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Synopsis of Issue 32 on the Inpress Books website
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About Me Artists Books & Stuff Competition Contact Me Diary Events FAQ's Film Profiles Film Reviews Frank's Page Genre Bending Hand Picked Lit Links Heroes Index Links Lit Mag Central The New Review New Stuff Projects Publications Punk @ laurahird.com Recipes Samples Sarahs Ancestors Save Our Short Story Site Map Showcase Tynie Talk RELATED ITEMS![]() Order Henry Shukmans Sandstorm Order Henry Shukmans In Doctor Nos Garden Order Clare Pollards Look Clare Look Order Clare Pollards The Heavy-Petting Zoo Order Marilyn Hackers Desesperanto: Poems 1999-2002 Order Marilyn Hackers Love, Death and the Changing of Seasons Order James Sutherland-Smiths In the Country of Birds Order Sally Festings Gertrude Jekyll Order Alan Jenkins A Shorter Life
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This issue of Magma has a sea theme, in conjunction with SeaBritain 2005, and comes with a blue cover in the magazines usual square format. Magmas strength lies in its mix of poetry, reviews, interviews, and articles. It offers diversity for the reader, and a subscription to Magma alone would be an excellent way of keeping abreast of the contemporary poetry scene. Issue 32 of the magazine is edited by Mick Delap. Theres so many poems worth picking out. Henry Shukmans Shanty: The world outside this room has evaporated / into cloud, and from the cloud / again and again / comes the chime of the church clock, / the hours on fast forward. Theres more great lines: This cabin / is the chamber of the shell you sought as a girl, / with an endless inward spiral. / It whispered in your ear, shell to shell. There are three poems from Clare Pollard. Mission Beach and For my Fiancé are particularly good. The latter opens with: At first, engaged, unused to jewellery, / I turn the ring like a loose tooth - / lying in bed aware of its touch, like the touch / of a finger to thigh. These are intimate and personal poems. Not all the poems in the magazine have a sea theme. Hélène Armstrongs Remember the Tulips is reminiscent of Kathleen Jamies poem Daisies in Jamie's collection, The Tree House. David Bolls The Enemy in the Attic describes scary childhood encounters with spiders. Brian Turners Alhazen of Basra looks back to the physicist Abu Ali Hasan Ibn Al-Haitham who lived one thousand years ago and who made important contributions to science. Christopher James gives us a wonderful image in his poem Reward: Across their laps, sub-machine guns lie in flagrante / like dogs at the end of the day, grinning in their sleep. Helen Overells Beit Hanoun, Gaza, 19th April 2001 is both beautiful and disturbing: men stood bone struck / on trampled tank tracks, women dazed / statues in stone staggered nightmare Moroccan poet, Rachida Madani, is the Showcased author in this issue. Her poems have been translated by Marilyn Hacker. Its impossible to name all the memorable works, but Concerning Some Pictures by Tony Curtis, The Autopsy by James Sutherland-Smith, Sally Festings The Banks of the Pamba, Laura Chalars 6.15 a.m., Vicci Bentleys Birth and Alan Buckleys Missing the Point are just a few. On the non-fiction side, theres an article by Mark McGuinness on what the internet has to offer poets; Clare Pollard looks at the Poetry Book Societys selected or recommended books for this season - Alan Jenkins collection A Shorter Life seems to be a particular book to look out for. Theres an article on the search for the best sea poem, and plenty of other reading too. Magma is not only a high quality magazine, its also accessible, and good value for money. Reproduced with permission Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so shes not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. For a selection of Karas writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here ![]()
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MAGMA Issue 32 (Summer 2005) Reviewed by: Kara Kellar Bell |
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