Magma’s E-Archive is launched!

We’re delighted to announce that Magma’s entire E-Archive is now live. Thanks to the team at Exact editions, our subscribers can now access all issues of the magazine back to Magma 1 in 1994.

You will be able to see how Magma developed from a thin black-and-white A5 magazine to its distinctive square format (Magma 19) and its coloured covers (Magma 27 onwards).

More important, you will see how Magma has become (and continues to become) more inclusive. Each issue has a theme and this has created a wider poetry presence, including Magma 11 which was edited in California and established our international appeal, and Magma 27, the same-sex issue which created our LGBTQ+ presence. The Deaf issue (69) and Latinx issue (76) have had similar effects.

Each issue has a different theme which means that Magma publishes a wide and varied range of poetry from around the world, providing a platform for exciting new voices as well as established names. Our themes cover an amazing range. To take a few at random: the sea (Magma 32), the devil and all his works (47), clothes (56), revolution (65), climate change (72) and avatars (80).

Magma is unique in the UK by having different editors for each issue, all guided by our commitment to quality and diversity. Editors have included past and present Magma Board members such as Clare Pollard, Jacqueline Saphra, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Ella Frears and Leo Boix, and guest editors such as Anne-Marie Fyfe, Roddy Lumsden, Annie Freud and Kayo Chingonyi.

Besides poems from all over the world, each Magma has our Inspired feature in which a well-known poet writes a new poem in response to a poet of the past and is interviewed about the experience. This has created an archive which is extraordinarily varied and surprising in itself: for example, Mark Doty on Frank O’Hara, Matthew Sweeney on Georg Trakl, Patience Agbabi on Chaucer, Inua Ellams on Keats, Fleur Adcock on Milton and Daljit Nagra on Thomas Campion.

Beyond this, there are articles on poetry exploring the critical issues of our time and 12 reviews of pamphlets and collections by new and established poets.

Our thanks to all the poets, reviewers, Board members, editors, designers and others who have worked together to make Magma such a vibrant magazine for the past 26 years.

As samples of what’s available in our E-Archive, why not take a look at these?

C A Conrad poem, Magma 6, Winter 1995

Tracey Emin poem, drawing and interview, Magma 10, Summer 1997

Kim Addizonio – Quantum, Magma 11, Winter 1997

Jen Hadfield – Showcase, Magma 28, Spring 2004

Alastair Campbell’s favourite poem, Magma 34, Spring 2006

Tolu Ogunlesi – London Bridges, Magma 35, Summer 2006

Roddy Lumsden’s interview with six young poets, Magma 40, Spring 2008

Presiding Spirit (Inspired) – Inua Ellams, Magma 52, Spring 2012

They are available to everyone until 19th September 2021.

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