critical writing

Criticism is as necessary to the continuance of art as the art itself is: if poets are (as has been said) like hyenas round a watering hole, then criticism is like the watering hole – a place where we meet, discuss, debate, and replenish.

My reviews, essays and articles on a variety of subjects have appeared in a variety of publications, including: the Contemporary Poetry Review, The Dark Horse, the Guardian, Hackney Citizen, the Liberal, the London Magazine, Magma, Poetry London,  the Rialto, the Wolf, among others. Some of these are available to read online.

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Horizon Review

In July 2010 I took over as editor of Salt Publishing’s online magazine Horizon Review, set up in homage to Cyril Connolly’s great ‘little magazine’ of the forties, Horizon.

My involvement with the magazine had begun with its first issue: of the four issues before I took over, I had work in every one.

Horizon Review is largely poetry-centric, but its chief aim is to situate poetry where it belongs: in the midst of a thriving intellectual and creative arts culture. Poems in Horizon Review take their place among short stories, essays, reviews of every art form, translations, interviews, pictures.

We’re committed to excellence – and also to the spirit of adventure and surprise which produces it. We like the offbeat, the affirmative, the really interesting, the witty, the deeply interrogative, and above all the very skillfully executed.

Go on, surprise us.