Fin Begins

The first issue of the Nottingham-based poetry magazine FIN is now available. It's not on the internet, but on real paper. That's unusual. Edited by Nigel Pickard and Rosie Garner, it's an elegant little thing and you could fall in love with it just on looks alone. Once inside, it gets even better. It's just poems. Nothing else. Just poems. Enough to be satisfying, not too many to be an onslaught. It's a very simple formula, and one that works.

Also, one particularly wonderful moment occurs across pages 9 and 10. On page 9 is Catherine Clarke's poem, "Chthonian In The Sky", not all of which I will quote but the last two lines are "the coming of a creature even bleaker than they - / chthonian in the sky." Right, it's not my favourite poem in the magazine. But over opposite, on page 10, is C.J. Allen's "Poem".... of which I will quote a chunk from two stanzas:

.............................. Some poets
will casually deploy words like eldritch, ontic,

topos and chthonic that may cause
the reader to turn away or turn to other books.

I must remember to ask Nigel if this was deliberate.

I would list all the poets, but that'd be boring. But let's face it, any magazine that has among its initial contributors Ian McMillan, Mark Halliday, Mairead Byrne, C.J.Allen, Hugo Williams, John Lucas and, well, me...... come on, it has to be worth a look, doesn't it?

One issue costs £3.50. A year's worth (4 issues) is £12. Order from FIN, PO Box 9207, Nottingham, NG14 7WP.

Comments

[C. J. Allen]

I know! Chthonic/chthonian - spooky. What's more, & I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed yet, but my poem 'Poem' is immediately followed by ... that's right ... a poem - spookier?

Good reading the other evening, I thought. Someone who'd gone along from my work - said 'That Martin guy, he had a nice suit, didn't he? & he was funny.' That's post-modern litcrit for you.

[Nigel Pickard]

Deliberate! That Rosie Garner is clever. Way you can tell: poems in alphabetical title order, except CJ's 'Poem'. Liked Martin's suit the other night too. Thought CJ's outfit was chthonic. If I understand that word correctly. Both poets were 'funny'.

[Martin]

The suit will soon have its own website. It will not be funny.

[Rosie Garner]

I thought both suits were more platonic. I noticed because I was wearing my socratic skirt. Which was not funny.

[Steven Waling]

Just thought I'd let you know - I'm often in or near Nottingham at the moment, as writer-in-residence at HMP Whatton.