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

There’s something very exciting about putting together an issue of Brittle Star: from reading the contributions to having the finished product in our hands. And it’s at the launch of each issue that we can sit back, listen to our readers and feel happy in the knowledge that there’s some damn good talent out there. And this issue is no exception.

   Subscribers to Brittle Star will know of the changes that have been happening to the magazine over the last two years and we hope you’re happy with them. New readers may like to know we’ve introduced articles, close readings and interviews to a magazine already strong in its creative content and we’re hoping to continue this trend.

   We are happy to introduce three new editors to Brittle Star and this is the first issue from all five editors. Louisa and I welcome David Floyd, Martin Parker and Tina Tse with open arms and cups of tea!

   Over the next few issues you’ll see changes in the way the magazine looks, which hopefully will complement the high quality of writing that we publish. Brittle Star is a magazine providing a platform for new voices and people at the start of their writing careers. This means contributors don’t have to compete with more experienced writers and, because we think it’s important to give a good critical platform to less well known voices, could use this space as a development stage in their writing. Hopefully, the articles and interviews will add to this development and encourage our contributors to explore some of the writers we introduce them to and to engage with some of the issues they address.

   This year, I was privileged to be one of the judges, along with poets Jo Roachand Anna Robinson, for the poetry section in the Koestler Awards. These awards commend artistic achievement
(also in visual arts, drama and prose) in prisons, secure hospitals & clinics, and young offenders institutes. About 400 people entered this section, many submitting collections of up to ten poems, which gives you some idea of the reach the creative programs in prisons have. Many of the entrants had low literacy levels, many had mental illness or addiction problems, and some had English as a second language. The awards we gave covered a wide range of abilities and styles, from wonderful comic poems in verse to experimental poems that explored language and the written page.

   One of the things I learned from reading all these entries is that it can be very easy to become dismissive of poems that are not yet ready for publication. At Brittle Star we read hundreds of poems and short stories. We give feedback whenever asked for (and sometimes when not asked for – but I can’t help myself). We do this because we’re also ‘sending out’ ourselves and receiving the rejection letters and sometimes, thank god, the acceptance letters, and so we know how hard it is to put those pages in the post. But we also know that this is a large part of developing our work, however terrifying the experience can be.

   To end, we hope you and your copy of Brittle Star have a wonderful summer!