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PN Review Turns 50 Years Old!

No Text During 2023 PN Review is celebrating its jubilee. Since we started as Poetry Nation, a twice-yearly hardback, in 1973, we've been publishing new poetry, rediscoveries, commentary, literary essays, interviews and reviews from around the globe.

Our vast archive now includes over 270 issues, with contributions from some of the most important writers of our times. Key contributors include Octavio Paz, Laura Riding, John Ashbery, Patricia Beer, W.S. Graham, Eavan Boland, Jorie Graham, Donald Davie, C.H. Sisson, Sinead Morrissey, Sasha Dugdale, Anthony Vahni Capildeo, and many others.


Events
We'll be celebrating our 50th birthday with events in Manchester this autumn. Join us at the Portico Library on 4 October and at the John Rylands Library on 19 October. Scroll down for full details and booking information.


The Poetry Archive Special Collection
In honour of reaching this milestone in poetry magazine publishing, we've put together a special collection at The Poetry Archive. Gathering fifty poems from contributors, it includes a number of poems that first appeared in the magazine, from John Ashbery's 'What is Poetry' from PN Review 4 in 1978 and Denise Riley's 'Dark Looks' from issue 100 in 1994 to Marilyn Hacker's 'Elegy for a Soldier' on the death of June Jordan, which appeared in PNR 147 in 2002 and Andrew Wynn Owen's 'A Sign at CERN' from PNR 229 in 2016. As ever we include voices from around the world and across the generations. Explore the collection here.


New Substack
Subscribers can get the best of PN Review's archive sent directly to their inbox twice a week for twenty five weeks as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations. We now have over a thousand subscribers. Sign up and see published posts here.

No Text Anniversary Issue
Issue 271 includes PNR at 50: 'An Anniversary Supplement' with artwork from Antony Gormley and Mary Griffiths; poetry from Gillian Clarke, Tara Bergin, Sheri Benning; wonderful anecdotes from Anthony Vahni Capildeo, Dan Burt, Rebecca Watts, Philip Terry, Jeffrey Wainwright, and Carol Rumens; tributes from Lorna Goodison and Bill Manhire; and an AI generated conversation between William Empson and Robert Graves! Sujata Bhatt's poem from the issue, 'Der Kleiber: Eurasian Nuthatch', was recently a Guardian Poem of the Week!

Subscribe to the magazine to receive six issues per year and full access to the archive or buy the current issue without a subscription here.

You can also sign up to our free newsletter to get choice morsels of archive straight to your inbox.
Events Schedule


Wednesday 4 Oct 2023, 18:00 to 19:30
PNR at 50: Display Launch Party

Join us to raise a glass at PN Review’s fiftieth birthday party for an evening packed full of poetry and the chance to peruse gems from the magazine’s archive. Tickets are free and refreshments will be provided. Book a place here.

For five decades the Manchester-based magazine PN Review has brought poetry to the attention of readers from across the globe. To celebrate its fiftieth anniversary this pop-up display will tell history using material from its archive curated by its first archivist, Stella Halkyard. The display will remain in-situ until the end of the year. Details are here.

Thursday 19 Oct 2023, 19:00 to 21:00
PNR at 50: Anthony Vahni Capildeo, Sasha Dugdale & Will Harris

Join us for the annual John Rylands Poetry Reading with Manchester Literature Festival to celebrate PN Review's 50th anniversary! Contributing editors Anthony Ezekiel (Vahni) Capildeo, Sasha Dugdale and Will Harris will be sharing their own poems alongside some of their favourite discoveries from PN Review.

The event will be held at John Rylands Library in Manchester on Thursday 19th October. There is a drinks reception from 6pm, with the event starting at 7pm. Tickets are free but advance booking is required - book your tickets here.

Thursday 19 Oct 2023, 16:00 to 18:00
Wokshop: The Sound of Poetry with Will Harris

Join Will Harris for a communal poetry workshop where you will play with - and stretch - the links between objects, words and sounds; share stories, listen closely to things, and stay as close as possible to the non-sense within. Full information and booking details here.

Friday 20 Oct 2023, 10:00 to 12:00
Workshop: Like and Unlike - Putting Poems into Conversation with Anthony Vahni Capildeo

Join Anthony Ezekiel (Vahni) Capildeo and John McAuliffe for a hands-on workshop exploring the role of poet as editor. How do our personal responses to individual pieces affect the gatherings we make? Is the resonance of the gathering more than the hum of its parts? How to balance responding and inviting? What matters most to you as reader or writer? Is that the same as what matters to you as editor or selector? Participants will propose and begin to create an imaginary anthology or magazine. Full information and booking details here.

Thursday 23 Nov & Wednesday 13 Dec 2023, 17:30 to 19:00
Workshops: PNR at 50: Writing Like an Editor

How can thinking about the editorial process make us better poets? What questions do magazine editors ask of poems before sending feedback to their authors? Join PN Review editors Michael Schmidt and John McAuliffe for these practical workshops exploring the processes of reading and revising as editors. Participants will work on a published poem from the magazine's archive as well as a poem-in-progress of their own.

Book for Thursday 23 November here.

Book for Wednesday 13 December here.
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