Tuesday, September 12, 2017

A Prolific, Poetic Plagiarist

I read an absolutely mind-blowing article in The Guardian just now, and it's about plagiarism in poetry, which I had no idea was even a thing.

It's a thing. A big thing.

The article is about a plagiarism sleuth, and focuses on his investigation of Pierre DesRuisseaux, the fourth parliamentary poet laureate of Canada. DesRuisseaux, in an astonishing number of poems, basically just stole an English-language poem and translated it into French, from sources as wide-ranging as Maya Angelou and Tupac.

That's right. Tupac.

It's shocking, really, and DesRuisseaux isn't the only plagiarist. The entire article is a great rabbit-hole read: 'Plagiarists never do it once': meet the sleuth tracking down the poetry cheats.

Site Meter