Kathy Pimlott

August 2025

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Last month saw the in-person launch of Magma 92, the Ownership issue, which I co-edited with Paul Stephenson and Danne Jobin. It was a really special evening with thirty readers and many friends at the Seven Dials Club in Covent Garden. This is a fabulous venue with genuinely helpful and caring staff who make everything easy - and the tech is top notch. I would say this because I am a trustee of the club, which is also the Covent Garden Community Centre, providing activities and support for those in the surrounding area, especially seniors. It also houses the Community Pantry which has been running since the pandemic and continues to serve a need. During the first lock-down it was the fanciest food bank in the country as the many local restaurants, forced to close, emptied their store rooms into ours. See how I say 'ours'?   To most, Covent Garden is a chi-chi and slightly naff playground but to many of us who live there (50 years for me and I'm an incomer) it is ours - hard fought for in the '70s when wholesale demolition and 'decanting' was a real threat.   

Anyway, back to the Ownership issue. It was a lot of admin but so interesting to work at the backend of Submittable and to gain an understanding of the various elements which inform editorial decision-making. I think we pulled together a selection of poems, varied in both form and thematic interpretation, which are a pleasure to read, along with thoughtful essays on AI and the ghazal and other regular features. Magma has always been one of my favourite magazines, partly I think because it was there that my first poem was published after a 20 year hiatus, so it has been an honour to be involved in the production of this summer issue. 

I’m reading

Rachel Spence's Daughter of the Sun (The Emma Press); Suzannah Evan's Green (Little Betty); Claudine Toutoungi's Emotional Support Horse (Carcanet) and Pam Thompson's Sub/urban Legends (Paper Swans Press)