Archives
Edition Nine: Masque
Welcome to the Masquerade. This issue we’ve gone all elegant and mysterious, and thrown an opulent poetry party for you to enjoy. We like your outfit. Circulate, schmooze, have a good time. Try the latest Aiko Harman; sample a Japanese town in decay, infused with the spirits of glamorous geishas past. Or perhaps you’d prefer the short film that Andrew MacMillan has provided for this evening’s entertainment. Engage in stimulating debate with Dan Hitchens, and let Jen Hadfield delight you with tales of the poetry collection she put together on her travels through Canada and the Scottish islands. Don’t forget to save the last dance for Jonathan Parkin, and then perhaps have a reviving cup of breakfast tea with James Wilcox before the carriages at dawn.
Edition Eight: Saint
No mistakin’, this issue’s a long’un – I’ll keep the introduction brief so that you can spend the maximum amount of time enjoying all the poems! We’ve just had so many good submissions this time that it was impossible to narrow it down to the usual short sharp selection, so we went all out with a big summer blockbuster which, we think, rivals Harry Potter. The theme this issue is SAINT, and while we have plenty of angelic on-theme poems, we also have some completely irrelevant stuff that is just as good. And maybe it was a mistake to mention the rejected theme of ‘Naked Jungle Slide’ last issue, but then again maybe it wasn’t… have a look at Daniel Payne’s amazing poem and you’ll see what I mean.
Edition Seven: March
Young poets are a contumacious lot. We asked for poems on the theme of ‘March’ and we’ve ended up publishing one poem called ‘October’, one about meeting October’s “chill air with clogged lungs”, and one called ‘Midsummer’s Eve’. But we like that the theme was interpreted pretty loosely, and in most of the poems it became a springboard to explore the passage of the months, the changing seasons, and even festivals and events that fall at specific times in the year. There are also some poems that have nothing whatsoever to do with March, just to keep things interesting.
Edition Six: Noise
It’s been a while but trust us, it’s worth waiting for. Sound the sirens, ring the church bells, and rattle those weird wooden things you get at football matches, because Pomegranate is hurtling into the future with a super-modern ultra-scientific techno-dynamic AUDIO issue. That’s right, we’ve finally harnessed the powers of the wireless and teamed up with the visionary Alex Pryce, founder and director of PoetCasting. This issue we’re bringing you recordings of some of our favourite poems, plus new material, from the first year of Pomegranate, read by the poets themselves. This revolutionary multi-sensory experience has been tirelessly worked towards and put together by Alex, alongside Pomegranate’s own Adham Smart. We hope this issue will go down in literary history as a collage of the work of the best young poets writing in 2009, who later went on to be great laureates, win Nobel Prizes, and influence the literary canon for ever after, as we feel sure they will.
Edition Five: Myth
Welcome to ‘Myth’, the fifth issue of Pomegranate magazine. As editors we were pleased to see that the broad theme got a lot of you thinking down a wide variety alleyways branching off from that slightly vague word, and some of the poetic paths you were led down bore fantastic fruit.
Edition Four: Suck
This is the fourth issue of Pomegranate magazine, which makes it the last in our first cycle of quarterly editions. In a way, that means it’s Christmas; but that’s not the only reason for Issue 4’s bulging bumper sack of 31 poems. The volume of submissions our team read continues to grow, issue by issue, and we’re always astounded at how much talent there is out there.
Edition Three: Time
Time flies. Issue three already! So we’ve named this one “Time”, as it seemed pretty appropriate, and once again we’ve got some really amazing poems along our theme dotted throughout the issue, as well as some other brilliant work. The articles this issue are great, too – some of them are vicious and passionate, others are a bit calmer, but all of them will give you a lot to think about. We hope you like them!
Edition Two: Meat
We were feeling bloodthirsty this month at Pomegranate Towers, which is just as well, as we’ve had a deluge of the meatiest submissions we could ever hope to sink our teeth into. It’s been really exciting to see the zine taking off and attracting interest from all directions! This issue we’re bringing you work from a few very well-known writers on the scene, including a Forward Prize nominee and several editors of poetry magazines, but we’ve also included a good helping of brilliant new young talent for your tastebuds only. While we’re here, we’d like to invite you to join us, along with several of our poets, on the Pomegranate forums for poetry workshops, discussion of events in the poetry world or just general chat – we won’t bite. So, instead of just tucking into the turkey over Christmas, indulge yourself and snatch a mouthful of the juiciest, meatiest writing it’s possible to get over the internet. Probably.
Edition One
Welcome to the first issue of Pomegranate, a new zine with the specific aim of celebrating, promoting and encouraging young poets. We’ve noticed that at the moment, it’s very difficult for young writers to get their work recognised in the world of poetry – there are several competitions for children and teenagers, but when a poet reaches the age of 18 they can often find themselves suddenly alone, and competing for places in magazines and readings with experienced writers, often 20 or 30 years their senior. In addition, not many parents are thrilled to hear that their child has set their heart on one of the least lucrative careers in the working world; poets are not the most obvious pillars of society.