Editor Interview: Allegro Poetry Magazine

all forms of poetry

Ink, Sweat and Tears, PN Review, Agenda, Poetry Salzburg Review

John Donne, Dylan Thomas, R.S. Thomas, Denise Levertov, Owen Sheers, Michael Schmidt

It looks for an eclectic mix of styles and is responsive to the views of contributors, consulting them about changes to the magazine.

Read past issues, and the submissions guidelines carefully. Make sure your language is contemporary. Avoid cliches and explicit material.

Poems that evoke place, people or time. Striking images. Language that is used well - not received phrases - but anything too unusual has to convince me that it is exactly right and no other word would do the same job. Well crafted formal poetry. Poems that use rhyme and half-rhyme skilfully

Attaching files rather than submitting in the body of an email for the general issues.

I like brief biographies. Previous publications don't sway the selection process but I like to see them. As a reader of poetry I often buy books if that I see mentioned in biographies and submit to the same magazines as poets whose work I like.

I always read to the end although with most rejected work I can tell fairly quickly whether it is a good fit for Allegro.

When I consider accepting a poem I read it several times at different times to see if I like it as much at a second or subsequent reading.

Editing usually happens at a week end. I like to be able to give time to the process of reading. I have standard wording for acceptance and rejection as this gives more time to careful consideration of poetry.