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

During the past five and half years I have always maintained that my anticipation on receiving the magazine from its print-run could never be as heightened as when, after some initial straw-polling and months of editorial trial and error, two large boxes of the inaugural Wolf arrived. My then co-editor of The Wolf, Nicholas Cobic, and I launched the first issue two days later to a full house and soon realised that, despite hundreds of poetry magazines existing in the UK, we appeared to tap into a new audience. Certainly the advancements made from the grainy cover of the first issue and the current Wolf are considerable, but my expectation on receiving the magazine on its return from the printer is as exhilarating now as it was in the summer of 2002. One of the main reasons for this is because the overall quality of work inside this issue is stronger than it has been previously.

Regulars to the magazine will notice that the page-count has increased by a third and the staples have (finally!) been replaced with a tidier, perfect-bound print design. My thanks to The Wolf printer’s Colourworks – the same as those we began with in 2002 – for their consistently excellent print production and for making the transition to this format so painless.

Regulars may also notice that, since issue 16, The Wolf has received a grant from the Arts Council England. The generous support of the Arts Council is a significant enabler for a range of expansions – in print, online and in-house – that will be apparent in The Wolf throughout 2008. Some of these improvements are evident in this issue. All the areas for development this year can be found on the website. The website also has a makeover that is imminent, which will allow for a major increase in downloadable audio content. Already, to coincide with this issue, there are live audio excerpts from The Wolf tour of 2007, a posthumously published letter written by Harry Fainlight, and the bonus of a recorded interview with the American poet Brian Tuner (whose book Here, Bullet is reviewed in this issue)

In addition to an increase in the usual content of poems and translations, half the copy in issue 17 is provided by critical material. A Reviews team is now in place to oversee, solicit and, on occasion, provide poetry criticism to a higher standard than at any time in the last five years. Examples of this in the current Wolf include two revisionary essays on Mina Loy, H.D. and Robert Duncan. These will, undoubtedly, contribute further to the critical debate about these poets. My thanks to Sandeep Parmar – one half of the Reviews team – for her meticulous preparation of all the critical content in this issue. For The Wolf to have such assistance has provided me with valuable time to look into finding the best new poems and translations for this issue. In striving to expand the list of poets published in the magazine, I welcome over 25 first-time contributors to these pages.

The Wolf would also like to welcome Christopher Twigg as the first painter to be ‘Artist in Residence’. Christopher’s creative output became known to me, primarily through poems I published in The Wolf. However, his paintings are unlike anything I have encountered before and signify The Wolf’s intention in 2008 to promote an array of artistic practices through its ‘Residences’. 

Alongside the critical content in this issue is a series of interviews conducted with editors from presses in America and the UK. Having interviewed fifteen poets since 2002, and sensing a lack of transatlantic dialogue between poetry communities on both sides of the Atlantic, The Wolf asked six respected editors in their field about a range of subjects – from taking on debut collections to the potential of pdf publishing. The responses provide many valuable insights into the working mechanics within each publisher, from smaller presses like Barque and Stride to the more established, like Bloodaxe, placed in comparison with two highly-dedicated presses like BOA and Graywolf in the US. If this unprecedented feature in The Wolf serves as part of a reconnection between editors in America and Britain then, it seems to me, poets on both sides of the Atlantic will benefit a great deal.

A final unveiling in this issue is the confirmation of a three-poet Advisory Panel. I have selected the poets Carolyn Forché, Robert Minhinnick and John Kinsella, not just because they are leading international poets whose guidance, when sought, will help promote and maintain the quality of future Wolf’s, but because each panellist is internationally-minded; not just in their approach to poetry, but also from socio-political and ecological standpoints.

The Wolf team has expanded to incorporate a Subscriptions and Distributions Manager, Nikki Dudley, whose old job as Administrator has been taken on by Jon Currie. I’m confident that the newly-assembled team can carry forward my aims, one of which is to become the leading alternative poetry magazine in the UK by 2009.

On Nikki’s initiative, at the time of going to press, The Wolf is revealing a new subscriptions package that will include a freebee for the first 100 new subscribers/resubscribers throughout this year. With this issue anyone who subscribes will receive a free copy of The Wolf 15 or 16. And for anyone subscribing after this issue there will be a free CD of poets who also play music. I hope this provides an added incentive to sign up, now or in the future.