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morphrog 27 goes live

The latest edition of morphrog is now live at www.morphrog.com, featuring poetry and prose by a roster of contributors from around the world. Work by familiar names – Angela Arnold, Ian Heffernan, Gordon Scapens, Gerald Seniuk, Ian C Smith, Rodney Wood – is complemented by contributions from newcomers Ben Banyard, Salvatore Difalco, Vyarka Kozareva, Massimiliano Nastri, James Owens, the pseudonymous sds and John White, whose poem ‘Picnic at St Catherine’s Guidlford’ is accompanied by a photograph of the event itself by Fred Pipes.

Number 27 is an especially varied edition, including as it does a  long poem about the story of Ukraine by Canadian poet Gerald Seniuk, himself of Ukrainian heritage, Ian Heffernan’s poems inspired by the work of Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai and republication of Luigi Coppola’s poem ‘Poetry Set to Music’, now set to music! Submissions for morphrog 28 (January 2024) are now open. Send no more than six poems, accompanied by a bio note and headshot, to morphrog@gmail.com

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morphrog26 lands

The 26th edition of morphrog is now live at www.morphrog.com.

This is another truly international edition, featuring poetry from Canada (Gerald Seniuk), Germany (Aprilia Zank), Ireland (Edward Lee), Italy (Alex Josephy and Davide Trame) and the USA (James G Piatt and Nolo Segundo) alongside work by UK poets Liz Adams, Jenny Hockey, Angela Kirby, Gordon Scapens and J S Watts.

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morphrog’s 25th number lands

morphrog 25, celebrating, as ever, ‘poetry in the extreme’, is now live at http://www.morphrog.com. This latest edition of Frogmore’s online journal includes work from Ella Walsworth-Bell, Ian Heffernan, Mark McDonnell, Heather Sager, Gordon Scapens, Ian C Smith and Rodney Wood and also features a gallery of photographs by the late Martin Kay, whose work has graced many previous editions.

morphrog now welcomes submissions of translations, short prose/flash fiction, photographs and other visual images and audio content, as well as poetry ‘in the extreme’ or otherwise. Visit www.morphrog.com for submission guidelines.

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morphrog 24 – Frogmore’s online journal of poetry and more – now live

morphrog 24 is now live at http://www.morphrog.com

This 24th edition includes work from the usual eclectic mix of writers: Joe Balaz, who writes in Hawaiian Island Pidgin and American English; Ian Corcos and Mark Czanik, both currently in transit and on their way somewhere; Chinese mystic, poet and philosopher Yuan Hongri, translated by Yuanbing Zhang, resident of Shandong Province, China; Oversteps authors Jenny Hockey (Going to Bed with the Moon) and David Olsen (After Hopper and Lange); Calvin Liu, ethnic Chinese academic, resident in London; Pauline Rowe, winner of the 2021 Saboteur Award for best poetry pamphlet with The Weight of Snow (Maytree Press); and Ian C Smith, who writes in the Gippsland Lakes area of Victoria, Australia, and Flinders Island, Tasmania.

Morphrog 24 is dedicated to Martin Kay, who died suddenly and tragically in November and whose name will be familiar to readers of morphrog from the many striking photographs he contributed to previous editions.

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morphrog morphs again

morphrog has always been ‘the frog that morphed’. We have tried to keep each issue fresh by keeping things in a state of flux, changing the format regularly, mixing images and poetry, creating synaesthetic content that breaks down formal barriers. Now we are morphing again. Our focus is still on the poetry, but we also welcome short stories, prose poems, audio-visual content, images and anything in between.

As morphrog 22 went to press, the UK announced a third period of ‘lockdown’ in the face of a new variant of the Covid-19 virus. Not a great start to 2021, but a timely reminder that change is a law of nature! Everything — to paraphrase Heraclitus — is in a state of flow. Let’s hope things change for the better as 2021 unfolds.

morphrog 23 includes contributions from Jane Angué, Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, Daniel Bennett, Joseph Eastell, Alexandra Fössinger, Ian Heffernan, Jenny Hockey, Yuan Hongri, Martin Kay, Marian Kilcoyne, Angela Kirby, Manu Mangattu, Guy Martin, Anne-Marie O’Brien, Aaron Rice, Ian C Smith, D J Tyrer and J S Watts, and is live at: http://www.morphrog.com

morphrog is an online journal edited by Jeremy Page and Peter Stewart publishing ‘poetry – and now also prose – in the extreme’. It appears twice a year, in January and July.

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No 22 of our online poetry magazine morphrog is now published

The 22nd edition of morphrog, ‘poetry in the extreme’, is now live at http://www.morphrog.com. It features new poetry from the following poets: Aidan Casey, Andy Conner, Ian Heffernan, M E Muir, Martin Rieser, Robert Ronnow, Mark Totterdell, D J Tyrer and Rodney Wood.

Submissions are invited for number 23, which will go live in July. For the first time, would-be contributors are encouraged to submit short stories, prose poems, audio-visual content and images, as well (of course) as ‘poetry in the extreme’. Send to: morphrog@gmail.com

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morphrog 21 goes live

The celebratory 21st edition of morphrog, offering more ‘poetry in the extreme’, is now live at http://www.morphrog.com.

Photography: Martin Kay

It’s another truly  international edition, with contributions from Australia, Canada, Switzerland and several corners of the UK, and featuring poetry by a Californian in Essex, an Italian in Leicestershire and a Scot in London.

morphrog 21 also includes a tribute in verse from Saskatoon poet Gerald Seniuk to long-time friend of Frogmore Henry Woolf on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Henry has been a supporter of, and occasional contributor to The Frogmore Papers since the early days in Folkestone. He was the first person to direct a play by his friend Harold Pinter (The Room at Bristol in 1957), subsequently acting in many of Pinter’s greatest works. Henry has lived in Canada since the 1980s and was Artistic Director of the annual Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival in Saskatoon from 1991-2001. On the occasion of his 90th birthday in January the University of Saskatchewan renamed one of its theatres after Henry in his honour. His memoir Barcelona is in Trouble was published by Greville Press, and number 96 of The Frogmore Papers will feature a new poem in September.

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Frogmore news: Frogmore Papers 95, morphrog 20, and deadline for the Frogmore Poetry Prize 2020

The Frogmore Papers’ 95th number has now been published (ahead of the arrival of spring!) and contains exciting new work from writers of poetry and prose and contemporary artists. The issue features poetry by Sharon Black, D A Prince, Myra Schneider and many more, including translations of work by Italian poets Sara Comuzzo and Paolo Febbraro. There are new translations of the Lesbia poems of Catullus by Isobel Williams, artwork by Leona Akehurst, and flash fiction by Craig Dobson, Matt Gillick, Michael Loveday and Catherine Smith. The issue boasts a striking cover design by Paris-based artist Eva Bodinet and contributions from Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Scotland and the USA, making this one of our most international issues ever. The Frogmore Papers number 95 celebrates 37 years of Frogmore and is available post-free from the Press or, for locals, from Sky Lark bookshop in the Needlemakers, Lewes. The submission window for number 96 of the Papers is 1 – 30 April.

morphrog celebrated its tenth birthday in January with the publication of morphrog 20. ‘Poetry in the extreme’ from Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, Sara Comuzzo, Izzy Lamb, Angela Kirby, Chris McDermott, Gerry Stewart, Roger Suffling and Anthony Watts is complemented by stunning photographic images from Martin Kay. The submission window for morphrog 21 is 1–31 May.

And finally a reminder that the deadline for submissions to this year’s Frogmore Poetry Prize is 31 May. Full details are available here. This year’s adjudicator is widely-published Brighton poet Maria Jastrzębska, who will read all entries. The author of the winning poem will receive the sum of two hundred and fifty guineas (£262.50 in new money) and a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers as well as joining an illustrious list of past winners. All shortlisted poems will be published in the September edition.

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New Frogmore Papers out now (in shocking lime green!), and other news

Number 94 of The Frogmore Papers is out now and includes a feast of prose, with short stories by Andrew Blair, Peter Kenny and Natalya Lowndes alongside the usual crop of excellent poetry from the likes of Robert Hamberger, Christine McNeill, D A Prince and J S Watts. The lime green cover was designed by David Atkinson.

The issue also includes the entire shortlist from this year’s Frogmore Poetry Prize, headed by Polly Walshe’s winning poem ‘Our District’, of which adjudicator John O’Donoghue writes ‘(It) has the atmosphere of certain poems by those great East European poets Czeslaw Milosz or Zbigniew Herbert, of the fabulous short story by Ursula Le Guin, ‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’, and unfolds like a parable’.

94 is selling fast, so if you’d like a copy send us a cheque for £5.00 and we’ll put one in the post (or if you live in Lewes or hereabouts pop into Skylark in the Needlemakers and buy a copy from Matt).

Submissions are invited for the next edition of morphrog, the Papers’ sister publication promising ‘poetry in the extreme’. Send up to six poems in a single Word document to morphrog@gmail.com

And finally, next Sunday (20 October 2019) Jonathan Edwards will be reading at the Forward Prizes Ceremony at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre. We are delighted that his poem ‘The Bridge’, which was first published in number 92 of The Frogmore Papers and was shortlisted by Janet Sutherland for last year’s Frogmore Prize, has reached the shortlist for the Forward Best Individual Poem. We’ll be cheering him on.

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Now live: morphrog No. 19 – poetry in the extreme

Issue 19 of morphrog, the online journal showcasing ‘poetry in the extreme’, is now live at www.morphrog.com .This edition features work by seventeen poets: Robin Houghton, Jacquie Wyatt, Antony Johae, Pauline Rowe, DJ Tyrer, David Olsen, Anna Milan, Nisha Bhakoo, Rodney Wood, ME Muir, Marek Urbanowicz, Bruach Mhor, Jenean McBrearty, Robert Nisbet, Ian C. Smith, George Beddow and Charlie Jones.

Photographs are by Martin Kay. With issue 20 in December 2019 morphrog will celebrate ten years of publication.