One rarely discussed distinction between poets is between those who capitalize the first words of lines, and those who don't. In general, you either do or you don't, but in The Rose of Toulouse, Fred D'Aguiar switches back and forth…
How many ears does Mr Spock have? Three! The left, the right and the final front. Maybe working on Magma 57 has addled my brain, but the old playground joke seems to me about the best summary of the role…
Every competition it’s the same thing, we poets get sucked into endless debates on Facebook as to whether there is a ‘male’ of ‘female’ way of writing and whether this is responsible for female writers getting less coverage. So here’s…
Following her previous collection Dirty Work, Angela Kirby’s latest book of poems, A Scent of Winter, is a substantial and delightful read that combines craft, humour and intelligence. Readers can readily find a handful of poems such as ‘Green Wine’…
Well, in fact, Philip Gross, himself a winner of the National Poetry Competition, the T.S. Eliot Prize and Wales Book of the Year. Here he gives a view from the Magma Poetry Competition 2013 judge's bench: I'm starting this with caution. Even…
So, you’ve drafted a poem and you want to publish it or perhaps even win the Magma Poetry Competition! But, is the poem ready? Could it do with a few edits or a wholesale makeover? Below are a few rules…
The Ireland of flamed haired children bringing turf home from the bog with a little help from the family donkey probably never exactly existed. But these days, the donkey is definitely dead and the traffic jams in Galway rival any…
I was surprised when I heard a well-published poet say he writes a line at a time, always finishing one before moving onto the next. Surprised because it is so counter to my own way of writing, and I began…
Lunar Poems for New Religions is a curious book: mixing English and Scots, spirituality and earthiness, minimalism and expansiveness, it makes a refreshing mockery of many of the perpetual divisions in British poetry. The long poem at the centre of…
When you commute to work or make your way home, it is always such pleasure to spot and read, in your part of the train carriage, poems that crop up unexpectedly in the Underground. This year being the 150th anniversary…
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