I know I have a few items that count in two categories… for example nonfiction poetry…

Just take a good look what people put in Poetry…
If your piece has just a single metaphor, or even better, a partial rhyme, well, by all means, that’s poetry.
Or if you write any sort of text, add some linebreaks, yes, right again, it’s Poetry.

that’s not what I mean… I mean it would be nice to be able to put an item under two different categories, to maximize reviews…

Then you would see people calling all their pieces “A Sci-Fi Romantic Action adventure Thriller suitable for Stage play or even Screenplay”
... and no shame if one of your characters is a haiku poet, is there?

There is already a way to maximize the number of reviews you can receive for your work. YOU have to review like crazy yourself. The more reviews you write and points you earn the higher your piece climbs in the review queue. Eventually, your item(s) will be in the main to be reviewed list. And that will definitely increase exposure for your work. I know that I, for one, do not want to review the same item 2 / 3/ 4 times because they are in my review queues. Just review and let URbis work for you. I do and so do those that find this site helpful.

The only reason it is helpful is because of the fact that we do put in as much as we expect to get out of it. Turn around is only fair play.

So review, review, review.

I agree that there should be subcategories. Like Poetry > Romantic, or Poetry > Childrens, or Short Story > Horror. That way people’s work is better categorized, easier to search for, and better to understand what you’re going to be critiquing. I open a lot of works that I don’t end up responding to because they are under a section I’m interested in but soon find I can’t respond to it.
I think there should be a main category for form (journal, novel treatement etc) and then a subcategory for topic. That way people who write and read love poetry don’t have to look under both romantic and poetry.

Maybe they could prevent excessive multi-categorisation by imposing a penalty…
Like maybe it only comes up in the category queues, and not the main review queue.
Or, maybe it goes into the queue less often than the author’s single-category items.
Plus, the ‘skip’ feature will help prevent that too. If you were reviewing limericks and you came across a short story, you’d probably skip it (and never see it again), even though you might have read it if you were reviewing short stories. It’s not really to an author’s advantage to post something in an inappropriate category.

How about the option of having a single ‘secondary category’? This would allow for crossovers like funny poems or fantasy horrors, while not letting people go berserk.