perm_identity Pif’s Fifth Birthday

by Camille Renshaw

Published in Issue No. 41 ~ October, 2000

For five years, Pif has been committed to promoting writers and artists who pursue their craft on the Web and in other electronic mediums. Here’s a brief history of how art and technology have intersected at Pif:

2000

October — Issue #41, the Out of Print Books Issue

  • Pif’s content included fiction by Richard Yates; poetry by William Faulkner and C.D. Wright; and an interview with William Gass.
  • Jen Bergmark became a partner at Pif.
  • Camille Renshaw became Editor-in-Chief.
  • David Lehman became a Contributing Editor (Poetry).
  • Liam Rector became a Contributing Editor (Poetry).
  • Michael Joyce became a Contributing Editor (Hypertext).
  • Sabin Streeter became a Contributing Editor (Cyber Art and Memoir).
  • Karen Essex became a Contributing Editor (Music).

September — Issue #40, the Science Issue

  • Pif’s content included poetry by Billy Collins and an interview with Dale Peck.
  • Richard deGaris Doble became a Contributing Artist (Photography).

August — Issue #39

  • Pif’s content included commentary by Douglas Bauer and poetry by Jason Shinder.
  • Colette Sartor and Kathryn Kulpa became Associate Fiction Editors.
  • Richard Weems became a Contributing Writer (Fiction).

July — Issue #38

  • Jen Bergmark became the Managing Editor, in addition to her Fiction Editor duties.
  • Richard Luck became the Technical Director, limiting his duties strictly to the technology side of Pif.
  • Rachel Barenblat became the Acquisitions Editor, in addition to her Associate Poetry Editor duties.

June — Issue #37

  • Pif’s content included an interview with Elizabeth Cox.
  • Nick Burton’s final "Remote Control" column.

May — Issue #36

  • Pif’s content included an interview with Francisco Goldman and fiction by Marcy Dermansky.

April — Issue #35, the Sex Issue

  • The Best of Pif Magazine, Off-line, the print anthology, was published by Fusion Press.

March — Issue #34, the Craft Issue

  • Pif’s content included commentary by Douglas Bauer and an interview with Sheila Schwartz and Mary Grimm.
  • Winners of the 1999 Fiction and Poetry Contest published.
  • "Father Antonio’s Black Label" is Pif’s first memoir piece.

February — Issue #33, the Home Issue

  • Pif’s content included an interview with Helen Ellis.
  • Over 100,000 readers visited Pif accumulating a million impressions and nearly 2 million hits.
  • Martin Ott became an Associate Fiction Editor.

January — Issue #32, the Hypertext Issue

  • Pif’s content included an interview with Michael Joyce.
  • "Scratching" is Pif’s first hypertext cover.

1999

December — Issue #31

  • Pif’s content included an interview with Judy Budnitz.

November — Issue #30

  • Pif’s content included an interview with Julia Slavin.
  • Ingrid Woodrow and Tom Hartman became Pif’s Zine Reviewers.
  • Stuart Woods became an Associate Fiction Editor.

October — Issue #29, our 4th Anniversary Issue

  • Pif’s content included an interview with interview with Greg Joly of Bull Thistle Press.
  • Daryl Lease wrote his last column for Pif.
  • "la terre" by Richard deGaris Doble is Pif’s first animated cover.

September — Issue #28, the Fiction Issue

  • Pif’s content included an interview with Jhumpa Lahiri and commentary by George Myers, Jr.
  • Maureen Murray became an Associate Fiction Editor.
  • 75,000 readers visited Pif accumulating nearly a million hits .

August — Issue #27, the Poetry Issue

  • Pif’s content included as interview with Naomi Shihab Nye.
  • PifMagazine.com went to a new layout.
  • Rachel Barenblat became an Associate Poetry Editor.
  • Elizabeth Knapp became an Associate Poetry Editor.
  • "Stick It in Your Ear," music reviews by Curt Cloninger, joined Pif’s Commentary section.

July — Issue #26, the Theater Issue

  • The commercial server we leased space on crashed relentlessly, so we bought our own servers adding marked stability to all systems.
  • Scott Kampen became the Associate Web Editor.
  • Jen Bergmark became the Fiction Editor.
  • Camille Renshaw became the Senior Editor.
  • Richard Luck became the Managing Editor.

June — Issue #25, the Film Issue

  • Pif’s content included an interview with interview with Brent Spencer.
  • Pilot-Search officially launched.
  • 65,000 readers visited Pif accumulating 600,000 hits.

May — Issue #24, the Humor Issue (be sure to check out the Masthead)

  • A mockup of the new Pilot-Search site was released to the press.
  • Zine-X moved to its own domain.
  • "Bold Wurg," by Scott Wold and Michael E. Burgin, ran its first comic strip.
  • 25,000 readers visited Pif accumulating 275,000 hits.

April — Issue #23, the Spring Cleaning Issue

  • Another new column: "What to Read" by Editor Camille Renshaw.
  • Winners of the 1998 Fiction and Poetry Contest published.

March — Issue #22, the Car Issue

  • 20,000 readers visited Pif accumulating 200,000 hits.
  • PifMagazine.com went to a new layout.

February — Issue #21, the Religion Issue

  • Pif’s content included creative non-fiction by Karen Essex.

January — Issue #20, the Music Issue

  • Pif’s content included interviews with Sean Lennon and Lex Razon of Vinyl and fiction by David Ryan.
  • Zine-X, the Banner Exchange for Zines, was created.
  • 12,000 readers visited Pif accumulating more than 100,000 hits.

1998

December — Issue #19, the Winter Reading Issue

  • Pif’s content included interviews with Michael Cunningham and Jon Scieszka and poetry by Diann Blakely.
  • Michael E. Burgin became the Commentary Editor.
  • That month 7,500 readers visited Pif accumulating nearly 75,000 hits.

November — Issue #18, the Sex Issue (and OH was there controversy)

  • Pif’s content included an interview with Aimee Bender, poetry by Robert McDowell, and fiction by Richard K. Weems.

October — Issue #17, our 3rd Anniversary Issue

  • Pif’s content included an interview with Ken Kalfus.
  • 5,000 readers visited Pif accumulating nearly 60,000 hits.

September — Issue #16 (open theme)

  • Pif’s content included fiction by Amy Hempel.

August — Issue #15, the Work Issue at www.Pifmagazine.com

  • Pif’s content included an interview with Rick Moody and poetry by David Lehman. Interview column returns on a permanent basis with columnist Ryan Boudinot and other guest interviewers.
  • PifMagazine.com went to a new layout.

July — Issue #14, the Alcohol Issue

  • Pif’s content included poetry by Liam Rector.

June — Issue #13, the Superstition Issue

  • Writers and artists are paid for the first time.
  • Our first daily commentary, "The Bennington Diaries."
  • First "Book Lovers" column, in association with Amazon.com.
  • First "Sound Bites" column.
  • First "Remote Control" column, in association with Reel.com.

May — Issue #12, the Suburban Issue (our first theme issue)

  • "Micro Fiction" section began, the first of its kind online.
  • Debut of commentary column "As I See It" by Daryl Lease.

April — Issue #11

  • Pif Magazine became a "monthly."
  • Penguin (now called Pilot-Search.com) was created and quickly became the Internet’s largest literary search engine.

March

  • Anne Doolittle hired as Poetry Editor.
  • Camille Renshaw hired as Fiction Editor.

January — Issue #10

  • Pif’s content included an interview with A. Manette Ansay. This is the first Interview column, although it doesn’t return until Issue #14.
  • Winners of the 1997 Fiction and Poetry Contest announced.
  • 3,000 readers visited Pif accumulating more than 15,000 hits.

1997

October — Issue #9

  • Print version of Pif, titled Poetic Justice published with limited release.
  • Premiere of full-fledged Commentary section kicked off with 3 regular columns: "Adventures of Pageboy" by Jeremy Worsham, "Stranger Than Fiction" by Stefene Russell, and "Zine Reviews."

July — Issue #8

April — Issue #7

  • First annual Fiction and Poetry Contest began.

January — Issue #6

  • Camille Renshaw became a Contributing Editor.

1996

September

  • Pif sold enough advertising to actually pay overhead.

February — Issue #5

  • Camille Renshaw became Pif’s Advertising Director.

January — Issue #4

  • Allison Jenks acts informally as Poetry Editor.
  • Richard Luck continues in all other editorial positions.

1995

December — Issue #3

November — Issue #2

October —Issue #1 at www.dimax.com/Pif/

  • Richard Luck founded Pif Magazine.

account_box More About

Camille Renshaw is from Nashville, TN, where she also completed her graduate work in English at Vanderbilt University. An avid hiker, she had just returned from hiking the Appalachian Trail when her first poems in Pif Magazine were published. Camille later became managing editor of Pif Magazine.