A recent Stuyvesant graduate has been accused of plagiarizing her winning submissions to three writing contests.
The alumna also published the poem under her name in the 2007 spring issue of Caliper, the Stuyvesant literary magazine. She was an editor of that publication.
Pudding House, the publisher of 18-year-old Eva Della Lana’s poem “Menarche in Rural Ohio,” said that the Stuyvesant alumna submitted that poem under her own name to the three contests and won a total of 5,200 dollars.
The alumna declined to comment and has been granted anonymity because she was a minor when the alleged act occurred.
The alumna won the second place scholarship award from the Random House Creative Writing Competition, a prize of 5,000 dollars. The poem also won her second place and 200 dollars from the City College of New York (CCNY) Poetry Outreach Center, as well as recognition from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
The three competitions have retracted their recognition of the alumna and asked her to return the money.
“She was very cooperative,” Director of the CCNY Poetry Outreach Center Pam Laskin said. The CCNY program awarded Della Lana the prize money that was returned by the Stuyvesant alumna.
All three New York City competitions traditionally receive multiple Stuyvesant submissions. Three of the four Random House Creative Writing 2007 first place awards were granted to Stuyvesant students. Submissions are due early in the spring term.
According to Laskin, the Poetry Outreach Center has seen several cases of plagiarized submissions, though they were all poems of well-known poets. “Those were easy to spot,” she said.
“This is a serious, serious problem,” said Jennifer Bosveld, President of Pudding House and Della Lana’s publisher and representative. “She stole in a premeditated way three times,” Bosveld said.
According to Bosveld, representatives of Pudding House informed the alumna’s college of the incident.
The school did not comment on the situation.
The alumna sent a letter of apology to the three competitions and to Pudding House. Bosveld said the letter was “contrite and well written, sincere.”
According to CCNY’s Laskin, the alumna “has been punished enough,” in returning the awards and through “her own remorse.”
She “has been humiliated as it is,” Laskin said. “Before her peers who I know she loved and admired a great deal.”
Laskin, whose daughter graduated Stuyvesant last year, said the alumna’s actions may have been a result of her years at Stuyvesant. “I think the school is at fault because competition is so encouraged,” she said.
“I feel sorry for [the alumna],” Laskin said. “That she got caught up in this mess, the culture of competition, which is deadly.”
“No money prize in the world is worth plagiarizing your poem,” Laskin said. “No college in the world is worth compromising yourself for admissions.”
Laskin said she may be more wary of Stuyvesant poetry submissions as a result of the incident. But, “I will never disregard [Stuyvesant submissions],” she said. “I just don’t want it ever to happen again.”
“It’s just shocking,” senior and Caliper co-editor Caroline Brickman said. “I can understand that there’s pressure to produce something beautiful.”
Brickman said the editors may begin reviewing submissions for plagiarism. “It didn’t occur to us until this,” she said.
Della Lana’s poem was first published in a chapbook in 2006. The poem was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was featured in the Pudding House magazine in 2006. “I just warned everybody, remember her name,” Bosveld said of Della Lana.
According to Bosveld, the alumna’s actions have not “damaged [Della Lana] really as far as financial damage.” She said it has, however, affected Della Lana “psychologically and emotionally.”
Della Lana first uncovered the use of her work when she Googled the title of her poem. “At 1:30 in the morning, she called me crying and crying,” Bosveld said. “She felt like she’d really been violated.”
According to Bosveld, Pudding House is “America’s largest literary small press.” It is located in Columbus, Ohio.
Pudding House has faulted Random House for not providing a public announcement, for not removing the alumna’s name from all lists of 2007 winners, and for not discovering the incident earlier.
“Any company as big, with all of their resources, they ought to be researching,” Bosveld said. “You’d like to trust what comes in, but I just think it’s smart to look into it.”
Bosveld said she plans to contact New York City media.
Pudding House sent a letter to its affiliates, which is available on the Internet. It asks that “you take up the battle and write [Random House] to call for justice for Eva.”
The letter said that Random House issued an apology.
All three competitions have removed the Stuyvesant alumna’s name from their main online lists of 2007 winners.
