," I did not select Peter Sacks's manuscript; I chose Lee Upton's. When Sacks's fourth collection, ''O Wheel," reached me as one of 10 finalists, I recused myself from considering it.
The series editor, Bin Ramke, wished very much to publish it and exercised his option to do so.
Perhaps, in a climate which permits technology to slander people, the Globe should check such claims before accepting them as fact.
JORIE GRAHAM
Cambridge
The writer is Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University. 