19th Poetry Postcard Fest Statistics
Registration for the 2025 Poetry Postcard Fest is now closed! We hope all participants have enjoyed the first couple weeks of this summer’s postcard poetry season! We are grateful to be able to foster this community of poets bridging borders and connecting worldwide.
For this year’s fest, we have 493 participants spanning 9 countries around the globe: Canada, France, The United States, Italy, Ireland, Great Britain, Australia, Japan and Austria and 46 U.S. states and Canadian provinces, including the District of Columbia.
The fest has participants from 42 U.S. states and 4 Canadian provinces. The top participating U.S. states and Canadian provinces are:
1. Washington State (96 participants)
2. California (74 participants)
3. Oregon (47 participants)
4. New York (19 participants)
5. Florida (15 participants)
5. Colorado (15 participants)
7. Texas (14 participants)
8. Ohio (13 participants)
8. Illinois (13 participants)
8. British Columbia (13 participants)
Thank you for being a part of this community of poets! Registration for the 2026 Poetry Postcard Fest (Year 20!!!) opens September 1. Tips and inspiration for postcard poetry are always available the PPF page under RESOURCES. Happy postcarding!
Wondering how the 493 participants this summer compares with the stats from last summer?
Above is a good question. I am also curious how the festivities have developed over the 19 years. Like–how did Paul begin this venture and what the first year was like, how many participants.
Down from 608. We think validating addresses was the main cause and cutting off registration just after July 4 another.
What states aren’t involved? Perhaps we can rally our friends and family in those states for next year!
Margaret, I tried calling to tell you the story. I hope we can chat about it sometime, Paul
I too am interested it how it all got started. So when you have time, I’d love to hear the story. It has taken me on a new path of inspiration and I am so grateful!!!!
The Poetry Postcard Fest was inspired by the 3:15 experiment, which Danika Dinsmore described like this: “In 1993, Poets Lee Ann Brown, Danika Dinsmore, Jen Hofer, Kathleen Large, Myshel Prasad, and Bernadette Mayer all connected at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics Summer Writing Program. Danika was writing her thesis on states of consciousness and the writing process with a focus on Bernadette’s work. She and Bernadette decided to create their own collaborative writing experiment and invited Lee Ann, Jen, Kathleen and Myshel to join in the planning. It was decided they would write each morning at 3:15 AM for the entire month of August in whatever time zone they were located. It was primarily an experiment in states of consciousness and writing, recording what was happening during “3:15 AM mind.” In 1994, 1996, 1997, and 1998 the collaboration grew in size as they invited other poets to participate. The format changed and they wrote at 3:15 AM in a specified time zone (i.e. 3:15 AM EST would be 12:15 AM PST). This altered slightly the focus of the experiment into writing within a “collective consciousness.” The idea was to discover what connections would be made while writing separately, but together, at the same time for a month while under hypnogogic influences…” https://www.315experiment.com/
I participated for a couple of years but felt waking (or staying up) in the middle of the night was not conducive to my health. I loved how the 3:15 experiment made August a time for prioritizing poetry, so told Lana Ayers I wanted to do something in August that involved poetry postcards. She said: “I’ll help” and she helped edit my language describing the idea I had in terms that could be easily understood. She also helped create awareness in her networks which included WOMPO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wom-Po
The first year we opened registration on July 4, got the list (a single list) out to participants on July 5 and the writing started July 6. We asked people to start August 1, but after a few years felt that more time would make the project easier for people, so counted the days between July 6 and August 31 and realized that there were “56 Days of August.” That became the name of the anthology we published for the fest’s 10th anniversary in 2017. We launched the book at the Cascadia Poetry Festival in Tacoma.
We went to several lists of 32 people a few years in and try to tweak the fest each year, but it remains in my mind an opportunity for poets to experience spontaneous composition, which has the effect of strengthening one’s intuition and is transformative.
I hope this is useful.
With gratitude for your interest,
Paul