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

Since 2002 when we decided to include reviews in Staple, Adrian Buckner has brought his skill, judgment and enthusiasm to the role of Reviews Editor. Now Adrian has now taken on a new challenge as Editor of Poetry Nottingham International, we wish him every success in that role, and thank him warmly for providing Staple with such a balanced range of reviews over the last two years.

We welcome C.J.Allen to the board as our new Reviews Editor. Many readers will already be familiar with his work, as both poet and reviewer, and we are delighted that he has agreed to take on this editorial role for Staple.

In the present climate of poetry publishing and book distribution, when independent bookshops are floundering in the face of the high street booksellers’ blockbuster approach to book sales, we believe that the reviews we feature should focus on small press publications.There are no shortages of reviews for major writers and publishers in the mainstream press and journals, while smaller presses rely on magazines like Staple to give their writers the publicity they deserve.And deserve is the important issue here.We see little point in reviews which set out to prove, through the reviewer’s literary invective, that a book is not worth reading - rather
we aim to publish reviews which engage critically with the work in such a way as to stimulate an audience for it.

We have been encouraged by the response to Staple 58, and particularly to the favourable comments about the inclusion of photographic work. We feature in this issue, the work of Brian Lewis, and invite submissions of work from visual artists and photographers for future issues of Staple.