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Eye On The Wolf

Eyewear has long considered The Wolf one of the best places for a poet to appear in print. Founded by Nicholas Cobic and James Byrne in 2002, it is now edited solely by James Byrne. It is a tri-quarterly, and has a website (designed by Matt Williams) which can be found at www.wolfmagazine.co.uk.

As the recent editorial in the Autumn 2006 (13th issue) puts it: "unlike certain magazines there's no inner circle ... Anyone is welcome to submit." And anyone does. The Wolf features a broad, if London-savvy, spectrum of poets, including Wayne Smith, Julia Bird, Sally Read, Niall McDevitt, Valeria Melchioretto - each worth reading. My work also appears in issue 13 (as in a few earlier ones).

The Wolf is mostly fearless, and says and does as it pleases. It bows to no ideological slant, school, or style, though it tends to like well-written poetry. This pleases the iconoclast within me, though it no doubt puts fear into those who wish to run the woods as their own poetry patch. Recently, and refreshingly, it was shortlisted in the Forward prizes for Fiona Sampson's poem, "Trumpeldor Beach". Long live such wolfishness!


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