About

The purpose of Poetry Log is primarily to help librarians, especially those in smaller communities, both develop and cull their poetry collections.

To begin, I’m going to review poetry books in my own county’s libraries (categorized under Adventures in 811). At the same time, I’m soliciting review copies from publishers of poetry with the intention of advising librarians on the purchase of new issues. My reviews will be more nuts and bolts than those found in most review literature. I intend to assess or lay bare the following elements (among others) of each work in hopes of helping librarians make informed choices with their patrons in mind:
Accessibility (will it or won’t it be Greek to all but the uninitiated?)
Subject matter/content
Author’s place of origin
Author’s place of residence
Genre or movement (formal, free verse, etc)

In my reviews, I’ll make my guess at the kind of reader who will enjoy each book’s poetry and the kind of community where each book is likely to find a happy home.

REVIEWER DISCLOSURE
I’m a middle-aged woman who has lived most of my life either in a fair-sized city surrounded by rural countryside (ex: Billings, MT) or in a small city saturated with the surrounding rural life (my current situation). I studied poetry in college and have continued to read it over the years. I look forward to spending much more time reading it for this blog. If I feel a particular bias is influencing my opinion, I’ll declare it in the review. My goal is transparency.

Happy poetry reading and collecting,
Jen Pearson

ALERT:
After finishing my reviews of the books on the shelves of the Albertville Public Library, I’m going to develop another website and move Poetry Log to it. This won’t be happening until some time in 2011.