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

Dream Catcher 37 is Out!

“Poetry produces many delights,” writes editor, John Gilham, in the foreword of the latest Dreamcatcher. And indeed, he’s right. This is a lively collection of poetry, fiction and artwork on the big themes of love, vengeance, nature, mystery, illness and death (among others!)

Poets who appear in issue 37 include Claire Booker, CM Buckland, Angela Cooke, Kieran Egan, Sally Festing, Daniel Gustaffson, Oz Hardwick, Tony McCabe, Mike McNamara, Ali Pardoe, Natalie Scott, Kenneth Durham Smith, Iain Twiddy, Tom Vaughan, Linda Lee Welch and Alice West.

The issue kicks off with a selection of poetry which featured at Poetry For All – an evening of work from poets living with hearing impairment, blindness or autism. Donna Williams’ work I admired in particular, especially her poem ‘These hands are bigger than the sky’. Diversity enrichens all our reading experience.

There are also short stories by Merryn Williams, Eleanor Porter, Alison Mordey, Stewart J Lowe, John Vale, Angelica Krikler and Gay McKenna among others.

Dreamcatcher reviews this issue include Paula McLain’s genre-bending book Flights of Fancy: Circling the Sun on women aviators; Pam Zinnemann-Hope’s first collection from Ward Wood Publishing; and Miller Oberman’s mixing of his own poetry with his translations of Old English poems, in his collection The Unstill Ones.

And what a lovely inter-weaving of featured artist Freya Horsely’s boldly impressionistic and colourfully dexterous work.

To purchase a copy of Dream Catcher Magazine (issue 37) or to find out how to submit your work, please visit: Dream Catcher and Stairwell Books