Poetry Magazine from Chicago has been a fixture in the realm of American literature. It's the THE best and the least trendy, slick, topical publication on the market. There are works in all forms in all concerns and modes of expression plus terrific reviews as well as thought provoking essays. For the best deal on subscriptions, try to hold back until holiday time when they offer reduced prices through their website. If you love good literature treat yourself to these higher standards.
I like Poetry Magazine mainly because there is a variety of different poets and styles. There is always something different. This magazine has been around for awhile, and from what I have read in the newspaper about the huge amount of money they just received they are being careful and are making sure they make the right decisions. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for them.
I certainly hope they don't change the size or shape of the publication. It is the perfect size to carry in your purse just in case you want something to read as you wait in line or run your errands. I like the style of the magazine, it suits the topic.
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Poetry magazine out of Chicago has been around since stew was invented. (When mankind first crawled up out of the swamp and discovered fire, what they had for dinner that night was stew). Well, ok, they're 75 years old and counting. You don't hang around that long unless you're the best. I first discovered them in a college library many, many years worth of copies it was a treasure trove of the 1st magnitude. There's invariably one or more poems (if not the majority)in each issue that'll make you glad you subscribed. No, they're not big on pictures (none but the cover and I remember one year when it was a drawing that didn't change for the whole year...urg) but it IS the best Poetry Magazine you will ever find.
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The older I get, the more am I fond of poetry. This is partly due to my increasing appreciation of this literary/artistic form, and partly with my increasing vexation with short fiction and literature as it has been published in recent years. It seems to me that poets are increasingly the ones who take chances with subject matter and form, while short stories for instance increasingly feel like cafeteria food despite all the supposed outward differences, most stories increasingly "taste" the same. Consequently, I have started paying more attention to poetry in various fiction journals, and have eventually come across "Poetry" journal. What I found there immensely impressed me. The journal consistently publishes some really high-quality poems. The poems invariably explore the depths of this genre; they are fresh and oftentimes provocative without being programmatic. The journal also frequently publishes translations of foreign-language poems. This practice is much more prevalent in European poetry journals, and it's good to see it on this side of the Atlantic as well. There are also frequent critical essays on all aspects of poetry. In other words, this is one of the best and most original poetry journals that you could ever hope to come across. If you love poetry, you will not go wrong with subscribing with it. I'd just suggest that you shop around a bit for the best subscription deal.
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Bottom-Line: The asking price for subscription is steep but "Poetry Magazine" is well worth the asking price.
When I first started writing poetry, I did so as a cathartic release, a soul cleansing exercise I needed to survive a very trying time in my life. Somewhere along to 100th poem I became convinced that I just had to be published in order feel like a real poet. And so I started visiting on-line writing sites and posting my poetry there in hopes of being discovered. So much for that! But I did hear about a periodical called "Poetry Magazine" a publication that could help me hone my craft, improve my presentation and style, and well, get published.
"Poetry Magazine"--a for-profit periodical--is published twelve times per year, by the Poetry Foundation, which is "an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience." The magazine was founded in Chicago in 1912 by Harriet Monroe making Poetry Magazine the oldest monthly "devoted to verse in the English-speaking world." Poetry Magazine's stated mission is "to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach." The magazine quickly established its reputation by publishing such notable poets as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H. D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg. As well as other well know and now celebrated poets.
Individual issues cost $3.75/U.S., $5.00 CAN, with a yearly subscription running $35.00 /$46.00 CAN, for a year; International subscriptions cost $46.00. I have had a subscription off and on for the past five years; it's on again.
"Poetry Magazine" is a publication for poets (and those who enjoy poetry) featuring the works of other poets. "Poetry Magazine" is not really a magazine about the art of writing poetry itself, but instead concentrates on publishing poetry of new and established poets. Do not open its mostly black and white print pages and expect articles about how to market your efforts or an in-depth analysis on how to write the perfect short story or craft the quintessential poem, you'll be disappointed. What you will find is a fairly unadorned little magazine that at most features as many as four poets at a time, publishing poems and or short stories by the authors. In other words, "Poetry Magazine" is strictly a reader magazine with most of its number pages devoted to the written word.
Some of the authors featured in the magazine are well known while others I have never head of before, but all make for a compelling read. I have to admit that I do not always read all of the poems, some are a little non-traditional for my tastes; instead I tend to skim the magazine and pick out interesting poems or short stories that speak to me.
"Poetry Magazine" is a thin volume with very few of its pages devoted to advertising of any sort. The magazine reminds me more of a book than a magazine mostly because of its unconventional size and format. The poems start right after the Table of Content and flow uninterrupted until the advertising/ announcements section, which only take up the last eight to ten pages of the typical magazine.
The only color you'll find in "Poetry Magazine" is on the cover, the rest of the magazine is printed in black and white. I supposed this to under-gird the magazine serious nature. "Poetry Magazine" is not a large tome, checking in at around 120 pages per issue.
In the final analysis I keep coming back to "Poetry Magazine" because the content is germane to where I'm at in my life right now. And because the magazine is small and I can usually get through an issue in a couple of nights. The asking price for subscription is steep but "Poetry Magazine" is well worth the asking price, if only because it introduces the reader to poets (s)he would otherwise have very little, or no exposure to.
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You can buy a subscription to the bimonthly "Audubon" magazine, but the best way to get it is as a benefit derived from joining the National Audubon Society (currently $35/year). Conservation is a central theme of this magazine, but it also has lots of gorgeous photographs of sandhill cranes, snowflakes, caribou, and everything else that you might expect from a nature magazine, although the articles tend toward pessimism ('grim realism' some might say.)
