Today marks the second anniversary for “One Poet’s Notes,” the editor’s blog for Valparaiso Poetry Review. As described in the blog’s sidebar, “One Poet’s Notes” was begun as an editor’s personal notebook or writer’s journal that offers readers ongoing commentary complementing content published in VPR. The blog’s entries are intended to associate those poems, essays, reviews, and interviews in the magazine’s semiannual issues with other news and additional information relating to poetry, poetics, and various aspects of other arts.
The format of the blog has allowed readers to connect with numerous notable sources for poetry or information about poets, especially with links to various media, including recordings of poetry readings and interviews, as well as selected videos relating to poetry and poetics.
Furthermore, since Valparaiso Poetry Review has now existed for ten years, a particular goal of the editor’s blog has been to reintroduce readers to works published in previous years and still available in the periodical’s archives. The VPR Poem of the Week feature has spotlighted many poets with works appearing in earlier issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review. This element of the blog has helped increase interest and readership for VPR’s decade of back issues, and it has acquainted readers with a number of poets or poems they might not have previously known.
Indeed, the continuing presence of “One Poet’s Notes” has dramatically increased the daily readership for VPR throughout the last two years. When the initial entries of “One Poet’s Notes” were posted in January of 2007, one could not know how many readers might find their way to the blog. However, I have been pleased to see its audience increase steadily over the past pair of years, rising from only about 500 readers that first month in 2007 to about 4,000 per month one year ago to about 10,000 readers each month now. Consequently, this as well has enhanced the number of readers who have visited Valparaiso Poetry Review’s nineteen issues published thus far to a total of around 200,000 in just the past couple of years.
The increase in readership has been assisted by recognition and respect generously demonstrated by others, including many friendly fellow bloggers who have pointed their readers in this direction with high recommendations of the content here. I especially would like to take this opportunity to thank those in the literary blogging community for their support of “One Poet’s Notes.” In a time when the print sources for commentary on literature, especially poetry, are diminishing daily, as evidenced in the recent abandonment of book review sections by some newspapers, the literary blog has become a welcome addition to further discussions of literature and the writing process.
I have been honored and very happy to recognize specific works from Valparaiso Poetry Review’s recent issues by nominating them publicly on “One Poet’s Notes” for selection to various “Best of” collections (Best of the Net, Best of the Web, and the Pushcart Prize anthologies) and to see some of them chosen. As I have said a few times in this blog, I am pleased when an opportunity arises to share the work of VPR’s poets with a larger audience and enable them to receive the greater recognition they deserve.
As 2008 began, the higher readership of Valparaiso Poetry Review brought about by the first year of “One Poet’s Notes” required some changes (including discontinuation of the VPR mailing list, which had grown too long and awkward) and permitted the initiation of the Valparaiso Poetry Review Facebook group page, global and open to all who wish to receive regular updates on news about Valparaiso Poetry Review, as well as instant notification when new issues of VPR are released. This move has proven to be a successful transition in the last year, as more than 1,000 readers have subscribed as friends of Valparaiso Poetry Review, who receive regular news items relating to VPR and the blog. Again, I urge readers to take advantage of this additional feature.
When I decided to experiment with an editor’s blog and wrote my first comments in “One Poet’s Notes” two years ago, submitting those words for public viewing, I could not anticipate what would occur in the future. Nor could I foresee that direction the blog would take to where it is today, approaching 300 posts later. Bolstered by the encouragement I have received from readers and the continuing support from VPR’s writers, I look forward to the future, which I trust will present a few more different features in the next year, including an upcoming celebration of Valparaiso Poetry Review’s tenth anniversary, observing publication of VPR’s initial issue in October of 1999.
Thank you, once more, to all who repeatedly have been readers of “One Poet’s Notes.” I hope you will continue to return regularly to discover entertaining and enlightening entries. On this second anniversary of the blog’s first article, I again express my appreciation, and I offer a note of gratitude to each of you.
The format of the blog has allowed readers to connect with numerous notable sources for poetry or information about poets, especially with links to various media, including recordings of poetry readings and interviews, as well as selected videos relating to poetry and poetics.
Furthermore, since Valparaiso Poetry Review has now existed for ten years, a particular goal of the editor’s blog has been to reintroduce readers to works published in previous years and still available in the periodical’s archives. The VPR Poem of the Week feature has spotlighted many poets with works appearing in earlier issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review. This element of the blog has helped increase interest and readership for VPR’s decade of back issues, and it has acquainted readers with a number of poets or poems they might not have previously known.
Indeed, the continuing presence of “One Poet’s Notes” has dramatically increased the daily readership for VPR throughout the last two years. When the initial entries of “One Poet’s Notes” were posted in January of 2007, one could not know how many readers might find their way to the blog. However, I have been pleased to see its audience increase steadily over the past pair of years, rising from only about 500 readers that first month in 2007 to about 4,000 per month one year ago to about 10,000 readers each month now. Consequently, this as well has enhanced the number of readers who have visited Valparaiso Poetry Review’s nineteen issues published thus far to a total of around 200,000 in just the past couple of years.
The increase in readership has been assisted by recognition and respect generously demonstrated by others, including many friendly fellow bloggers who have pointed their readers in this direction with high recommendations of the content here. I especially would like to take this opportunity to thank those in the literary blogging community for their support of “One Poet’s Notes.” In a time when the print sources for commentary on literature, especially poetry, are diminishing daily, as evidenced in the recent abandonment of book review sections by some newspapers, the literary blog has become a welcome addition to further discussions of literature and the writing process.
I have been honored and very happy to recognize specific works from Valparaiso Poetry Review’s recent issues by nominating them publicly on “One Poet’s Notes” for selection to various “Best of” collections (Best of the Net, Best of the Web, and the Pushcart Prize anthologies) and to see some of them chosen. As I have said a few times in this blog, I am pleased when an opportunity arises to share the work of VPR’s poets with a larger audience and enable them to receive the greater recognition they deserve.
As 2008 began, the higher readership of Valparaiso Poetry Review brought about by the first year of “One Poet’s Notes” required some changes (including discontinuation of the VPR mailing list, which had grown too long and awkward) and permitted the initiation of the Valparaiso Poetry Review Facebook group page, global and open to all who wish to receive regular updates on news about Valparaiso Poetry Review, as well as instant notification when new issues of VPR are released. This move has proven to be a successful transition in the last year, as more than 1,000 readers have subscribed as friends of Valparaiso Poetry Review, who receive regular news items relating to VPR and the blog. Again, I urge readers to take advantage of this additional feature.
When I decided to experiment with an editor’s blog and wrote my first comments in “One Poet’s Notes” two years ago, submitting those words for public viewing, I could not anticipate what would occur in the future. Nor could I foresee that direction the blog would take to where it is today, approaching 300 posts later. Bolstered by the encouragement I have received from readers and the continuing support from VPR’s writers, I look forward to the future, which I trust will present a few more different features in the next year, including an upcoming celebration of Valparaiso Poetry Review’s tenth anniversary, observing publication of VPR’s initial issue in October of 1999.
Thank you, once more, to all who repeatedly have been readers of “One Poet’s Notes.” I hope you will continue to return regularly to discover entertaining and enlightening entries. On this second anniversary of the blog’s first article, I again express my appreciation, and I offer a note of gratitude to each of you.
2 comments:
Happy Anniversary....and MANY more ahead.
Peace
Rob
Thank u 4 all ur advice and dedication! Happy Aniversary.
Congratulations!
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