Poetry Salzburg Review – eclectic as ever

In its latest editorial, Poetry Salzburg Review makes no bones about its mission: “We need to get back to a time where the ‘general public’ see poetry as an essential literary engagement.” Here you’ll find poetry for just about everyone, from narratives, translations and humour, to experimental lay-outs, ekphrasis and sonnets. As a reader, I really love the mix I find here. As a poet, I’m grateful for a place which will consider every kind of poem I write.

Poets in issue 36 include William Bedford, Sharon Black, Claire Booker, Brecht (transl.), Joe Caldwell, David J. Costello, Natalie Crick, Horace (transl.), L. Kiew, Tom Paine, Matthew Paul, Penelope Shuttle, Marjorie Sweetko, Grant Tabard, Marina Tsvetaeva (transl.) and Margaret Wilmot.

There’s the usual strong selection of book reviews, plus an essay on the late Chris Bendon by Glyn Pursglove, and one on Edward Lowbury (1913-2007) by Roland John.

And let’s celebrate another wonderful cover image – ‘The Waterfall’, by Steven Kenny. The front of every issue is a glorious invocation of the surreal; perhaps only to be expected from a magazine produced in the country where Sigmund Freud first tussled with the unconscious mind.

To order a copy of issue 36 or submit your own poems please check the following link: http://www.poetrysalzburg.com/psr.htm

Poetry Salzburg Review is issued twice a year, and I for one have been subscribing to it for some time. It’s printed with the support of the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Salzburg, with an editorial board that spans the Atlantic (Robert Dassanowsky and Keith Hutson) under the expert eye of editor Wolfgang Gortschacher.

My poem about childhood in The Spectator

I’m a huge fan of John Mole’s work, so it was a real thrill to find myself published alongside him in the same issue of The Spectator last month. His satiric, but deeply moving, ‘Keeping in Step’ contemplates the graveyard, via the carnival of jazz and brass bands. My ‘Museum of Childhood’ tackles the other end of life.

You can read our poems via the following links, or look out for them in the 12th December issue at your library when it reopens: https://www.spectator.co.uk/poem/keeping-in-step https://www.spectator.co.uk/poem/museum-of-childhood

As well as its excellent Books & Arts section, I particularly enjoy the little column on the back page of The Spectator, entitled ‘Mind Your Language’, where Dot Wordsworth examines the common misuses of words and grammar. In this issue, ‘fortuitous’ came under the scalpel, via the Daily Mail, the Roman Empire, the OED and Geoffrey Chaucer. If you’re a stickler for exactitude, this is the column for you.

Whilst on the subject of childhood, a friend tipped me off about The Poet Magazine, which has free call-outs several times a year for its international anthologies. As a result, I have two poems in the Childhood Anthology (Vol 2), edited by Robin Barratt and published this month (available from Amazon price £9.95 inc. p&p). Other UK poets include Neil Leadbeater, Emma Lee, Strider Marcus Jones, Maxine Rose Munro, Chrys Salt, Annie Wright and Mantz Yorke.

The Poet has a very cosmopolitan feel, with poets across the globe contributing their work. Whilst it’s commonplace to read work from North America or the Antipodes in many British literary journals, it’s lovely to be introduced to poets from Thailand, Romania, Armenia, Ethiopia, India, Poland, Malawi, the Philippines, Vietnam, Nepal, Ecuador and others.

‘Uniting the world through poetry’ is the bimonthly magazine’s mission statement. Their website includes book reviews, interviews, poet of the week, and a section for young poets. To buy a copy, or submit to the magazine or one of its up-coming anthologies, check out: https://www.thepoetmagazine.org/the-magazine