Maggie Glover - our new Director of Social Media

For the past ten-plus years, we've focused on finding and publishing the best fiction, poetry, and visual art we could find. We chose the web rather than print because we wanted not to publish for its own sake, but to bring great writing and art to as many people as we could, for free. And both our longevity and our visit counts have borne out our decision to go with ether rather than paper.

In the past few years, the explosion of social media—Facebook, Twitter, blogs—has offered our readers a wealth of new online means to find out about, share, and discuss both new writing and their own opinions thereof, not to mention a kazillion other things besides. We've done a bit to take advantage of these media, with this blog, our Facebook page, and so forth. But we've been focused on "content," as it's called now, and so haven't done as much in this area as we'd have liked.

Enter Maggie Glover. Or... well, actually, Maggie entered a while back—you may have read her wonderful poem "In West Virginia," which we ran in Issue 37, and which was how we and she became acquainted. In Maggie's day gig, it turns out, she's a Community Manager at the way-hip women's clothing retail site ModCloth. Via which she's become something of social-media guru. Fast-forward through a few email conversations, and a way-fun lunch at one of my favorite places in SF's SOMA district, near both our offices, and Maggie's agreed to become our Director of Social Media.

And we're thrilled to have her. In the short term, Maggie's contributions will mean that you'll see more from us on Facebook, Twitter, and this blog—including a new contest, which Maggie will launch right here, later this week. We'll also start doing failbetter meetups, in selected cities, so all of us can get to know some of you. And there will be more, with Maggie in the lead, as we work to turn this project, already more than a decade old, into the basis of something more—a community, of people who read, write, and care deeply about both endeavors, and want to share that passion with others who feel the same.