Summer so often brings childhood bubbling to the surface. A time for drowsing, lazing and youthful adventures. The latest issue of arts and literature magazine The Moth contains images and words that sparkle with beaches, rivers, people disrobed, fragile and intriguing. 
Poets in issue 25 include Mona Arshi, Claire Booker, Christina Logue, Stuart Paterson, Jennifer Tonge and Terence Winch. The art is lusciously reproduced, including beach and seascapes by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, mono-tint bathers by Jane Hambleton and work by Michael Carson (cover).
There are treats in store for story lovers too, including ‘The California Grizzly’ by Matthew Woodman, ‘Proves the Rule’ by James Kincaid and ‘The Chantry Priest’ by Thomas Maloney. I particularly enjoyed ‘Glad There Are Places’ by Hugh Smith:
“I’m glad there are places within you, vast, perhaps endless places, which my love has nothing to do with. My love might ruin your conversation, but it can’t touch your childhood.”
And for a finger on the pulse of one of poetry’s bright young stars, there’s an illuminating interview with Guardian First Book Award winner Andrew McMillan in which he talks about his ex-labourer father, Ian, aka the Bard of Barnsley. Sometimes they perform their work together at venues: “I used to be very resistant. I guess for obvious reasons. It’s just kind of fun now. It’s like our equivalent of a fishing trip or having a lads’ night away.”
The Moth is a quarterly arts journal edited by Rebecca O’Connor and Will Govan and published in Co. Cavan, Ireland. Look out too for the Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize, worth 10,000 euros, which is in association with The Moth. The closing date this year is 31st December. For more details, t0 subscribe to the magazine or submit your own work, please visit: http://www.themothmagazine.com/
Recreation ’99 by Jonathan Turner
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