Close River: Interview with Alexa Winik
Alexa Winik talks to Fiona Moore about her poetry pamphlet Close River, which judge Mary Jean Chan chose as the winner of the 2020 Magma Pamphlet Competition. You can get hold of…
Interview with Alice Willitts
Cheryl Moskowitz spoke to Alice Willitts about her poetry collection ‘Dear', which was selected as the pamphlet winner for the 2018 Magma Pamphlet Competition. To get yourself a copy of ‘Dear’, please click here CM: It was my great pleasure to…
Interview with Nick Makoha about the Obsidian Foundation
Obsidian is a foundation and poetry retreat, launched for Black poets and founded by Nick Makoha. The Retreat is a long-term, sustainable programme, based on the successful model of Cave Canem in the USA. The Foundation provides Black poets—who often face multiple…
Mona Arshi shares her thoughts on judging the Magma Poetry Competition Judge’s Prize
First all of I want to say what a privilege it is to judge this year's Magma competition. The Magma competition is really special to me. I won the inaugural competition with my poem Hummingbird six years ago, a…
Presiding Spirits: Alice Oswald on Sophocles
In Presiding Spirits we ask a contemporary poet to write a new poem influenced by the writing of a poet from the past. Earlier this year Alice Oswald’s second collection, Dart (Faber and Faber), won the TS Eliot Prize for…
Presiding Spirits: W N Herbert on Byron
In Presiding Spirits we ask a contemporary poet to write a poem which draws on writing from the past. In this issue W N Herbert responds to Byron’s Childe Harold. Errant My voice went on a quest to find itself…
Presiding Spirits: Vicki Feaver talks to Judy Brown
In Presiding Spirits we ask a contemporary poet to write a poem which draws on writing from the past. In this issue Vicki Feaver responds to Edward Thomas’s Old Man. Old Man Old Man, or Lads-Love, – in the name…
Machinery and the Imagination: Tim Kindberg asks poets about the relationship between the two
Do new technologies and multimedia forms affect how we exercise our imaginations when writing and reading poetry? Tim Kindberg delved into this aspect of the soul and the machine by asking some well-known poets for their views. A poem is…
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Poets and Publishers on the Nature of Risk
We asked three younger poets and four small publishers to think about the gambles they’ve taken in their careers thus far. The question we asked was, very simply, “What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken as a poet/publisher?”, but the answers…
The Magma Poetry Competition 2015/16 is now open for entries!
Magma’s 2015/2016 Poetry Competition is now open and runs until19 January 2015. Daljit Nagra is the Judge for the Judge’s Prize for poems of 11 to 50 lines. First prize £1,000, second prize £300 and third prize £150. Magma’s Editors’ Prize is…
Supported by Arts Council England