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

To celebrate the Poetry Library's 60th birthday we invited four former Poetry Librarians to choose their most memorable poetry magazines as part of the Special Edition “Secret History of the Poetry Library” event at the Southbank Centre.

Three British poetry magazines and one rare American poetry newsletter were selected and digitised to appear on the Poetry Library magazines website.

Shown here together for the first time, the Librarians’ magazine choices reveal the range and diversity in poetry publishing. Each selection highlights the unique styles of poetry editors and showcases the many groundbreaking poets who were and still are instrumental in defining poetry movements and happenings in the last six decades, all of whom have been collected and preserved in the Poetry Library’s magazine collection.

See below as former Poetry Librarians reveal why they chose the following iconic publications: the Review, Purple Patch, Grosseteste Review and The Floating Bear.

Click on the links below each introduction to read from each issue.




1973-1988 Poetry Librarian Jonathan Barker on the Review:
“I became Arts Council Poetry Librarian in January 1973 and this issue of the Review (Nos 29-30 10th Anniversary Issue) provided a snapshot of the thoughts of a range of contemporary poets on The State of Poetry at the time. Ian Hamilton, the editor, represented one well defined view of poetry; another contrasting view at the time came from William Cookson’s Agenda which encompassed writers from other, quite diverse, traditions. The different perspectives of the editors gave these magazines real critical edge. I respected both, but the Review is represented here as the more mainstream.”

Click here to read the Review (nos. 29-30 from 1972).

-----



1988-2002 Poetry Librarian Mary Enright on Purple Patch:
“I chose Purple Patch as a classic of a particular kind of small press/little magazine genre that the Poetry Library excels in collecting. And because its libellous ‘Gossip Column’ was a scurrilous good read, attacking every target in the British poetry world. Except the Poetry Library – maybe I chose it because it really liked us.

Purple Patch was a singularly misnamed magazine – it never had any consistent run of good luck. On the contrary, it regularly went through misfortune and humiliation, had multiple setbacks and many disappointments. It never made it big, remaining unknown outside its own small following and friends, it didn’t discover future talent, or impress important poets. But it was a tireless champion of the small press, was totally independent, and survived against the odds for 36 years.”

Click here to read Purple Patch (the 100th issue, from 2001).

-----



2003-2007 Poetry Librarian Simon Smith on Grosseteste Review:
"The reading room of the University of Kent November 1979 and Grosseteste Review provided my first sightings of poets who were to shape my writing and my life: John James, John Hall, J.H. Prynne, Barry MacSweeney. Essays and reviews: one on Jules Superveille by the man who taught me most about contemporary poetry, Michael Grant. And:

         The point we have reached
       Is not an argument, it is a greeting,

       As gentle and as loving as I can make it
       To you, today, beyond all changing days.
                John Riley

Returning to the same carrel, the same library, 2013. The changed and simple truths."

Click here to read Grosseteste Review (issue 1 from 1968).

-----



2003-2012 Joint Poetry Librarian Miriam Valencia on The Floating Bear:
“Imagine the page is an obscene house I invite you to”

“The Floating Bear brought together the top drawer of American poetry in a bargain basement format. New York Poets, Beat writers and the Black Mountain School communed in its roughly stapled pages. Those on its equally noteworthy mailing list received a copy with their address handwritten above the masthead (which included the superb subtitle for a poetry magazine:“a newsletter”) from the editors Diane Di Prima and LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka). The Floating Bear is a perfect example of a story the Poetry Library tells us again and again: the wide spectrum of publishing production values is no accurate predictor of pre-eminence, and the sublime can be found in the roughest haunts.”

Click here to read The Floating Bear (issue 13 from 1961).