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

This issue of Staple celebrates the work of the small presses and the poets who they publish. Conceived as a response to the Next Gen Poets, our Alt-Gen issue showcases thirteen collections published by the small presses in the last decade. As well as featuring work from these collections, and details of the poets and their publishers, the issue includes articles which explain the reasons for our special issue, and for the selection of the poets; in-depth reviews of three of the collections by our reviews editor, C.J. Allen; and reflections on the work of the small presses from four small press editors. We would like to thank the small press editors who supported us by nominating collections, supplying information, and writing articles for this issue. Thanks, also, to Maggie Hannan and Matthew Clegg, our Alt-Gen ‘judges’, for the huge amount of time and effort which they put into reading through the submitted collections and reflecting on their
choices. We are also publishing, in this issue, new poetry and short fiction by writers who will be familiar to Staple readers; our Editors’ Choice section of the magazine features some of the most exciting and original writers published in Staple in the last five years.

Congratulations to Lucie McKee, of Vermont, USA, who wins the Staple spineline competition and receives a year’s free subscription to Staple magazine; Lucie was the first person to correctly identify …the Heart with the heaviest freight…as a quotation from Emily Dickinson. The spineline on this issue is much less challenging and, we hope, will be identified quickly by someone who lives in the UK!

We hope you enjoy this special issue of the magazine. Putting it together has been an exciting project and has raised many interesting issues along the way. Certainly it has reinforced our belief in the value of the small presses; their contribution to contemporary poetry, we would argue, is both significant and unique. Partly as a result of this, we have decided to revive the first collections series, Staple First Editions; details will be announced in the Summer issue of Staple, along with our usual mix of new poetry, prose, articles and reviews.

This issue has been edited by Elizabeth Barrett. The Summer issue of Staple will be edited by Ann Atkinson; submissions to Ann (see end page) by July 1st please.