dumbfoundry

Widows & Orpheans

I see so many web magazines with so few links to them, and I wonder how much work goes into things no one sees. Some of these magazines are the web counterparts of print magazines that, for all I know, have plenty of readers. But some aren't.

For example: pip.lit

What's Pip?

The literary magazine Pip Lit started in Chicago, a sizeable city in the Midwest. It is named for the word "pip" because of pip’s multiple, unlike meanings (that, coincidentally, describe how we like our poems):

1. small and generative (n., a seed, as in that of an apple or orange)
2. musical (v., to cry, peep, or chirp, as in a chicken)
3. alarming (n., a short, high-pitched radio signal)
4. dazzling (v., to break through the shell, as in hatching)
5. of the body (n., a minor, nonspecific human ailment)
6. powerful (v., to kill by firing a missile or weapon)
7. juicy on the inside (n., any of the small segments that make up the surface of a pineapple)
8. and at times, dirty, mean, and hilarious (v., to blackball, as in a person)

Each magazine issue has a theme, and the title of that theme forms the acronym PIP. The magazine also lists our contributors’ connections (however insignificant and unsubstantiated) to Chicago, so we can see where they might have crossed paths.

It has six people on the masthead, including a usability expert, it looks pretty fancy, it has at least a couple of well-known names in the first (and so far only) issue, and it gets city and state supporting funds, but (according to a recent google) only three sites or blogs (including this one) link to it.

Does anyone out there read it? What can you tell me about it?

This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 at 9:07 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.