Announcing the launch of the Philly Poetry Chapbook Review (PCR). We are a small, digital journal for literary reviews of notable poetry chapbooks, craft essays, and author profiles.

We expect to rely on contributors for the bulk of our content, though I’ll be writing at least one new book review or author feature each month.

For now, we are sticking to only poetry chapbooks, but we hope to expand to all written chapbooks in the future. Hence, the ambiguous abbreviation.

We are now open to pitches from reviewers, authors, and publishers of chapbooks. Read the full, formal introduction below and check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. I intend to publish as many quality pieces about chapbooks as my small budget can afford.

What is the Philly Chapbook Review (PCR)?

The Philly Poetry Chapbook Review (PCR) is a 100% online periodical for book reviews and related content concerning poetry chapbooks, their authors, and their publishers. The chapbook form is important to many different genres, but it is vital to contemporary poetry. Chapbooks usually consist of only 25 to 45 pages. That’s obviously too short for many types of writing. It’s an ideal length for a poet who wants to publish 15 to 20 poems around a unified theme, though.

Like the bulk of contemporary poetry, it’s mostly writers and enthusiasts who read chapbooks. However, they also constitute a significant work in the career of any poet. I created PCR to indulge in a love of the form, while identifying and appreciating specific works. We hope to also be able to provide our readers with interesting author profiles and useful craft essays. The Aiden’s Corner section will even include advice for writers.

Pitches welcome for chapbooks to review

I wanted to take this opportunity to invite chapbook publishers to reach out to PCR. The name comes from being based in the Philadelphia suburbs. However, the review is open to poetry chapbooks published in English anywhere. There’s great publishing in our area, but we know there’s so much more.

We only accept chapbook suggestions from certain people, but if you’re one of them, I want to hear from you. Specifically, chapbook publishers, their authors (or professional representatives of either, including PR), and would-be reviewers with no conflict. I respect self-publishers, but we want to keep knowledgeable publishers that are out there interested in publishing chapbooks.

Our first three chapbooks were provided by Rattle Magazine from their past Chapbook Prize winners (thanks to editor, Tim Green). Review essays of books by Arthur Russell, Amanda Newell, and CooXooEii Black will be coming in the first three months. After that, we’ll be trying to highlight chapbooks that small presses have taken a chance on. The ones that might not be getting the attention they deserve. We intend to favor chapbooks that have been published but have not (yet) won a prize.

Pitches welcome from reviewers and writers

PCR welcomes both established and aspiring writers to submit pitches for pieces they want to write for us. It may be my journalistic side showing through, but I prefer to know what to expect to avoid wasting time. We’re happy to help good writers to produce superior work. We do have open reading periods, though. (see below)

As of launch, we have a very small budget. For this reason, we can only offer a $10 token payment per published article. Still, we like to pay writers for theirs work and we appreciate it. Reach out if you’re interested in writing reviews, author profiles, or essays on specific elements of craft.

Check out our guidelines for more information. I already have two writers awaiting assigned work, so if you’re interested in pitching, feel free to reach out.

Open to unsolicited submissions through January 15

We will normally be open to unsolicited, finished work during the first fifteen days of each two-month issue period. However, we want to build up a queue, so we are open as of now, and until January 15, 2024.

Please carefully review our guidelines page before submitting work.

A Yeats Poem-A-Day Keeps the

When I created this publication, I was also working on another project for 2024. I’ve been studying the poetry, life, and times of William Butler Yeats, Bard of the Revolution(s) and Cultural Necromancer. I want to complete that. For some reason, I decided the best way would be to create videos with the words shown along with audio. I was hesitant to do the audio myself, but a close friend who works in television assured me that I have a good voice for it.

The plan is to publish one video each day of 2024. There are over 365 poems in Yeats’ Collected Poems and I want to study them all. I think that anyone else who wants to enjoy them should have that option without prejudice or price, While I respect sites like librivox, I also wanted to expose some people to his work who otherwise might not have been. For that reason, we’ll host the videos on the PCR site, but there are also social media accounts for it separate from ours.
You can find links to the social media on our contact page and updates will be published on the Yeats Poem-A-Day page.

I’ve started an Substack.com account for email updates, so a word about that.

Your trust and opinion matters to us

As a freelance journalist, editor, and publisher, plenty people have offered me lists of private details and emails for “leads”. Some also approached me about sharing my own followers’ information over the years. However, I have nothing to sell my readers, and my reputation for fairness and honesty is my most prized asset. I’ve never felt that buying or selling lists in that way is ethical and no amount of money can make me be a person I don’t want to be. Maybe it’s a neurodivergence thing, but I’d rather be poor than shady.

I create these publications because it’s what I love to do. I fund them myself so that I can run them how I choose. Please accept my promise that we’ll only use any information you trust us with for the clear purpose given and never share it without explicit permission. Your privacy concerns concern us, too.

I also want to be clear that I am always open to constructive criticism. I like to try out new ideas and features to keep current and interesting. Some of the changes work and I keep them, while others add no value or detract. If you have an opinion on any aspect of PCR and how it could be better or just want to share something you don’t like, please let us know.

The joys of nonprofit publishing

Lastly, I fell in love with nonprofit publishing working on my last project. I will be publishing the Review and it’s contents under the same Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND) license.

This means that, in addition to syndication to professional for-profit databases, anyone will be free to republish reviews or other content, as long as they follow the rules and it is for non-commercial purposes.

That’s all the news to share for now. There will be blog updates during December and we’ll be going live with our first review on January 1, 2024!

See you soon,

Aiden Hunt

PAidenHunt.com