Long-lived poetry mags: Spectator, Dreamcatcher, The Journal

I’m delighted to have poems out in three magazines which have proved to have real staying power. Granddaddy of them all is The Spectator (continuously published since 1828). Feisty York-based Dreamcatcher has been wowing its readership with poems, art and short stories for 28 years, and The Journal (formerly Contemporary Anglo-Scandinavian Poetry) has just celebrated an impressive 30 years in print.

Hannah Stone’s editorial in Dreamcatcher 48 includes a thought-provoking quote taken from Dylan Thomas’s Poetry Manifesto: “the best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps in the works of the poem so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash or thunder in.” Great stuff!

Poets striving to thunder or creep in issue 48 include Nick Allen, Bob Beagrie, Claire Booker, Julian Cason, Belinda Cooke, Deborah Harvey, Jenny Hockey, Sean Howard, Sheila Jacob, Elizabeth Kelly, Jessica Lim, Julie Sheridan, Fiona Shillito, Christian Ward, Sarah Wimbush and Patrick Yarker. There are short stories from Sarah Hills, Andrew Hanson, Tim Love, Mark Pearce and Jacqueline Zacharias, plus a fistful of book reviews.

And it’s all beautiful wrapped inside the front cover by featured artist Richard Moulton. He has five further pieces of artwork in this issue, including Narrative # 2 above. In his Artist’s Statement, he reminds us of Brecht’s famous statement that ‘Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.’, and asks “What can Art do apart from decorate a wall or fill the page of a poetry magazine, especially when innocents are being slaughtered every single day.” But he goes on to write that his own art “opens up a paradigm where it is the purpose, not the propaganda, that encourages us individually and in groups, to express emotions, commemorate history, expose injustices, overcome obstacles, and gain an understanding of the world around us.”

You can buy a copy of Dreamcatcher, subscribe to the magazine or submit poems and short stories by visiting: www.dreamcatchermagazine.co.uk You might also be interested in finding out more about their publisher www.stairwellbooks.co.uk

Thank you to poetry editor Hugo Williams for taking a second of my Bangladesh poems for The Spectator. It’s got a long title! Five Miles (Two Hours) on the Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue and is published inside the Books & Arts pages, alongside a fascinating article about Mughal Princess Gulbadan who recorded historical events in the 1580s court of her nephew Emperor Akbar. It remains the only surviving prose from a Mughal woman of that time.

You can read my poem here: https://www.spectator.co.uk/poem/five-miles-two-hours-on-the-kazi-nazrul-islam-avenue/

Sam Smith, manages the exhausting hat trick of being editor, publisher and reviewer for The Journal with great aplomb. It can’t be easy, and submissions are currently closed while he regroups. Fingers crossed that we’ll see further issues of the magazine this year. Poets in issue 70, include Claire Booker, Marc Carver, Julian Colton, Belinda Cooke, Philip Dunkerley, Emma Lee, Merryn Williams, and Eve Margaret Young. There are reviews and a round up of poetry events and magazines. To buy a copy or find out about calls for submissions, please visit: https://samsmithbooks.weebly.com/the-journal.html

Interview for Quill & Parchment + Artemis 31

Being interviewed forces you to take stock of why you write, what you hope to achieve (if anything) by putting words to paper. Poet and reviewer, Neil Leadbeater, set up some stretching questions for me in his interview for American-based webzine Quill & Parchment. 

“What are your future plans as a writer” brought me up short. I realised I didn’t have any plans; just writing, more writing, more exploration. I guess that’s a plan of sorts. Questions can be more important than answers, and this particular question got me thinking about a next collection. Just the thought of it, for now.

You can read Neil’s interview and review of A Pocketful of Chalk here: https://quillandparchment.com/archives/Dec2023/inte.html Aside from book reviews and author interviews, Quill & Parchment offers poetry prompts, Tanka, ekphrastic poetry, movie reviews, poet of the month, short stories and recipes. It’s always good to keep up with what’s happening across the Pond.

Thank you to Anne Ryland for including my poem about an omelette chef in the latest issue of Artemis alongside some scrumptious poems by the likes of Maria Jastrzebska, Cathy Miles, Caroline Price, Maggie Sawkins, Penelope Shuttle, Kay Syrad and Anne Taylor. Issue 31 is also where you can read the winning and commended poems from the Second Light Poetry Competition 2023.

Published twice a year, Artemis is the sole print magazine I know that only accepts work by female poets. It’s a place for women to shine and enjoy each other’s company. The submissions window for issue 32 closes at the end of February, so get your skates on if you have poems ready to offer.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with encouragement to buy a copy of issue 31 where, alongside some cracking poems, you can read book reviews; a fascinating feature on pain and poetry, based on interviews with Katherine Gallagher, Maggie Sawkins, Ruth Sharman and Sarah James/Leavesley; Justina Hart’s personal record of illness and writing; news and call-outs; plus enjoy artistic photos, and lively line drawings, including this one by Caro Reeves.

For more information about Artemis, how to submit or become a member of Second Light please click on: www.secondlightlive.co.uk There are many advantages to being a member (so long as you’re female aged 40+) including two copies of Artemis a year, a presence on the Second Light website, first dibs on a number of workshops held during the year.

Finished Creatures on Edge

Another fine trawl of poetry in Finished Creatures, just in time for festive reading. Poets writing on the theme of ’Edge’ include Claire Booker, Matt Bryden, Charlotte Gann, Rosie Garland, Philip Gross, Susannah Hart, Tess Jolly, Lisa Kelly, Jane Lovell, Simon Maddrell, Jes Mookherjee, Cheryl Moskowitz, Penelope Shuttle and Julia Webb.

Issue 8 maintains the high standard already expected of Finished Creatures, in content and production values. The love and attention to detail brought to this magazine by its founder and editor, Jan Heritage, is palpable. Contributor copies arrive with a bookmark placed next to their poem. How’s that for thoughtful appreciation?

“Many of these poems ask the reader to travel to some extraordinary and restless places”, writes Jan in her Foreword. “My thanks to all the poets who sent work for consideration – responding so brilliantly to the theme – and to the contributors who have together made this an exceptional collection.” It’s heartening to know that your poems are read, if not always selected, by someone who values the effort we all put into our work.

There’ll be a magazine launch in London on Tuesday 13th February (6.30pm at The Devereux, Temple, WC2R 3JJ) to which all are invited. Check out the Finished Creatures website for further details at www.finishedcreatures.co.uk

And because Christmas comes but once a year, here’s a link to Lighten Up Online‘s Christmas competition winners, including my poem about mince pies.

Light verse often gets a bad press, but you’ve got to admire the incredible rhyming skills and attention to scansion and meter displayed by these poems. https://www.lightenup-online.co.uk/index.php/issue-64-december-2023/competition-63-the-festival-formerly-known-as-xmas

And in case you didn’t catch my Facebook posts on The Ekphrastic Review, here are links to my poems

Passing it On (Genesis 5 Revisited): https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/passing-it-on-or-genesis-5-revisited-by-claire-booker

and Northern Light  https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/northern-light-by-claire-booker

When Poetry Meets Music

There’s a natural affinity between music and poetry, each using sound to create meaning and texture. Even the genius of Goethe’s poem ‘Erlkönig’ becomes more powerful when Schubert uses its words to create a Lieder.

I’m always thrilled if my work is performed or set to music. So I was delighted to hear my poem ‘Refuge’ transformed into a piece of music at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and to read my poem ‘Deadline’ (alongside poets Clare Best, Duncan Fraser and Mary Noonan) within the setting of JS Bach’s cello suites performed by the magnificent Sebastian Comberti of The London Mozart Players.

The tenth century Sussex church of St Andrew’s was packed to the rafters, which says a lot about how music can often draw an audience in a way poetry rarely does. Bach, performed in the cool stillness of a church used by local people for a thousand years, became almost translucent. Other poems performed included ‘Ode on Melancholy’, ‘Ode to the West Wind’, ‘The Cat and the Moon’ and excerpts from The Song of Solomon.

A piece of music is a reinvention every time someone plays it, so it is perhaps appropriate that Nicola Burnett Smith’s interpretation of my poem ‘Refuge’ has developed since it was first performed at The Actor’s Church, Covent Garden, in 2017.

Click here to view the performance www.youtube.com/watch?v=B134BGHNZoI recorded at artSpace@StMarks in Edinburgh. Nicola first recites the whole poem, then the ensemble of five musicians transition into her composition, ‘Dancing Green‘, inspired by the poem and Holocaust memories of a close friend. The mood is Klezmer meets acapella percussion. The other pieces in the hour-long show, Between The Lines, are really gorgeous too, and can be viewed from the link above.

“Together with her ensemble of actor-musicians, Nicola explores how the written word can ignite and inspire musical composition. Between The Lines is a performance of provocative and intriguing vocal/instrumental compositions, including Mina’s Waltz, Account by the Murderer’s Wife, Shapely Wound and Dancing Green, inspired by the poetry of Anna Kisby, Sylvia Paskin and Claire Booker.” Edinburgh Festival Fringe Programme, 2023.

The Ekphrastic Review and Menopause: The Anthology

Two of my poems inspired by women’s experiences have been published this month. One traces my direct line of female ancestors via mitochondrial DNA, and the other is a surreal riff on hot flushes.

Arachne Press’s Menopause: The Anthology is already making waves with launches in London, Sheffield, Liverpool, at the Open University and online. Editors Catherine Pestano and Cherry Potts called for poems and stories beyond the cliched realms of the climacteric. This is a collection rich in emotion and humour, offering new truths about a little talked-about, but hugely significant, life experience.

“The subject is just beginning to break the barrier of taboo and become a mainstream discussion point,” write the editors in their introduction, “but that discussion has until now been serious, medical and, we would argue, heterosexual and white. This anthology of poems and short fiction aims to address that, with wild and wonderful writing.”

The writers include Jane Ayres, Susan Bennett, Claire Booker, Jane Burn, Anne Caldwell, Anne Eccleshall , Em Gray, Joanne Harris, Tessa Lang, Anne Macaulay, Jane McLaughlin, Sian Northey, Rachel Playforth, Cheryl Powell, Julie-Ann Rowell. If you’re looking to get your work published by Arachne Press, the only way is to submit to one of their anthologies. This is how they make contact with promising writers, and they may ask you to submit a prospective pamphlet or collection if they like your work.

Copies of Menopause: The Anthology are available directly from https://arachnepress.com/shop/Menopause-The-Anthology-p582770373, from most good bookstores and also The Welcome Trust.

I was lucky as a child to visit the French caves at Les Eyzies when the public were still allowed to brush (sometimes literally) against 30,000 year old cave art. This inspired a poem that contemplates the 5,000 generations of women who passed their mDNA to me in a direct line.

You can read it at the online poetry magazine The Ekphrastic Review, which is one of those great, rainy-Sunday-afternoon places to visit if you enjoy your poetry with a good splash of visual art. Great poetry responding to paintings both ancient and modern, photography, sculpture, and images of all kinds. Browse to your heart’s content here: www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/passing-it-on-or-genesis-5-revisited-by-claire-booker

Submissions windows for The Ekphrastic Review are currently December, March, June and September. The founding editor Lorette C Luzajic writes: “Our objective is to promote ekphrastic writing, promote art appreciation, and experience how the two strengthen each other and bring enrichment to every facet of life. We want to inspire more ekphrastic writing and promote the best in ekphrasis far and wide.”

Words for the Wild – nature poems and stories

Words For The Wild has posted new poems by Robyn Bolam, Claire Booker, Rachel Bower, Lesley Cooke, Joan McGavin, Sue Spiers and Kate Young. Edited by Amanda Oosthuizen and Louise Taylor, the website is “rooted in countryside”, using lovingly chosen photos to build an image-nest for each poem or story.

There’s also a recently posted interview with Kathryn Bevis on her latest collection ‘Flamingo’, plus a wonderful back catalogue of beautifully illustrated poems and short stories by well-known poets as well as newcomers.

Do take a stroll and enjoy a breath of fresh air among its pages by visiting: https://wordsforthewild.co.uk/?page_id=13792

If you didn’t catch my Facebook post back in May, here’s a chance to read my poem ‘In the Martyred Intellectuals Cemetery’ which appeared in The Spectator on May 20th. It commemorates my father-in-law, exactly one year after his death.

The Spectator offers access to its archive of poems, and you can read mine here at: https://www.spectator.co.uk/poem/in-the-martyred-intellectuals-cemetery-dhaka/

The Alchemy Spoon on friendship

Thank you Tamsin Hopkins for selecting one of my poems for The Alchemy Spoon (issue 10), where the theme of ‘Friends’ inspired some cracking poetry. From stories of herring girls, travel companions and brothers-in-law, to doggy friendship, childhood friends and friendly divorce, all of life is here.

Poets featured in this issue include: Sharon Ashton, Julian Bishop, Claire Booker, Matthew Caley, Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana, Helene Demetriades, Philip Dunkerley, Jen Feroze, Wendy Klein, Cos Michael, Gillie Robic, Finola Scott, Julie Stevens, and Anne Symons.

Tamsin Hopkins freely admits she’d only written one decent poem on friendship when asked to guest edit this issue. Regular editor, Mary Mulholland, chose the theme of ‘Friends’ because it would appear friendship all too often ends up at the back of the inspiration queue.

For fans of Robin Houghton, whose blog posts I find hugely helpful in keeping track of poetry call-outs, there’s a treat in store. Under the regular feature, ‘A Personal View’, she writes about submissions, magazines, poetry MAs, her podcast, and her latest venture (writing a novel!). ‘The Interview’ for this issue takes on a rare(ish) constellation of mother and daughter poets – Jean and Martha Sprackland interviewed by Mary Mulholland. How does it work, who inspires who, is there rivalry? I can’t help but think of Sylvia Plath and Frieda Hughes – how might they have interacted had circumstances been different?

And for those who enjoy a good, in-depth analysis of individual poets, Lesley Sharpe’s essay unpicks poems about friendship by John Donne and Edwin Muir.

There’s the usual generous space given to book reviews, plus a free-to-view YouTube film of this issue’s featured poet, Elaine Ewart, reading and discussing her poems.

Honourable mention should also go to artists Sula Rubens for the glorious front cover, and Deb Catesby for her touchingly intimate painting on the back cover.

If you’d like to buy a copy of issue 10 (hard or digital), or subscribe to the magazine, here’s the link: https://www.alchemyspoon.org/ You can also view the online launch to hear some of the poets in this issue read their work. And if colour inspires you, why not submit something on that theme to issue 11? The submissions window is from 1-30 September. Send up to three unpublished poems.

Magma on Schools + Fenland Poetry Journal

What hope for poetry without the next generation? Magma (issue 85) is an open letter to Government on how secondary school pupils could be taught poetry in ways more conducive to enjoyment.

The editors Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Laurie Smith and Gill Ward have all worked in secondary schools and believe the love of poetry is being squeezed out by learning facts about poems rather than understanding how they express important feelings in memorable ways.

“Technical features are essential, but responding to the feelings expressed needs to come first,” reads their editorial. “Without this, the poem is dead on the page.”

For this issue, they’ve selected poems in a wide variety of form, subject matter and tone which reflect young people’s concerns and experiences. Poets include: Heidi Beck, Shaniqua Benjamin, Julian Bishop, Claire Booker, Sita Brahmachari, Maggie Harris, Lucy Ingrams, Luke Kennard, Isabella Mead, Ojo Taiye, Joelle Taylor, Sophie Thakur, Marvin Thompson and Sarah Wimbush.

As always, Magma also publishes feature articles and reviews. Molly Naylor relives her first experience of teaching poetry when a bored student came up with what they thought she wanted to hear in relation to what makes a good poem – fronted adverbials apparently. (I had to google that one!) You can also read poems by featured poet Alison Binney; Malika Booker’s poem inspired by Jean Binta Breeze and Dennis Scott; Barbara Bleiman on how poetry teaching needs to change, plus follow Laurie Smith as he sits in on a lesson.

Here’s Lewis Buxton performing his poem ‘The Closest Animal Equivalents to Human Body Parts Are:’ at the Magma launch, held appropriately at Fortismere School, London.

To buy a copy of Magma (issue 85), submit your own work or take out a subscription, please visit: http://www.magmapoetry.com

I was delighted to have another poem published in the Fenland Poetry Journal‘s spring issue. The cover’s a fresh burst of lemony joy (courtesy of Eliza O’Toole), and the poems inside of the usual high standard. Poets include Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, Oliver Comins, Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana, Qu Gao, Sarah Hemmings, Jennie Hockey, Fiona Larkin, Jill McEvoy, Jeremy Page, Sarah Mnatzaganian, Richard Skinner, Kris Spencer, Nicola Warwick.

A big thank you to editor Elisabeth Sennitt Clough for bringing the FPJ back from the brink at a time when poetry magazines, like so much else at the moment, are struggling to survive. To buy a copy, take out a subscription, or submit your work, please visit: http://www.fenlandpoetryjournal.co.uk

Agenda turns a new page

I’m thrilled have two poems in the final issue of Agenda edited by the legendary Patricia McCarthy. Stepping Stones (or Volume 55, Nos 3-4 to those of a bibliographic mind!) is a beauty in both form and content, and a fine finish after two decades of Patricia’s curatorship.

“Agenda is being taken over by the University of St Andrews, with the illustrious poet and Professor John Burnside as the new editor,” writes Patricia McCarthy. “Agenda will be in excellent, creative, energetic and safe hands . . . Magic comings-together have often happened and this crossover also seems to have that magical ingredient. John intends to keep intact the ethos of the journal which, it has been said, ‘does what no other poetry journal does’.”

New work published in this issue includes poems by Shanta Acharya, Josephine Balmer, William Bedford, Claire Booker, John Burnside, David Cooke, John F. Deane, Philip Gross, David Harsent, John Kinsella, Michael Longley, Jane Lovell, Patricia McCarthy, Jessica Mookherjee, Mary Noonan, David Pollard, Stephen Romer, Carol Rumens and Rory Waterman.

Also in this issue are translations/versions of foreign language poetry including Rainer Maria Rilke (by Martyn Crucefix), the Moravian poet Maria Sergeyevna Petrovykh (by Belinda Cooke), and translations of Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and Valentine Penrose (by Timothy Ades), plus three poems by the chosen broadsheet poet Daniel Johnson, and a conversation between him and James Harpur about how they are trying to “redeem the language of faith.”

With a wealth of Irish poets represented in this issue, it’s lovely to see that most Celtic of images, the horse, manifesting in exquisite paintings by writer and artist James Roberts (@nightriverwood).

If you’ve ever wondered how to approach reading poetry for review, look no further. George Szirtes shares some handy thoughts on the process. He writes: “The ‘how’ of the poem is the vital thing. The ‘how’ of the poem’s voice, its pace, its music, its mind, its sensitive registration of detail and effect, its capability to touch lightly and let go, its mastery of when to press and when to stand aside.” Nothing too tricky then!

To buy a copy of Agenda: Stepping Stones, take out a subscription to the magazine, or submit work, visit http://www.agendapoetry.co.uk

Agenda being generous hearted, they also publish additional poems, essays and reviews for free on their website.

If you’d like to read my eco poem ‘Sketching the Deluge’ there, please go to P.16 at https://www.agendapoetry.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/S-Stones-web-supplement-poems-2.pdf.

Dreamcatcher and Artemis Poetry

The latest issues of Dreamcatcher and Artemis Poetry remind me how symbiotic art and poetry can be.

As well as poems by Claire Booker, Mark Czanik, Alwyn Gornall, Geoffrey Loe, Marie Papier, Penny Sharman and Phil Vernon among others, Dreamcatcher #46 features a striking cover and five arresting images by David Finnigan.

Colourful and precisionistic, Finnigan’s work breaks up the surface of two superimposed compositions to reprocess the order and create something new with a different rhythm. “These represent a change in the direction of my working practice,” says Finnigan. “They embrace some of the techniques I have learned and developed in my other non-visual creative outlets, particularly from the world of sound.”

The images are spread across the issue, offering a kind of firebreak between words – a pause to let you absorb the resonances of shared meaning.

Dreamcatcher 46 is edited by Hannah Stone and published by Stairwell Books twice a year. If you’d like to buy a copy of the magazine, or submit your poems, short fiction or book reviews, please visit http://www.dreamcatchermagazine.co.uk

Artemis Poetry offers generous space to a a wide range of artwork, together with poetry, articles, and reviews by women writers. In issue 29, there are black & white photos by Anna Dear, Reyna Berry and Patricia Brody; delicate line drawings by Andria J Cooke and Gabrielle O’Donovan; and humorous Beryl Cooke style work from the indefatigable Caro Reeves. There’s also news from Second Light, book reviews, and interviews with poets Sarah Corbett, Rebecca Goss, Angela Leighton, Lorraine Mariner and Kay Syrad on how they are moving forward with their work.

Poets in this issue include Annie Wright (featured), prize winners from the Second Light Poetry Competition (Kathryn Bevis, Jane Routh) as well as poetry selected by Lyn Moir, which includes the work of Isabel Bermudez, Claire Booker, Marian de Vooght, Mary Robinson, Marjorie Sweetko and Judith Wozniak.

To subscribe to Artemis Poetry (all welcome), or to submit (women only), check out their website at http://www.secondlightlive.co.uk

“Formed from clay and rain, we raise hot faces to catch scattered diamonds” – Caro Reeves

Sand Waves by Patricia Brody

Shallots by Andria J Cooke