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I’m happy to have poems in three lively on-line lit mags this summer. I always look forward to receiving the latest cache from each of them via the convenience of email. Atrium Poetry is the love child of Claire Walker, who careful selects two new poems per week. London Grip’s poetry section is curated by Michael Bartholomew-Briggs with a full magazine’s worth of poems to get stuck into every…

My amazing friend Zoya is 100 today! She’s lived a century of turmoil but still thrives. She survived the horrors of war and dictatorship before coming to England, where she married, worked, raised a family. A hundred poems couldn’t sum her up, but here’s one I prepared earlier which The Spectator published last year. Here’s the poem ‘Survivor’ below.

Another exquisite issue of Jan Heritage’s Finished Creatures is out in the world, with ‘trespass’ as its theme. I’m chuffed that my poem ‘Heartsease’ in the previous issue inspired this issue’s theme. Jan ensures a subtle link each time by printing a poem from the previous magazine on the inside cover, to set the new theme and create a connection between issues. Finished Creatures is such a…

Music is the theme for The Alchemy Spoon‘s 17th issue, with poems from Charlie Baylis, Claire Booker, Carole Bromley, Anthony Mair, Fokkina McDonnell, Shivpreet Singh, Paul Stephenson, Judith Wozniak and Veronica Zundel, among others. “Without music, life would be a mistake” wrote Nietzsche, and these poems give a range of insights into why. The featured poet, Sarah Mnatzaganian, weaves cellos…

Gratitude to Gerry Cambridge for publishing my poem on Lady Macbeth in his fine biannual journal The Dark Horse. All things Scottish and literary meet here, although the spread of interest is wider still, thanks in part to its joint editorial base in New York run by Jennifer Goodrich. Writers in this bumper 48th issue include Claire Booker, Jim Carruth, Polly Clark, Geraldine Clarkson, Mave…

I’m delighted to have three new poems in Dreamcatcher‘s 175 page bumper issue, which includes poetry, short stories, an interview with Northern Gravy‘s Ralph Dartford about ‘Recovery’ poetry and prison workshops, book reviews and eye-catching visuals from featured UK artist Kimbal Bumstead. Writers in this issue include Jean Atkin, Paul Bavister, Claire Booker, Angela Brodie, Pamela Coren,…

A shout-out for the 18th edition of Poetry & All That Jazz launched at this year’s Chichester Festival, featuring sixty poets, including Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, Claire Booker, Louis de Bernieres, Naomi Foyle, Charlotte Gann, Robert Hamberger, Frieda Hughes, Simon Jenner, Patricia McCarthy, Jessica Mookherjee, Alan Morrison, David Pollard, Myra Schneider, Penelope Shuttle and Sam Smith. Edited…

I’m super chuffed my poem ‘Whitsun Kids’ is a winner in The Poetry Society Members’ Poems Competition this summer, alongside poems by Jill Hopper, Tim Kiely, Alex McCrickard, Laura Mizrachi and Jane Wilkinson. A big thank you to judge Andre Bagoo for selecting it. And as if publication in Poetry News wasn’t enough, I opened the Poetry Society’s on-line newsletter to discover ‘Whitsun Kids had…

This month I have poems in two magazines with a definite fondness for rhyme. It’s good to know there’s a corner of the poetry world that welcomes what some consider old-fashioned sonic tricks. That said, my two poems in Orbis don’t use end-rhyme, and the poem in Light Up Online is only four lines long! Orbis, edited by Carole Baldock, is as much a community as a literary magazine. Full of useful…

I’m delighted to have a poem in Channel‘s 12th issue, with its exquisite cover by Angela Duffy and a lithesome array of fine poetry and prose. Highlights for me include stunning work by Patrick Deeley, Mai Ishikawa, Catriona Lane, Rhona McAdam and Niamh Twomey. In Notes from the Editors, Cassia Gaden Gilmartin explains that “Channel is born, in part, from the conviction that there is no absolute…

I finally had the pleasure of meeting Pennine Platform editor, Julia Deakin, at last month’s FREE VERSE FAIR in London. Her editorials in recent issues outline the gargantuan task she tackles, not only producing the magazine, but feeding back on poems submitted. She’s kindly included three of my poems in issue 97, alongside excellent work from poets such as Anna Bowles, Rachel Carney, L B…

is The Slowdown, a daily podcast of poetry and reflection hosted by poet and academic Major Jackson, who recently included my poem Cinema Paradiso. To listen to, or read, the poem, click here: https://www.slowdownshow.org/episode/2025/02/27/1304-cinema-paradiso-by-claire-booker Major Jackson is a professor at Vanderbilt University and the author of six poetry collections. His gorgeous reading…

My poem ‘Kimono Recycled’ appeared in The Spectator earlier this month. A big thank you to Hugo Williams for choosing it. You can read it here at: https://www.spectator.co.uk/poem/kimono-recycled/ The Feb 1st issue contains poems by Stewart Conn, Jamie McKendrick and Claire Booker. It’s heartening that poetry can still appear in mainstream publications. The Books & Arts section in particular is…

A big thank you to The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press for publishing one of my poems in their latest anthology, available to read free. Humour is so often the dog poo under a poet’s shoe, but here, with its grown-up definition of ‘reason gone mad’, you can enjoy every ounce of this book without a nose-wrinkle. “For the past two years, the team at The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press has been trying its best…

As we commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz 80 years on, my poem inspired by newsreel footage of an empty gas chamber has been published in The Alchemy Spoon. Joint editor, Roger Bloor in his editorial asks “do poems act as a form of barometer for the state of the world as perceived by writers? If Issue 14 is taken as an example, then the current areas of concern are war, aggression and loss,…

Artemis Poetry is the latest in a sad tally of literary magazines to have closed over the last year. What’s happening to the poetry world? Too few people wanting to read poetry, or prepared to pay for it? Thousands of poets spend good money on entering poetry competitions, so why not channel some of that cash into keeping lit mags afloat? Answers on a postcard please. However, I come not to bury…

A first time for me in The Amphibian Literary and Art Journal – a hefty twice-yearly tome of luscious art-work and words that has reached its seventh issue under the editorship of Netherlands-based Anna Potter. Hard copies don’t come cheap (postage costs don’t help), but you can enjoy it online for only 7 euros. It’s just that I’m a sucker for paper between my fingers, and the quality of artwork…