Magma 35 - the London Issue
I’ve been meaning to post for a while that Magma 35 is now available, and very good it is too. Tim Robertson has done a terrific job of selecting poems on the theme of ‘London’, including some excellent writing about the difficult subject of the bombings last year.
Laurie Smith has complemented the new poems with a thought-provoking article about the poetry of London - among other things, it has made me see Blake in a new light. His assertion that there is currently a poetic ‘School of London’ has provoked some heated debate on the Magma forums.
Of course I’m delighted that Tim has included one of my poems, but there are many more reasons to buy the issue than that! - such as new poems by Wendy Cope, Don Paterson and Adrian Mitchell, and Jo Brand writing about her favourite poem.
A distinctive feature of Magma is our rotating editorship, which means that each issue has a different character. So Tim’s issue is completely different in tone to Magma 34, which I edited.
If you’re not yet convinced that you should rush out and buy a copy (or order one here), then you can sample some of the contents for free on the Magma website.
New Poetry School Programme Launched
The Poetry School’s Course Programme for 2006-07 is available now. If you live in the UK and write poetry you owe it to yourself to check out the courses. This year there’s an even wider range than usual and all the courses I’ve attended in the past have been excellent - great tuition and great to meet others with the same passion for poetry.
Best to apply early, it books up fast.