Poetry London is an arts charity and leading international poetry magazine where acclaimed contemporary poets share pages with exciting new names. Published three times a year in February, May and September, each issue contains new poetry, incisive reviews and features. Poetry London holds an annual poetry competition and launches each issue with readings from distinguished poet contributors to the magazine.

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Poetry London Spring 2021 cover

Spring 2021: Issue 98

The Spring 2021 issue of Poetry London, Martha Sprackland’s final issue as acting poetry editor, contains translations from Spanish and Dutch, a stunning, adamant erasure-poem written through the Ferguson Report by American poet Nicole Sealey, and a showcase of new work emerging from the inaugural residency of the Obsidian Foundation, introduced by its founder, Nick Makoha. There is new work by Selima Hill, Major Jackson, Holly Pester, Ruth Padel, Paul Muldoon and Rowan Ricardo Phillips, among many, many others. Poets interrogate the notion of work, family and love in a changed world, in an issue that is at once provoking, entertaining, exhilarating and insistent. Newcomers to the magazine include Adham Smart and Alex Bell.

Threading through the prose of the issue are three essays that address the shifting contours of poetry and society since the start of the pandemic. Marvin Thompson writes about balancing the demands of creativity, community and activism, at a time when poets are being asked to step up to the plate. Zoë Brigley presents a report from the field, reflecting on how digital technology and online events can improve accessibility and equalities. In the issue’s third essay, Laura Maw offers close readings of recent poems by Nadia de Vries, Warsan Shire, and Leah Horlick, three poets whose work depicting the trauma of domestic spaces resonates newly during lockdown.

Our interview for the issue sees Jennifer Lee Tsai talk to T.S. Eliot Prize-winner Bhanu Kapil about her transatlantic career, and the ongoing quest to find ‘a sentence that shakes’. And as always, alongside the features in the issue, you will find the most incisive reviews of new poetry, surveying recent collections by Natalie Diaz, Fred Moten, David Morley, and many more.

A selection of poems and articles are available to read online here.

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