Magma news
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Press release 16.11.07: National poetry magazine 'showcases' Newcastle poet
The national poetry magazine Magma has chosen Newcastle poet Anna Woodford to be its 'showcase poet' in its Winter 2007/08 issue, just published.
In each issue, the Magma Showcase highlights a poet whose work the magazine believes deserves to be more widely known, and publishes a larger selection of poems than is usual for a single poet.
Introducing six of Anna Woodford's poems, the editor of the current issue, David Morphet, notes how she 'writes about matters which are close to home, and does so with directness and authority. Clarity of theme is matched by emotional precision'.
Anna Woodford says: 'I feel it is a great honour to have been chosen as Magma's showcase poet, and am absolutely delighted to have my work recognised in this way.'
Download the full press release.
Press release 15.11.07: Poetry 'thriving' in the rural north west
Poetry 'really is thriving' in the rural north west, says Lancaster poet Jane Routh in a 'Poetry SatNav' article headlined this week in the Winter 2007/08 issue of Magma, a leading national poetry magazine.
The wide-ranging article takes a look at poetry groups, festivals such as the Lancaster Litfest, and poetry bookshops throughout Cumbria and Lancashire. Even poetry walks are included, such as the one near Kirkby Stephen with poems described by The Guardian as 'gold standard' carved into rocks and gate stoops.
Jane Routh comments: 'I was delighted to be invited to write this article as it gave me an opportunity to show the vigour of the poetry scene in the rural north west, which really is thriving. For poets like myself it is invigorating to realise just how much poetic activity is happening right here.'
Download the full press release.
Magma 39 launch - 19 November
The launch reading for Magma 39 will be at 8pm on Monday 19 November at The Troubadour near Earls Court in London. Our guest readers will be George Szirtes and Anna Woodford.There will also be readings from many other contributors to Magma 39.
Julia Casterton
It was with great regret that the Magma team learned of the death of Julia Casterton in in late February after a long illness of intermittent severity. Shortly before she died, Julia was surprised and delighted to win first prize in the Keith Arthur / Magma poetry competition and to be interviewed live on TalkSport radio's Fisherman's Blues show by the show's host and competition judge, Keith Arthur. Typically she also expressed embarrassment that, having recommended her various writing classes to enter the competition, she had won it herself.
The Magma team are saddened by the news of her death because, apart from winning the competition, Julia has had poems in Magma on several occasions over the years and has read at our launch readings.
Julia taught writing, both poetry and prose, at the City Lit in Holborn, London, for many years, as also at Middlesex and London Metropolitan Universities. She published two books on writing and was herself a fine poet. Her first collection, The Doves of Finisterre, was published by Rialto in 2005 and reviewed in Magma. Many of the poems, like her prizewinning fishing poem, reflect her love of North West Spain where she and her husband Chris had a second home.
Everyone who knew her found Julia warm and charming - endlessly interested in what makes writing effective and patiently helpful to all her students, many of whom have gone on to be successful writers. Keith Arthur found her delightful when he interviewed her. He presented the prizes at the Magma 37 launch reading at the Troubadour on 19 March, at which the winning poems were read. Julia's poem was read in her memory.
Julia was greatly looking forward to the weekend at The Compleat Angler at Marlow, which is the first prize, and her husband was looking forward to fishing with a national expert. As long-term Spurs supporters, Julia and her husband had almost forgiven Keith his dedication to Arsenal.
Julia has written about the inspiration of Senor Lobelinos, her prizewinning poem:
"We have been going to Finisterre in Galicia for many years. Chris bought a little flat there with his first wife, and she died there of a brain heamorrhage in 1996. She's buried in the old churchyard. When we began to go there together I realised that the sea rules everything. The men are mostly fishermen, and the women bring up their families on the thin lip of land that is Cape Finisterre. It has been so poor that people leave to work elsewhere all the time, and often they never come back. The hero of my poem congratulated himself that he'd managed to stay put, but also rejoiced that he'd found his grandfather. After the Prestige went down and the whole coastline was so badly damaged, I think the Galicians became even more aware of how precious their home was. It was the fragility and vulnerability of the life that I was trying to catch.
"Now the main threat seems to be development. They are building many new flats as holiday homes for the people of Madrid, so it's overrun in the summer. But the rest of the time it's the same: wild and windy, with the sea ruling everything."
Keith Arthur / Magma Poetry Competition
In association with Keith Arthur, Magma is delighted to announce a competition for the best new poem about fishing. Keith Arthur is the leading UK broadcaster on angling, presenting Fisherman’s Blues (from the Waterboys’ song) on TalkSPORT (Mw 1053, 1089 kHz) on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 6 to 8am.
He also presents Tight Lines for Sky Sports and writes columns for Angling Times, the leading angling weekly, and Total Coarse Fishing and Match Fishing magazines.
Fisherman’s Blues had been on for two years when Keith came up with a comment in rhyme. Listeners called in and asked for more, and since then Keith has obliged with all kinds of verse about the countryside, water and the creatures in it, the weather, and anglers and their experiences. Now Donald Judd writes a regular poem for the Sunday show, but Saturdays and Bank Holidays are the domain of ‘piscatorial’ poets – which is where Magma comes in.
The subject, 'fishing', can be interpreted in any way.
Entries will be judged by Keith Arthur and representatives of Magma. The first prize is a luxury two night stay for the winner and guest at The Compleat Angler at Marlow with (for a winner interested in fishing), a day’s angling at Marlow with Keith Arthur. Runners up and their guest will be invited to a meal at the famous Riverside Restaurant at The Compleat Angler. The winning poems will also be published in Magma 37 and broadcast, with other entries, on Fisherman’s Blues. The prizes will be presented by Keith Arthur at the Magma 37 launch reading at the Troubadour, Earls Court, in March when the winners and runners-up are invited to read their poems.
Send your entry to keitharthur@magmapoetry.com - with poems in the e-mail itself - no attachments please!
Alternatively please post your entry to:
Keith Arthur Magma Poetry Competition
150 Hammersmith Road
London W6 7JP
The closing date is 1st January 2007.
Competition rules: Entry to the competition is free. Original unpublished poems up to 40 lines long. Entrants can submit up to 3 poems. Poems will not be returned. Copyright remains with the poet, but entry gives permission for the poem to be broadcast on TalkSPORT and published in Magma. Members of the Magma Committee and employees of TalkSPORT and their families are ineligible.
Vicki Feaver and Magma Editors at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival - 3-5 November
Magma is delighted to be sponsoring Vicki Feaver's workshop at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. And if you've ever wondered how Magma editors decide which poems to publish, this is your chance to find out - our three latest editors will be talking about the process of editing the magazine.
Vicki Feaver has both written and read for Magma. Her latest collection, The Book of Blood was shortlisted for this year's Forward Prize. Her workshop on Friday 3rd November 'Re-Inventing Myth' will draw inspiration from myths, legends, fairy tales and Bible stories.
The FREE Magma talk on Saturday 4th November is your chance to find out how different editors approach the task of editing Magma. Tim Robertson and Mark McGuinness edited Magma 35 and Magma 34 respectively. They will be joined by Anne-Marie Fyfe, our guest editor for Magma 36, the launch of which coincides with the Festival. They will each focus on one poem from their issue and why they chose it.
As well as meeting the editors and hearing about what happens 'behind the scenes' of the editorial process, you are welcome to bring poems to submit for the next issue of Magma - see the contributions page of this site for our standard submissions guidelines.
Click here for the full Festival programme. We hope to see you at Aldeburgh!
The Magma Roadshow is under way!
Magma is hitting the road. With support from Arts Council England, we are appearing at literature festivals around the UK. We are sponsoring Magma poets to give readings and workshops, and aim to meet more of our current and potential readers and contributors.
Our first roadshow was in July 2006 at Ledbury Poetry Festival in Herefordshire. We sponsored the main Saturday night reading by the festival’s poet-in-residence, Don Paterson. Don’s work has appeared in several Magmas, and he read at our 10th anniversary celebration in 2005, so we were delighted for him to appear in Ledbury’s biggest venue under a Magma banner - literally.
Don read poems old and new, including some of the Orpheus Sonnets published this autumn by Faber, interspersed with aphorisms, mainly from The Book of Shadows. Three of the Magma team ran a stall at the event, talking to members of the audience, selling current and back issues, and receiving submissions.
In September, we had a stall at the annual bookfair of the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. Magma’s Helen Nicholson joined Michael Schmidt (PN Review) and Joy Hendry (Chapman) for a panel discussion on The role of the magazine, the editor, and the challenges of creating a readership.
In October, we were part of a debate about journals and publishing at the Ilkley Literature Festival in Yorkshire. The event aimed to help writers submit work for publication, and Tim Robertson spoke about the advantages of Magma’s rotating editorship. The other panel members were Shaun Levin (Chroma journal), Andrew Oldham (Inc Writers) and poet Pat Borthwick.
The publication of the next edition of Magma, No 36, will coincide with the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in Suffolk, 3 – 5 November 2006. Participants in the festival’s Friday workshops will each receive a complimentary copy of our 10th Anniversary Anthology, and we are extremely pleased to be sponsoring the workshop led by Vicki Feaver, who has both written and read for Magma.
On Saturday 4th November at Aldeburgh, the Festival is hosting a special Magma talk. Our three latest editors – Anne-Marie Fyfe, Mark McGuinness, Tim Robertson – will each present a poem that they chose for publication, and answer questions about their editorial practice. The event takes place in the Peter Pears Gallery, where we have an all-day Magma stall: please come and see us there, and bring poems to submit to Magma (see the contributions page of this site for details of our standard guidelines for submissions).
Two other Magma editors, Laurie Smith and David Boll, will be giving a similar talk at StAnza Poetry Festival in St Andrew’s, Scotland, 15 – 18 March 2007. We will also have a stall and host a reading of Magma poets.
Magma at Ledbury Poetry Festival - 2 July
On Sunday 2 July Magma is sponsoring the reading by Don Paterson, Ledbury Festival's Poet in Residence.
Sunday 2 July 5.30 pm in The Community Hall, Lawnside Road, Ledbury, Herefordshire.
Tickets £8. Box office telephone 0845 458 1743. Full Festival programme at www.poetry-festival.com
We will be at the event with a stall where you can meet members of the Magma team, submit poems, buy copies of the magazine, and take out a subscription at a rate specially reduced for the Festival.
Magma 35 launch - 3 July
The launch reading for Magma 35 will be at 8pm on Monday 3 July at The Troubadour near Earls Court in London. Our guest readers will be Wendy Cope and Alicia Stubbersfield.Wendy Cope read history at Oxford and then worked as a London primary school teacher until the publication of her first book of poems, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (Faber) in 1986. She now lives in Winchester.
Alicia Stubbersfield teaches English in Cheltenham and creative writing in various places. Her third collection Joking Apart is published by The Collective Press.
There will also be readings from many other contributors to Magma 35. The Troubadour is usually very full for Magma readings, so please arrive early if you want a seat near the front!
Magma 34 launch
Once again, the Troubadour Coffee House (www.troubadour.co.uk) was packed out on 20th March for the launch reading for Magma 34.
The guest poets were Mimi Khalvati, founder of the Poetry School, and David Harsent, winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection of 2005. Thanks to them and to the many other contributors who read.
Magma 33 launch
A spirited launch reading for Magma 33 took place on Monday 5 December 2005 in a packed Troubadour Coffee House (www.troubadour.co.uk). The guest poets were Philip Gross and Al Alvarez, and about 25 of the magazine's contributors also read. Magma thanks all those who took part.
"Sea-fever" is the Sea Britain 2005 favourite sea poem.
November 2005: The results of the search for the SeaBritain 2005 Favourite Sea Poem have just been announced by Magma Poetry Magazine in Greenwich. John Masefield's "Sea-Fever" won by a nautical mile.
Magma interactive goes live
July 2005: Readers will notice a new discussion link at the top of every page. This is to our discussion forums, where readers can post comments about Magma and about poetry in general.
Another new feature is the facility to enter comments linked directly to our articles. Look for the link just above the article's author and title.
If you have comments about these interactive features, please enter them in the "respond to the editor" forum.
Magma and SeaBritain
March 2005: The year 2005 is being marked all over the UK as "SeaBritain" year, a national maritime celebration of the way the sea touches our lives. At its heart is the Trafalagar Festival, with a series of events marking the 200th anniversary of Nelson's victory. And Magma is working in partnership with the SeaBritain organisers and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich to ensure that the poetry of the sea, old and new, is firmly on the SeaBritain 2005 programme. See our submissions page for details of a call for contributions on the theme of the sea.
Magma10
Magma's 10th Anniversary Poetry Event
January 2005: Magma's tenth anniversary event at the Cochrane Theatre on 21 January was very successful. Read about it and see some pictures of the poets here soon.
Magma in The Times
November 2004: Andrew Pierce's article
in The Times mentions
Magma 30's