Magma Poetry, better known mononymously as Magma, is a London-based poetry magazine, publishing work on and about poetry, and known for appointing a different editor every issue. It was founded by Helen Nicholson and Laurie Smith in 1994, with its first issue edited by Smith, and appearing in March 1994. Since 1994, a total of 91 issues of Magma have appeared by December 2024. The team run the Magma Poetry, Pamphlet and Subscribers-only competitions.
Early days Conceived sometime in "the summer of 1992" with 'Urban Fox' as one of the proposed names, Magma was founded by Nicholson and Smith in 1994. It is published three times a year, usually in spring, summer and autumn. The original team also included Mick Delap, David Boll (chairman), Peter Ashton Jones and Martin Sonenberg (illustrations), and Ronald Frank (treasurer). Nicholson, at that time, served as secretary, and Smith as editorial secretary. In 1994, Magma worked with the City Lit, being located in Stukeley Street, off Drury Lane, and called themselves The Stukeley Press.
The first issue of Magma featured eleven poets, and the second, edited by Boll, included work by fourteen poets. An interview with poet Carol Ann Duffy was published in the third. In their Autumn 1995 newsletter, the Suffolk Poetry Society called Magma "well presented and printed", noting their "good selection of poetry." In later issues, reviews have also had an important place in the magazine.
The subtitle in the initial issues was "New Poetry from Around the World", which they stopped using after No. 18, and the cover became similar to as it is today from Magma 27, the Autumn 2003 issue. The current subtitle for the magazine is "The poetry magazine with a different editor every issue", and the issues are now themed, with the issue editors specialising in the said kind of poetry. The first themed issue, however, was No. 19 ("New Love Poems") which was edited by Mick Delap. The current cover design pattern for Magma was first taken up in No. 56 – "The Poetry of Clothes", edited by the poets Julia Bird and Helen Mort. It was further tweaked, although only a little (perhaps to make it look more organised), in No. 65, and then in No. 68.
Later years In 2005, Magma, working with SeaBritain 2005, conducted a poll to identify the UK's "favourite sea poem". The poem 'Sea Fever', published in 1900 by John Masefield, the UK Poet Laureate between 1930 and 1967, won the vote. Some of the other poems included in the top 10 were Martin Newell's 'The Song of the Waterlily', Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', and 'Christmas At Sea' by Robert Louis Stevenson.
In "celebration of 50 issues of Magma", a new poetry competition was launched in October 2011. The first ever judge for the competition was George Szirtes. After 2011, the competition has been judged by such poets as Caroline Bird, Daljit Nagra Marvin Thompson, Victoria Kennefick, and Andrew McMillan. The list of winners has included Maggie Smith, Inua Ellams, Jonathan Edwards, James Pollock, and Mona Arshi, who was the winner of the inaugural competition for her poem 'Hummingbird', and judge for the 2017/18 competition.
Celebrating 25 years, the Open Pamphlet Competition was announced in 2018 by Lisa Kelly, Chair of Magma. The inaugural winner was Alice Willitts's Dear, selected by the board members and published in 2019. The later winners of the competition have been: Alexa Winik, for Close River (selected by Mary Jean Chan, judge for the Magma Open Pamphlet Competition 2020), Asim Khan, for Annihilation (selected by Alycia Pirmohamed, judge for the 2022 competition), and Michael Greavy for The Man Who Made Up Trees (selected by Niall Campbell, who judged the 2024 competition).
In 2020, the University of Central Lancashire-based poet and researcher Yvonne Reddick was awarded an AHRC grant of £92,720. A proposition was to work with Magma to inspire writing about the environment. The said issue was published in Autumn/October 2021, as Magma 81 – "Anthropocene". Reddick was also an editor, with Adam Lowe, of the "Loss" issue, in which they commissioned "a series of poems" that would explore loss. One of the poems, 'The Little Miracles' written by Malika Booker, went on to win the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2020.
In 2021, the team launched their then 27-year archive on the Exact Editions platform, which also contains many other journals' archives, such as those of The Poetry Review and Modern Poetry in Translation.
Publication Today, Magma receives well over "thousands of submissions" from the UK and abroad, and a large number of poets and artists of related fields have so far worked towards editing its many issues. Some of the more popular names include Clare Pollard, Roddy Lumsden, Helen Mort, Hannah Lowe, Ilya Kaminsky, Victoria Kennefick and Ian McEwan. Below is an extensive list of people who have edited Magma since 1994.
1994 1 (Spring): Laurie Smith 2 (Summer): David Boll 3 (Winter): Vicci Bentley
1995 4 (Spring): Helen Nicholson 5 (Summer): Mark Reid 6 (Autumn): Rick Roots
1996 7 (Spring): Mick Delap 8 (Summer): Martin Sonenberg 9 (Autumn): John Stammers
1997 10 (Summer): Sarah Brown 11 (Winter): Tim Kindberg
1998 12 (Spring): Mary MacRae 13 (Winter): Jane Ormerod
1999 14 (Spring): Gautam Naik 15 (Autumn): Laurie Smith
2000 16 (Winter): David Boll 17 (Spring): Karen Green 18 (Autumn): Mary MacRae
2001 19 (Autumn) – "New Love Poems": Mick Delap 20 (Summer): Helen Nicholson 21 (Autumn): Laurie Smith
2002 22 (Winter): David Boll 23 (Summer): Karen Green 24 (Autumn): Pat Ransford
2003 25 (Winter) – "Poetry on Foreign Lands": Tim Kindberg 26 (Summer) – "Questions of travel": Mick Delap 27 (Autumn) – "Same-sex relationships": Tim Robertson
2004 28 (Spring): Laurie Smith 29 (Summer): David Boll
2004/05 30 (Winter) – "10th Anniversary Issue": Karen Green
2005 January – "10th Anniversary Anthology": Tim Robertson 31 (Spring): John Stammers 32 (Summer) – "Measuring the Sea": Mick Delap 33 (Winter) – "The unnoticed, the ignored": Tim Kindberg
2006 34 (Spring): Mark McGuinness 35 (Summer): Tim Robertson 36 (Autumn) – "Inscapes – Charting the Interior": Anne-Marie Fyfe
2007 37 (Spring): Laurie Smith 38 (Summer): David Boll 39 (Autumn): David Morphet
2008 40 (Spring) – "Passions and Obsessions": Roddy Lumsden 41 (Autumn): Karen Green & Linda Black 42 (Autumn): Laurie Smith & Jacqueline Saphra
2009 43 (Spring): David Boll & Andrew Neilson 44 (Summer): Tim Kindberg & Rosie Shepperd 45 (Autumn): Clare Pollard
2010 46 (Spring): Jacqueline Saphra & Norbert Hirschhorn 47 (Summer): Annie Freud & Roberta James 48 (Autumn): Laurie Smith & Rob A Mackenzie
2011 49 (Spring): Julia Bird 50 (Summer): Clare Pollard & Mary Tymkow 51 (Autumn): Jacqueline Saphra & Ian McEwan
2012 52 (Spring) – "Putting On The Mask": Roberta James & Helen Nicholson 53 (Summer) – "Poetry and Music": Rob A Mackenzie & Kona Macphee 54 (Autumn) – "The Visible and the Invisible": Judy Brown & Cherry Smyth
2013 55 (Spring) – "The Soul & The Machine": Tim Kindberg & Karen McCarthy Woolf 56 (Summer) – "The Poetry of Clothes": Julia Bird & Helen Mort 57 (Summer) – "The Shape of the Poem": Ian McEwen & Hannah Lowe
2014 58 (Spring) – "The Music of Words": Laurie Smith & Richard Morris 59 (Summer) – "Breaks": Roberta James & Alex Pryce 60 (Autumn) – "Freedom": Rob A Mackenzie & Tony Williams
2015 61 (Spring) – "The Street": Jon Sayers & Nick Sunderland 62 (Summer) – "Violence": Chris Kerr & Kayo Chingonyi 63 (Autumn) – "Conversation": Susannah Hart & Lisa Kelly
2016 64 (Spring) – "Risk": Dom Bury & Jon Stone 65 (Summer) – "Revolution": Laurie Smith & Jane R Rogers 66 (Winter) – "Comedy": John Canfield & Ella Frears
2017 67 (Spring) – "Bones & Breath": Rob A. Mackenzie & A.B. Jackson 68 (Summer) – "Margins": David Floyd & Lucy Howard-Taylor 69 (Winter) – "The Deaf Issue": Lisa Kelly & Raymond Antrobus
2018 70 (Spring) – "Europe": Susannah Hart & Paul Stephenson 71 (Summer) – "The Film Issue": Cheryl Moskowitz & Stav Poleg 72 (Autumn) – "The Climate Change Issue": Matt Howard, Fiona Moore & Eileen Pun
2019 73 (Spring) – "Changeling": Ella Frears & Richard Scott 74 (Summer) – "Work": Benedict Newbery & Pauline Sewards 75 (Autumn) – "Loss": Yvonne Reddick & Adam Lowe
2020 76 (Spring) – "Resistencia": Leo Boix & Nathalie Teitler 77 (Summer) – "Act Your Age": Gboyega Odubanjo, Selina Rodrigues & Christine Webb 78 (Autumn) – "Collaborations": David Floyd & Alice Willitts
2021 79 (Spring) – "Dwelling": Zoë Brigley, Kristian Evans & Rob A. Mackenzie 80 (Summer) – "Avatars": Petra Kamula, Golnoosh Nour & Richard Skinner 81 (Autumn) – "Anthropocene": Maya Chowdhry, Cheryl Moskowitz & Yvonne Reddick
2022 82 (Spring) – "Obsidian": Nick Makoha, Gboyega Odubanjo & Zakia Carpenter-Hall 83 (Summer) – "Solitude": Isabelle Baafi, Ilya Kaminsky & Lisa Kelly 84 (Winter) – "Physics": Susannah Hart and Stav Poleg
2023 85 (Spring) – "Poems for schools": Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Laurie Smith & Gill Ward 86 (Summer) – "Food": Ella Frears & Sean Wai Keung 87 (Autumn) – "Islands": Niall Campbell, Fiona Moore & Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa
2024 88 (Spring) – "Underworld": Leo Boix, Ella Duffy & Kate Simpson 89 (Summer) – "Performance": Mariam Chaudhri, David Floyd & Josiane Smith 90 (Autumn) – "Grassroots": Lisa Kelly & Patrizia Longhitano
2025 91 (Spring) – "In the Flesh": Aoife Lyall & Victoria Kennefick 92 (Summer) – "Ownership": Paul Stephenson, Kathy Pimlott & Danne Jobin 93 (Autumn) – "The Liberation Issue": Isabelle Baafi, Sohini Basak & Tim Tim Cheng
2026 94 (Spring) – "REMIX": Elontra Hall, Willie Lee Kinard III & Lola Oh 95 (Summer) – "Architecture": Leo Boix & Stav Poleg 96 – "The Antarctic": Cheryl Moskowitz, Elizabeth Lewis Williams & Branwell Roberts
2027 97 – "Diasporic Dialogues": Zakia Carpenter-Hall, Elontra Hall, and Nick Makoha
Magma is often applauded for a unique approach of having "different editors for each issue." It is also known for the blog posts, and for the interviews, and the team organise launch events for the issues.
Team
The current Chair of Magma is the poet Lisa Kelly, who also edited "The Deaf Issue" with the poet Raymond Antrobus. Julia Bird, who edited two issues for the magazine, is one of the previous members on the board, alongside Gboyega Odubanjo. It now also includes, among others, Susannah Hart, Paul Stephenson, and Cheryl Moskowitz, who also edited the "Anthropocene" issue with Yvonne Reddick and Maya Chowdhry. As the reviews editor for the magazine, Aoife Lyall replaced Rob A. Mackenzie, who had been in the position for over ten years.
Notes 1.As of 7 July 2026, the 95th issue of Magma was the latest release, and a newer submission call, for "Diasporic Dialogues" (97), had been announced earlier the same month, with the deadline as the 31st of July. The submission call for Magma 95 – "Architecture" was launched early in November 2025, with submissions closing on the 10th of December.
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