LGU 2006 Wrap-up

2006 was a big year for literature. We've seen lots of changes, contests, and events that have really put dA literature on the dA map. People have come and gone, the staff have changed, and the look and feel of the site has been tweaked, but the writing community has grasped these changes and continued to grow and thrive. 2007 is going to be an exciting year for writers with the literature GDs focusing on publishing, critique, and showcasing the best literature you have to offer.

We close 2006 with a look back over past events and a task to set the tone for 2007.

Article 1: dA Poetry week
Article 2: Building Bridges
Article 3: Literature Seniors
Article 4: Crit Night
Article 5: The dAmn Frontier
Article 6: New Lit GDs!
Article 7: v5 Launches
Article 8: Suture returns
Article 9: Poetry Criticism
Article 10: Literature Workshops
Article 11: Submission Revamp
Article 12: EldritchCabal: Collaborative Lit
Article 13: Other Big Features
Article 14: Task

Introducing the First dAPo
When TS Eliot famously wrote "April is the cruellest month" as his opening line to The Waste Land, he had no idea that years later poets all over the world would take his words literally and willingly sign themselves up for the masochistic event known as National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo).

This year dA named the last week in April dA Poetry week. There were over 600 poems submitted for the challenges ^imperfect posted each day.

You can read all about dAPo here.

Building Relations
The literature GDs started to work more closely with dA senior management to address issues writers had with policy. This allowed CEA to refine some of their policies, specifically regarding playful banter, and for the lit GDs to communicate "grey area policies", such as the policy against pornography, much more effectively to writers,

New Ticks
2006 saw the following writers promoted to senior status: `saintartaud, `Bringa, `alienhead, `xork, `demonlight, `triptychr, `wildoats, `kindred, `bananaprincess, `youthculture.

Writers Join Senior Crit Night
Organised by `dxd and $chix0r seniors critique night was a special evening where a number of deviantART's senior members gave their time to critique work. It was a great success with a number of senior writers and lit GDs taking part.

Writers Be dAmned!
In July the lit community opened a new dAmnroom specifically for writers. #dAlit soon became a hub for the lit community - hosting featured chats, impromptu critique sessions, instant writing competitions, and just general tomfoolery.

Changing of the guard
Starting the new year with three, the literature community saw their stock in gallery directors rise and fall. For Prose, ^adrift was put at the helm, and for Poetry, ^PoeticWar took charge. Both of them have been great assets for the community, and have taken their time to make projects work, introduce and help newcomers, and generally create a better environment for writers.

However, this was at a cost of `MinorKey who moved on to pursue some life goals, and left the position of Prose Gallery Director to the aforementioned ^adrift and is still popping his head in from time to time from around the world. We thank him for his contributions to the community, and his continued presence on the site.

v5 Launch! and literature.deviantart.com
2006 saw big changes for not only the literature gallery, but for the rest of dA, as well. Version 5 reared its fearsome face on dA's 6th birthday, and brought with it a whole lot of changes. Revamped pages, new gallery pages, and a lot of restructing and a set-up for more to come. This also brought a new preview structure and new way in which literature is displayed, making literature much more easily recognizable site-wide.

You can see more about the launch event here. You can also read more about how the lit community reacted here.

Suture stitches up
This year also saw one of the most prolific groups on deviantART reemerge onto dA. At the start of the year, they had success with various Critique Nights that helped bring writers together in a collaborative effort. And, later on in the year, they have undergone a big changing of the guard. New staff, new projects, and a new suture on the way, it's good to hear that someone is still around with a needle and thread.

No BS
This fall, the two Poetry Gallery Directors (^imperfect and ^PoeticWar) gave up some of their time to hand out some No Bullshit critiques of poetry sent in by deviants. The event was a great success, and prompted a lot of discussion, as well. There's a pdf version of all the action that you can see, as well.

Workshop Forums
One of the bigger requests we've had on our plate for the longest time within lit was an area in which we could freely critique and post our works to be criticized. We had a previous set-up with individual threads, but recently we've gotten a chance to set-up a completely new forum just for literature critiques.

Submission Process
Another big change that came to the entire site recently was the complete alteration of the existing submissions process. Now instead of having to go through each category and step as an individual page the whole process has been opened up to allow the entire experience to happen with only one step. This also gives writers the opportunity to have various upload options for their writing, and gives way to future developments in that category as well. We should see more for 2007.

EldritchCabal
Although below you'll find a list of some of the bigger ongoing projects that have happened this year, we wanted to expose something that has just gotten started up in the latter part of 2006 and is still gaining steam site-wide. *EldritchCabal is a collaborative effort of writers to explore and define a world set-up by its creators, and given to you, the deviantART community. Check out their page, and their journal for new content, contests and results they've had in their short term here so far.

Big Features
Ongoing critique - ^PoeticWar has been, and continues to, run a critique contest through his journal. This project allows you to send in some of the better critiques you've seen on the site to nominate them for prizes. Check his journal for more info on the latest winners.

Rainbow feature - With a foray of colours to explore, `bananaprincess charged some of the lit community members to find a taste of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple) in poetry form. All the features were full of a rich, diverse collection of writing, and are definitely worth checking out.

CONTESTS - One of the things we, the lit GDs, challenged ourselves to do was to offer more contests for the literature community to take part in. Here are a taste of just some of what was offered, that was not mentioned above: In The End Poetry Contest, The Butler Did It!, Suture Drabble Contest, Put Up or Shut Up Contest, Pink Poetry and Visual Political.

fotoFRIDAY - Starting as a feature in `youthculture's journal, this feature slowly took off, and quickly grew into something much more. *fotoFRIDAY is an experiment in visual and written art combining to inspire and create something new. Writers are charged to look at a photograph, picked by the founder, and then write about it. This is one of the more promising things I've seen take off this year, and should definitely be seen. Go now and continue this into the new year.

Task
We'd like you to take some time to look through your literature favourites and link us to your top three pieces of literature from 2006. Then we'd like you to think about one writer who you think deserves a mention. Maybe it's because their literature is so great, or maybe it's because of their contributuon to the community. Whatever the reason tell us about them in a comment

^imperfect, ^coshdaddy, ^adrift, and ^PoeticWar would like to wish you all the best for the new year.