How Many Whats in a Name?

Here’s our publication called Poets’ Quarterly. There are plenty of other online journals of and about poetry, and there’s even one out there called Poetry Quarterly, a name close to oursbut none of them do what we do.

What makes us distinctive is an intense commitment to serve the community of writers who write poetry. What we offer is inspiration, encouragement, insights about craft and tradition, and news about what other poets are up to. What we publish is reviews, interviews, essays, and the PQ blog. What they do is help you find great poetry to read, engage in conversation with the poets who are writing it, offer insights and new perspectives on reading and writing, or teaching, and always celebrate poetry.

So welcome to our Fall 2014 issue. We have a fat handful of reviewsall are books our staff and contributors have loved enough to want to share with our readers. There are also interesting, in-depth interviews with three poets—two new to PQ and one old friend—that are as cozy as meeting any one of them in a café to chat. And we have four exceedingly diverse essays to keep you thinking, learning and occasionally laughing along.

If you’ve been reading PQ for a while, you know we’ve recently changed hands and are gradually reshaping our look and editorial focus (without losing the essential commitment just named) and more changes are on the way. Since summer we’ve added to and shifted around the masthead a bit, and we’ve added a Twitter account (@PoetsQuarterly) as well as upped our presence on other social media like Facebook and Google+. Here’s where we post the most interesting things our staff can find on the internet and in our neighborhoods, which (you should take a look at our bios) span the planet. Please follow us and friend us and share or re-tweet liberally.

All that is the “what” we want you to think about when you hear our name, Poets’ Quarterly, or our nickname, PQ.

But one more thing: We need to hear from you! So send us your reviews, interviews, essays, and blog ideasthe link to submission guidelines is at the top of your screenand post your comments about the things you read (if they don’t show up right away, just check back in a while). We’d love to have you join the conversation!