Inaugurations of a different sort: the launch of two new features on Storyboard!

In this week of a new president being sworn in, how about a couple of other inaugurations? We at Storyboard are launching two new features this week: an emailed newsletter, and something we’re calling One Great Sentence.

Regular readers of the site (and if you’re not one: why NOT?) might know that I do a weekly column that’s like a little letter to a friend, chatting about some favorite things of the week. Which, if you’re me, means two things: good reads and good music. I give you links to some great literary journalism, including this week’s Storyboard posts and their “soundtracks.” Then I throw in a little vinyl and ink-and-paper love from my turntable and bedside table.

I hope you enjoy the new features. Sign up. Engage. Spread the storytelling gospel.

Now we’re going to send out the column as a weekly newsletter. It’ll arrive in your inbox on Friday, just in time for you to settle in for some weekend reading and listening pleasure. We’re going to add a “subscribe” button to the homepage — I’ll be jazzed if you click on it. Or you can sign up right now.

But I might be even more jazzed about One Great Sentence. First off, hat tip to the very clever Josh Benton over at Nieman Lab for the idea. It’s a brilliant one. The title is pretty self-explanatory: We’re going to spotlight a bite-sized piece of great writing. (Because I don’t love limits that much, sometimes it will be two or even three sentences, if they’re in a groove together.) We’re going to put it in this pretty terrific BIG RED font so it really buys your eye. Then we’ll tell you who wrote it, and, briefly, why we think it’s great.

The sentences will come from just about anywhere: stories, books (fiction and non), poetry, movies, you name it. I know that longform is a big time commitment, and we don’t always have that. But we all have time for a sentence, right? And I’m thinking we all have a sentence we read years ago and still remember. Or one we just read and can’t get out of our head.

That’s the other thing I love about this feature. I want readers to offer One Great Sentences of their own. We’ll tweet them, and even publish them on the site. Let your literary critic flag fly!

I hope you enjoy the new features. Sign up. Engage. Spread the storytelling gospel.