Poetry Salzburg Review – flying the flag for English poetry

With only weeks before a possible plunge off the Brexit cliff, it’s good to know that English language poetry is still cherished in the heart of Europe.

The latest issue of Poetry Salzburg Review contains work from 72 English-speaking poets including John Arnold, Claire Booker, Jonathan Catherall, Carole Coates, Andy Croft, Robert Dassanowsky, Terry Doyle, Julie Maclean, Sue Kindon, Fiona Larkin, Owen Lowery, Matthew Paul, Paul Stephenson, Tessa Strickland, Iain Twiddy, Tom Vaughan, Sarah Juliet Walsh and Andrew Wildermuth.

Continuing its trend of fabulously surreal covers, the artwork for issue 34 is by Michael Cheval. This is the third issue of PSR that has carried my poems, and each time Cheval has wowed me with his inventiveness and luscious use of colour. You can find out more about his work at Michael Cheval

But of course, a book is more than it’s cover. Look inside this one, and as well as a wide range of poetic styles and themes, you’ll find reviews of European and UK poets by John Challis, Keith Hutson and Robert Peake; and a thought-provoking interview with Scottish poet and translater Alan Riach by PSR editor Wolfgang Gortschacher.

To buy a copy of Poetry Salzburg Review, browse their collections and pamphlets, or submit your own work, please visit Poetry Salzburg

Latest from Poetry Salzburg Review

It’s always a joy when Poetry Salzburg Review drops onto my door mat, with its Austrian postmark,  gloriously surreal cover and meaty, 180 or so pages of new poetry, translations, reviews and interviews.

Issue 31 is a particular treat for me, as it contains two of my poems, alongside work by Jackie Wills, Sean O’Brien, Robert Peake, Hugo Ball (writer of the Dada Manifesto and co-founder of the infamous Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich 1916), Carole Bromley, James Caruth, Jessica Mookherjee, John Lyons, Richard Skinner, Ruth Bidgood, Marjorie Sweetko and Robert Hampson, among many others.

There’s a good selection of international work in this issue, including poets with connections to South Africa, America, Australia, Canada, Trinidad, India, Cuba, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Mexico, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. It’s refreshing to hear voices and styles informed by very different cultural backgrounds.  

Poetry Salzburg Review is ” one of the most stimulating eclectic and certainly international outlets for quality contemporary poetry,” says the poetry magazine’s newest editorial board member, Keith Hutson. He joins Vahni Capildeo, Robert Dassanowsky and editor Wolfgang Görtschacher in selecting what goes into the bi-annual magazine.  With several thousand submissions a year, this is no easy matter, but Hutson is clear about the task. “It seems to me that the journal’s only aim is to find and publish poetry that feels important – whatever the subject matter – and in the search for these poems, established writers are welcomed and new writers are celebrated.”

This issue has a fascinating interview with novelist and poet Elaine Feinstein, whose many impressive credits include translating the brilliant Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva, thus helping to secure her a place in the cannon of great women poets writing in a language other than English. I for one am hugely grateful to her.

Issue 31 also offers readers fourteen late sonnets (most of them previously unpublished) by the poet Peter Russell, who was a protégé of TS Elliott and long-term correspondent with Ezra Pound. Plus a chance to read a generous selection of work by the recently deceased Frances Galleymore.

Poetry Salzburg Review is published twice yearly. To submit your own work, or buy a copy of Autumn 2017 (issue 31) or take out a subscription, click on the following link: Poetry Salzburg Review