BTBA shortlist 2018

Just a quick take on the winnowing of the longlist, as announced at The Millions and 3% (fiction & poetry): as always, sorry to see some of my favorites fall off, glad to see that what piqued interest made it (more at my longlist post), and congrats to Open Letter and Two Lines for their double-entry bookkeeping. And, as usual, I expect I'll end up reading half the shortlist entries. But the turnover among the judges makes it less predictable, not that that isn't a Good Thing, just that my interests seem to be diverging somewhat from the prize criteria (more esoteric? I dunno: has the fiction BTBA become more exoteric?). Looking forward to attending the announcement of the winners (May 31 at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W 18th St, NYC).