Salt Publishing

Breaking the Line

I've been in discussion recently with a young poet re his poetry submission to Horizon. I thought some of his line-breaks needed to be reassessed. He disagreed. After sitting down with a print-out of his poems and taking the time to read them, slowly, aloud - these are not short poems! - I began to come round to his way of thinking.

Having been in poetry over ten years now, both as an editor and as a poet myself, I'm used to meeting head-on the preciousness and self-indulgence of poets whose work is being edited or rejected. And maybe because I'm reconsidering for myself, as a poet, the role and importance of the line-break, such questions are at the forefront of my mind right now. Basically, I felt some of the breaks were visually clumsy, that they stood out on the page, eye-catching mistakes, that he had broken too often on 'off-beat' words like 'of' or 'the'. Yet at the same time I was struck enough by the various arguments put forward by this young poet to want to find out if he was right ... to test his theories against the sound of the poetry itself.

And listening to his poems properly, experiencing the flow and balance of them, I found it hard to see how else to break the line except where he had already broken it. So I'm going to take a chance on these particular pieces, even though I'm still not entirely convinced by the 'look' of them on the page. Because an important part of running a literary magazine is remaining open to work which is different or which challenges your own preconceptions about what you like as an editor.

I suppose the key word here is risk.

We take risks, both as writers and editors, in order to test and push beyond the boundaries we put up to protect ourselves against things that are 'different'. Sometimes a risk succeeds magnificently. Sometimes it falls flat on its face, and so do we. Not being quite sure which it will be until the very last moment is disconcerting ... but also part of the fun.



tags: editing, poetry, line-breaks

Art on the Horizon

I was at an event in Coventry last night - "Night Blue Fruit", a monthly poetry evening at the Liquid Cafe Bar in the City Arcade - and got talking to a few people about art in the West Midlands.




It was a revelation to me to discover how many artists could be found at a poetry event, and how varied their work was. You might imagine poets would be the only breed to frequent an open mic on a quiet Thursday in Coventry. But in fact the division between poets and those who work in other artistic mediums can be astonishingly thin, one almost bleeding into the other.

During the evening, I spoke to one painter and sketch artist who had been writing poems for more than six decades, and a photographer and collector of 'found' items for exhibition who writes poems specifically to accompany his work.

"Night Blue Fruit" was indeed a fruitful venue - and the party atmosphere was terrific as always! - which has left me on the trail of several local artists for possible inclusion in the first and subsequent issues of Horizon Review.

But the internet knows no local boundaries. Are you an artist? Do you work with materials and/or photography? Would you like your work to be considered for HR?

Wherever you are in the world, send art and literature submission queries - with a few samples, preferably, and a 75 word biog. - by email to submissions-horizon@saltpublishing.com




tags: art, call for submissions, photography,

Small World, Poetry

Less than a week since Horizon Review went live, and the submissions have already started flooding in. Thanks to all those who've sent work; I'll get back to you in order, as soon as I've had a chance to sit down and read through your work with proper attention. Which means sending out for pizza and letting the housework slide ... yet again!

Some of you may be wondering how I first got involved with Salt Publishing. Well, very briefly, I 'met' Chris Hamilton-Emery, editor at Salt, online a few years ago - in a poetry forum, unsurprisingly. I discovered that he was also Chris Emery, whose poetry I had published many years before in my own little magazine called Blade. Which just goes to show what a small word British poetry is. And even smaller now, with the advent of the internet.

Later, we got chatting via email. I trundled off to Cambridge to meet the man himself and Jen, his wife and co-director at Salt, and less than a year later a book was born out of that meeting: Boudicca & Co.



Now I'm editing Horizon Review, one of a number of free online magazines associated with Salt Publishing - more on their way!

So when your partner or spouse starts complaining that 'you spend too much time online', you can point out to them that it's an excellent way for writers like yourself to meet other people in the business. It's also great fun. Everyone seems to be online these days, messing about on the literary blogs and message boards, from complete newbies to well-known authors; even if their pseudonyms - PinkRabbit123, for instance, or SlamDunk - do rather too good a job at times of concealing their true identities!


tags: Chris Hamilton-Emery, Jen Hamilton-Emery, internet, Blade

Back in the Saddle

It's nearly ten years since I was last a magazine editor. That time it was Blade, a small magazine conceived out of a desire to learn about the poetry business by plunging in, print-first, and a naivety that told me I could always get out if I didn't like it. It launched in 1995 and ran for nine issues before folding in 1999.

Blade was brilliant, always packed with vital new poetry and provocative criticism. It was the sort of magazine that could have run and run. But sadly I outgrew it in the end, as so often happens with young editors. I also discovered that poetry is addictive; there was no getting out after Blade. I was hooked!



So now here I am again. Back in the editorial saddle. And launching a brand new lit-mag this September, under the exciting and innovative umbrella of Salt Publishing. But this time there's no need to learn the basics and no naivety left. Only a desire and a determination to publish the very best and most inspiring poetry, short fiction and critical articles I can find.

Horizon Review

The new magazine is called Horizon Review, an homage to the 1940s lit-mag Horizon founded by Cyril Connolly and Stephen Spender. Following the best traditions of that magazine, a critical edge will be in evidence from the first issue, with an emphasis on encouraging and developing new types of writing.

If you're thinking of submitting, the sort of poetry I'll be looking for will be ambitious, technically excellent, and original. Short fiction should be doing something a little different, not necessarily experimental in structure and style, but certainly pitching its notes higher than the other stories around it. For articles and reviews, I'll be looking for the most questioning and provocative writing, the most brilliantly innovative methods of analysis, and a broad appreciation of the arts in general.

More on all that later though. Let me find my feet first!

New Media

There'll also be plenty of opportunities for new media to play a part: podcasting, video, plus interactive poetry and fiction. The jazzier and more inventive the better.

If you have any ideas for media installations you'd like to discuss, you can contact me via the Horizon submissions page or email me: jane@saltpublishing.com


tags: new media installations, submissions, Blade, back in the saddle, Horizon Review,