a round up of recent small press publications from all over the world. all publications received at second aeon will be mentioned in future issues of this section. if publishers can send two review copies (rather than the normal one); the extra copy will be sent to the washington college dept of english, where a permanent record of little mags is being made.
second aeon is a participant in COSMIC, the cosmic overground syndicated magazine interchage cooperative, other members are indicated by ""' in the margin in the pages that follow.
Absalom in the Tree by roland mathias. 50p. gwasg gomer, Ilandysul, cardiganshire. such a time since roland mathias' last collection that some might have thought he'd given up, how-ever a recent large bursary from the welsh arts council has obviously provided the time for a good deal of new writing. mathias always struck me as a 40's poet embeded in landscape and history. he is still embeded in landscape and history but with less of the 40's touch i feel. one has to mine very hard indeed with these poems, they are difficult & complex as hell but unlike a lot of others i didnt give up & throw the book away with a polite mutter but stuck with it. under the twisting syntactical mazes there are beautiful images, solid poems that will last, a lot of the poems i didnt go for much, even when i had reached bed rock but the few that i did are gems indeed. hang onto your concrete-sound-sequences and give this one a try. at 50p for a neat, well printed & designed hard back you cant go too far wrong.
Anglo-Welsh Review (vol20 no45) 40p. roland mathias, deffrobani, maescelyn, brecon. 288 close printed pages. AWR is perhaps one of the most approachable of anglo-welsh magazines, always willing to give a new voice a try before anyone else if good and even if not-so-good. this of course gives the whole thing a looser feel than it might have but then again in a mag of such huge size you are bound to find the asking price worth of stuff to your liking some where inside. perhaps i do a slight injustice in describing AWR this way, it does print some good solid poetry by anyones standards. well worth a read. this issue has tripp/robert morgan's verse plays/cliff james/hodges/jaffin/pacey/etc & an assortment of short stories, articles, criticisms, photos & a wide strange ranging set of reviews.
Balthus (2) 20p. jon harvey. 18 cefn rd, cardiff cf4 3hs. the literature of fantasy in short stories, articles, criticisms and reviews. if fantasy is your subject then try this mag, if you know little about it take an easier introduction, balthus is for the convert. very well set out and printed but with slightly lesser illustrations than those in its first issue.
Coming of Age by cyril hodges. 60p p/back £1.50 signed h/back. jjc ltd, 21 duffryn close, cardiff cf2 6ht. cyril hodges is a welshman, it hits you as you begin to read this very well printed collection. he is also an educated welshman, he knows what hes talking about in terms of landscape & history. the poems are steeped in both. the frantic nationalist ravings do not appear here, in fact although he is a nationalist hodges turns out a kind of poem very rare among anglo-welsh writers. in his own words "I'm a Welshman trying to speak Welsh in English". Very often he suceeds. again, not all of the book deals with the home land -greece, china, ireland, egypt all crossed in solid image and significant word. for a celtic treat buy this one, expect to find craft, beauty and poetry. as a small bonus a good deal of the poems are fittingly illustrated by sue shields.
Decal Review a new giant due soon. expected to be something like 130 pages at 50p. from the list of contents it ought to be good: auden/amabile/adcock/bowen/goacher/hooker/longville/macbeth/
edwin morgan/hodges/mathias/herbert williams/kirkup & much more. meic williams editor from 52 dan-y-coed rd, cyncoed, cardiff.
Dragon pidgeon-holes, old students union, univ of wales, aberystwyth. at last a really solid issue. i'm not certain how much it costs but whatever, its worth it. a neat tall litho job devoted exclusively to the work of ex-student philip pacey. there is little editorial intervention so in effect it is a book by philip pacey called "dragon'. fair enough. pacey has been latched onto by the anglo-welsh school and although much of his poetry here deals with wales (a lot of it is set in aberystwyth) i dont really think he is an anglo-welsh poet. his style is too free, to undedicated if you like. for sure its good stuff with plenty of invention when dealing with a well tried idea. a good solid read & i wish second aeon had published it !
Mabon (5) 20p. alun jones & gwyn thomas. 9 wellfield house, bangor. another issue of the mag we all thought had folded. mabon is in the lush-bound letterpress class, worth its asking price. the content carries on within the anglo-welsh literature framework, perhaps from a slightly different standpoint from some of the other mags but the end result is much the same. good work and bad work, a fair amount of material from school children. a feature on the work of the late brenda chamberlain/conran/saunders lewis introduces two letters from david jones/randolph ellis/huw jones/bryn griffiths/articles on the tradition of welsh literature/reviews/etc.
Planet (8) 30p. ned thomas. Ilangeitho, tregaron, cards. a welsh london magazine, a super cultural welsh readers digest of sorts, a big solid well bound 30p worth. planet has always tried to do three things as far as i can see, to present the new wales, to put wales fairly in the middle of a celtic cross fertilization, and to compare the situation in wales with that of other countries with similar problems. issue 8 carries on that work. a great sequence of poems by john tripp complete with intricate illustration, ned thomas on the visual image in wales (and i do really hope a few people will note), radio free Scotland, short stories by leslie norris, ieuan watkins, etc, & poems by robert morgan, john idris jones etc etc.
Poetry Wales. meic stephens. contributions to 42 church road, whitchurch, cardiff & copies obtainable from christopher davies ltd, 32 alexandra rd, Swansea.
vol 7 no 2 a reasonable issue but with nothing too much that sparks: garlick/ norris/ webb/ glyn jones/glyn hughes/ ormond/ pook/ ackerman/ clarke/ john stuart williams /etc. 38p.
vol 7 no 3 "twenty first birthday number" 110 bound pages for 38p. of course, a solid solid issue this one, it had to be. for those interested in the publishing scene in wales, the start and success of a little mall, the aims of publishing welsh & anglo-welsh poets, etc should get this. poetry wales has come a long long way in its 8 years of publishing, from a small rather infrequent little mall to a solid-bound 4 times a year dragon-fire giant. this 21st issue must be the biggest yet. i feel perhaps that with this magazine, unlike most other english based mags in wales, we only get the closed national picture. it provides little inlet for writers outside wales & tends to ignore the wilder, more progressive voices in this land. but then it is called poetry wales and does require a very high standard from its poets. this issue opens with a large bunch of letters to the editor telling of the goodness that the mall brings, reiterating its beginnings, following its history, predicting its future etc. after that comes a set of solid stuff from the poetry wales regulars: conran/ clarke/ ormond/ norris/ tripp/ webb etc etc. the mall ends with its review section, normally fuller than is here however. its worth getting and i'm sure that it proves what can be done with a magazine (& a culture when it is provided with full arts council support.
Prison Clothes Press run by ulli mccarthy 1 pant-y-celyn, Ilanllyfni, nr penygroes, caerns are putting out a series of very exciting mimeo mags & books, all free for postage. the production is rough in the true little mall style, the poetry is solid and much better than you'll get in a lot of more expensive mags. the two latest are:
no 2 zusammen a magazine edited by mccarthy & jeff nuttall. including: raworth/ bernard kelly/ tomazos/ opal nations/ hemensley/ al beach/ etc.
no 3 erire a set of ulli mccarthy's own semantic yet sound poems illustrated by jeff nuttall
Rumpus (6) the final issue out at last. 10p. chris morgan, 58 Ilandennis rd, cardiff. letter press printed with fine cover by alan perry. one or two items i wasnt too sure of, a medium pace dullness hidden amongst a set of first rate poems. incl: garlick/ bielski/ nixon/
norman jackson/ tripp/ steane/ curtis/ jaffin/ carr/ booth/ cashford etc. well worth it for the price.
Sixteenth Anthology of the Gwent Poetry Society 25p. frank platts (chairman) dolman theatre, kingsway, newport. as with all society and writers group books that insist on including an item for every one of their members the result is a terrible dullness. this anthology falls right into that trap, the production of old fashioned and doesnt help to uplift its sinking content at all. there are of course a few bright spots, but its a lot of work to find them. incl: bielski/ holIingdrake/ palfrey/ alan manox/ & others.
Snap of the Wishbone by paul harris. 10p. together publications, roger edwards, glan-yrafon, heol-yr-ysgol, ynysawdre, tondu, bridgend. a small spirit duplicated book, reasonable enough but nothing more than that. harris is too soon into book collections i feel, for every readable poem there is an unreadable one. given time he could write really well.
Page(s) 128-130
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The