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The Plagiarism Roster
Ira Lightman

[Expanding on this report in Ansible 311 ...]

Here's my list of pieces in David R. Morgan's book Destinations, that have large chunks reused wholesale as the 80-90% body of the text (or 80-90% of a paragraph in the text where the other paragraphs are plagiarized too but from other writers) from Strange Horizons writers. He takes about a dozen from Story Bytes, and a lot from the http://capa.conncoll.edu/ website, but only from about a dozen poets: Al Zolynas, Robert Peters, Colin Morton, Jascha Kessler, Barry Seiler, John Morgan, Daniele Gioseffi, Charles Hartman, Gerry La Femina, William Matthews, Lloyd Schwarz, Wendy Battin, James Bertolino, Halvard Johnson. At least three on average from each, and a whole book of poems: Breughel's Pig by Robert Peters, 1974, a book of short lined poems, run as consecutive prose with nearly no editing, as one 13 page short story.

Here is the Strange Horizons list:

  1. Finisterre by Maria Deira as "Before we knew for certain"
  2. Making Robot Poets Great by Greg Beatty as "Robobards"
  3. Soul Searching by Tim Pratt as "Says the Green Man"
  4. The Great Gnome Escape by Duane Ackerson as "Gnome is where the Heart is"
  5. A Short Conversation with Destiny by David J Schwartz as part of "Echo and Narcissus"
  6. The Planet of Ideal Readers by F. J. Bergmann as "Kindle surprise"
  7. Grief by Wendy Rathbone as "The Werewolf's Grief"
  8. Four Years Later by Chris Szego as "Beauty and the Beast"
  9. Cities in Fog by Robert Frazier and Andrew Joron as "In the street of improbable books"
  10. Painted by Becca de la Rosa as "Art for Art's Sake"
  11. Dark and Light by David Lunde as part of "Somewhere near the front row a cricket plays its legs"
  12. Immaterial by Sharon M. White as "Bipolarity"
  13. Underground by Jennifer de Guzman as "The Dangerous Tomato"
  14. The Emerald King by J. Kenneth Sargeant as "Over the Rainbow"
  15. Wings by Andrea Blythe as "The devil of a tattoo"
  16. Moonomania by F.J. Bergmann as part of "The Lover"
  17. Eel Week by David C. Kopaska-Merkel as "Something really fishy"
  18. The Ghost of Onions by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff [title of plagiarism omitted – to follow when Ira Lightman, currently away from home and references, is able to look it up]
  19. Violet's Hearts by Jeanie Tomasko as "Writing Lesson / Clever Cupid"
  20. How to Hold Your Breath by Meredith Schwartz as "Hold Your Breath"
  21. Wendy Darling Has Bad Dreams by Sally Rosen Kindred as "Hooked"
  22. Lizards and Wind by Bruce Boston as "Rhinos and Wind"
  23. Mathematics by Jennifer Crow as part of "School Daze"
  24. The Calendar of the Dead by Jacqueline West as part of "In Transit"
  25. A Winter's Tale by Nora M. Mulligan as Chione
  26. In Their Element by M.J. Kirby as "The Particle Prom"
  27. A Face Like An Imperfectly Shaven Tennis Ball by Helena Bell as "A Body of Work"
  28. The Yew's Embrace by Francesca Forrest as "Who Can Understand the Gods?"
  29. Estranged by Bruce Holland Rogers as "Newman"
  30. Ballade of the New God by Thomas M. Disch as "first thoughts of the foetus"
  31. Little Ghosts by Duane Ackerson as "Counter spell"
  32. Requiem for the Tooth Fairy by Robert Borski as "Down in the mouth"
  33. Birds by Benjamin Parzybok as "Flight"
  34. How the Mermaid Lost Her Song by Mark Teppo as "The mermaid's song"
  35. Items Found in a Box Belonging to Jonas Connolly by Laura E. Price as part of "Skin of fish, bones of bird"
  36. John Travolta Stars in My Flick by Earl J. Wilcox as "John Wayne stars in my scene"
  37. Whiskers by Jamieson Ridenhour as "A close shave"
  38. Little Red Cap Grows Up by Amy Cummins as "Home Forever"
  39. If Wishes were Horses by Tiffani Angus-Bodie as "If wishes were camels"
  40. Ghost Lakes by David C. Kopaska-Merkel as "Ghost lakes"
  41. Teacher's Pet by Robert Borski as "Teacher's pet"
  42. Impressions and Indentations by Jeff Jeppesen as "Where we've been"
  43. After All by Carol Emshwiller as "'Nother year older"
  44. Family Poet by Rolli as "Endangered species"
  45. Orpheus Among the Cabbages by Tim Pratt as part of "Why write wanker?"
  46. The Ghostly Barber Shop by Duane Ackerson as part of "Why write wanker?"
  47. A Ghost Story by Duane Ackerson as part of "Why write wanker?"
  48. The Space Between Stars by Cassandra Clarke as part of "Why write wanker?"
  49. The Fen-Queen's Bride by P.K. Graves as part of "Why write wanker?"
  50. The God of the Crossroads by Tim Pratt as part of "Route 66"
  51. Making Monsters by Tim Pratt as part of "Film Buff"
  52. Changing Masks by John B. Rosenman as part of "Film Buff"
  53. The Desires of Houses by Haddayr Copley-Woods as "The desire of things"
  54. Before Paphos by Loretta Casteen as "Pygmalion"
  55. Father's Day by Jen Larsen as "he hates the fish"

(You may want to check the spelling against the website, as these are all from annotations made in pencil on my copy of Destinations, and even I can't always read my handwriting....) [Done, and a few corrections made – Ed.]