Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Welcome to Magma 16 - coming out five years after our first issue of Spring ‘94..

We continue to stand for poetry that Is broadly speaking, contemporary rather than of the past, specific in imagery rather than abstract, rough in texture rather than smooth. We continue to make a special effort to feature new poets. And the magazine goes on being run by a group rather than an individual, with a different editor for different issues.

Other than that, a lot has changed in five years. We have naturally come to attract more steady contributors and established poets, and we have developed our interviews and reviews. This issue includes our interview with Myra Schneider and a new poem by her - we reviewed her latest collection in Magma 15. It is a special pleasure for us to review Carol Ann Duffy, after interviewing her for Magma 3 back in 1994.

But our continuing commitment to new poetry is shown by the fact that about two thirds of the poets in this issue have not been published by us before.

Contributions flow in from all over the world - mostly from throughout the UK, but over a quarter from the USA and quite a few from elsewhere, particularly the Republic of Ireland and Australia.

At one extreme, some poems immediately choose themselves. It is always a thrill that as like as not they come out of the blue from someone we have not heard about. At the other extreme are the well-intentioned efforts which simply don’t work as poems. Some of them fall into types which become quite familiar - English poets writing in drained romantic or Georgian idioms, American men convinced that each cigarette they light or beer they drink are of great inherent interest to the world, American women chiefly interested in declaring that they are now independent, making their own choices, etc.

Then there are the poems that fall between the two groups and will be read and re-read, often many times, before deciding whether to run them. Sometimes it becomes clear that a poem would work if the poet made a few changes, which it is up to the Editor to suggest. Most seem grateful for the advice - many poets clearly feel they work very much on their own. Again, some possible improvements become familiar - for example, many poets express themselves perfectly well in imagery but feel obliged to add an abstract stanza at the end or a quotation at the beginning to explain what they mean when no explanation is needed.

At the end the edition is put together and goes to print, and the Editor settles to writing to the contributors, and looking forward to two other developments since the early days - the launch reading for the issue at the Troubadour in London, which is always such a pleasure and success, and the eventual circulation of the magazine, now multiplied many times by the Internet.