User Experience Improved: An Update to the Poetry Foundation’s Free POETRY App

CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is pleased to announce an update to its award-winning POETRY iPhone app. The update has three main components, the first—and most exciting—of which is the addition of nearly 400 contemporary poems. Over one hundred of these poems come from the pages of Poetry magazine.

Called “essential” by New York Times reviewer Bob Tedeschi, the free POETRY iPhone app now offers more than 1,700 poems. With work by David Bottoms, Martín Espada, Tess Gallagher, Cathy Park Hong, Edwin Torres, Natasha Trethewey, Rachel Wetzsteon, and more just added, poetry fans can now experience even more contemporary poetry.

Better yet, this addition to the POETRY app archive will be far from the last. Poetry fans will discover new favorites every time they use the app as regular updates of new poets and poems are added several times over the next year.

There’s also a new way to search the consistently expanding archive. The new “Browse by Poet” feature allows users to seek out favorite poets and learn which of their poems are available on the app. The app’s original search functions remain: search by keyword, subject or title by choosing the “Find Poetry” interface, or select the “Discover Poetry” interface to reveal poems delivered through a virtual slot machine.

In addition, the improved POETRY app now ensures that results from the “Discover Poetry” interface are always fresh. Presented in a randomized order, findings from commonly searched category pairings—“Love” and “Frustration,” for instance—always look different.

“The updated POETRY app builds on the best parts of the original while introducing exciting new features, such as additional poems and further ways to discover poetry and poets," said Catherine Halley, editor of poetryfoundation.org. “With the popularity of the first edition—100,000 downloads in five months—we’re successfully bringing poetry to people in a unique and revolutionary way. Now, even more users will share poems on Facebook and Twitter, and even more people will have the opportunity to experience poetry at unexpected moments."

Though the update to the Poetry Foundation’s POETRY app enriches the user experience by offering more poetry and more ways to find poetry, original user-friendly features remain intact. Poetry fans can still maintain a folder of favorite poems; share poems with friends through social media or e-mail; and enjoy an engaging interface designed specifically for the iPhone. As always, the app is free to download and use.

The POETRY app is available in the Apple iTunes Store. For more information or to download the app, visit poetryfoundation.org/iphone.

To learn more about the app and its original release, visit www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/release_052010.html?id=186222

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About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.

Follow the Poetry Foundation and Poetry on Facebook at facebook.com/poetryfoundation or on Twitter @PoetryFound.

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