This time a year ago,

I was sitting in a NYC bar with Philip F. Clark waiting for a reading of some sort, writing down possible journal names. Wondered if The Night Heron Barks would get us laughed out of the room. What if we build the pages like broadsides? What if we code the pages for line integrity? How difficult will it be to embed audio, use a unique typeset? What if no one sends us poems? Almost two thousand submissions later, we’ve published 135 poets over three issues, added book reviews, expanded the masthead, nominated work. We hoped our space could be diverse, unique. 14,572 (and counting) visitors this year. We pretty much relied entirely on the online community to spread the word and send their work. Expand our circle. Probably won’t do it, I told Philip. Still, it would be amazing, he said. It has been. So many of you rooted for us, spoke well of us, put out the word. Risked, sent us your poems. I’m so grateful for all of it.