Week 1 of the academic year isn’t the best moment to throw together idle thoughts about poetry. So this week is simply two recommendations for some just-published reading that I’m looking forward to getting around to soon…
The first is the debut issue of Propel magazine, which accepts submissions from poets based in the UK or Ireland who have yet to publish their first full-length poetry collection. Issue 1 has been edited by Mary Jean Chan — and I’m editing Issue 2, for which submissions close today! https://www.propelmagazine.co.uk/submissions
My second tip is The Plum Review (Broken Sleep Books), a punnet of contemporary responses to William Carlos Williams’ famous poem about the plums that were (not) in the fridge, and possibly the most stylistically eclectic anthology to be published this century. I’m honoured — and frankly, over-promoted — to be in it, with a tweet: more importantly, for your money you get everyone from Hollie McNish and Vahni (Anthony Ezekiel) Capildeo to J. H. Prynne and Penelope Shuttle, via Uncle Plum Cobbler and all. Plus, your money itself goes to the Trussell Trust. Open the fridge door here: https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/the-plum-review