Shearsman magazine has been running in a pamphlet-sized format for 15 years, and this double-issue marks a move into perfect-bound paperback format. Frequency moves from quarterly to half-yearly at thr same time. Issue 63/64 includes work by Frances Presley, Lisa Samuels, Sarah Law, Robert Saxton, John Seed, Gad Hollander, Sam Sampson, Philip Jenkins, Spencer Selby, Gordon Kennedy, Rupert M. Loydell, Giles Goodland, Gaston Baquero (translated by Mark Weiss), Alberto Blanco (translated by Joan Lindgren), plus translations from the German by Christopher MIddleton, Harry Guest and Tony Frazer.

This is the second double-issue in Shearsman's new format and contains the usual wide range of original work and translations. Among those featured in this edition are: Louis Armand, Maurice Scully, Rochelle Ratner, Elizabeth Treadwell

The first of Shearsman's double issues for 2006, no. 67/68 features new poetry by (amongst others) Anne Blonstein, Tilla Brading, Richard Burns, Claire Crowther, Devin Johnston, Peter Makin, Deborah Meadows, Christopher Middleton, Gregory O'Brien, Peter Robinson, Robert Saxton, Robert Sheppard, Zok Skoulding & Carolyn van Langenberg, together with translations from the French, German, Romanian and classical Chinese.

The second issue of the Shearsman journal for 2006, featuring poetry by Paul Batchelor, Linda Black, Richard Burns, Kelvin Corcoran, M.T.C. Cronin, Mark Goodwin, Anthony Hawley, Matthew Jarvis, rob mclennan, Valeria Melchioretto, Mary Michaels, Ermn Moure, John Phillips, Elizabeth Robinson, Peter Robinson, Geoffrey Squires, Sasha Steenson & Janet Sutherland; an essay on Roy Fisher by Peter Makin, & translations of Mexican poet Pura Lspez-Colomi by Jason Stumpf.

The first Shearsman double-issue for 2007, number 71 & 72, features new poetry by C.J. Allen, James Bell, Richard Deming, Tamara Fulcher, Becky Gould Gibson, Lucy Hamilton, Peter Hughes, Maryrose Larkin, Simon Marsh, Chris McCabe, Kate Schmitt, Aidan Semmens, Tupa Snyder & Nathan Thompson; prose by Dennis Barone & translations of Chus Pato by Erin Moure, Pierre Reverdy by Ian Seed, Krisztina Toth by Kevin Nolan & Sara Uribe by Toshiya Kamei.

Pessoa wrote a large number of poems in English, some of them in the guise of early heteronyms (such as Alexander Search and Charles Robert Anon) which prove to be fascinating precursors of the later, modernist work in Portuguese. While not the equal of the masterly Caeiro, Campos, Reis or Pessoa-himself, these poems deserve to be better known and at least available in the English-speaking world. Pessoa was educated in English in Durban, as the stepson of a Portuguese diplomat, and was completely bilingual. He translated several books from English for Portuguese publishing houses. The...

The second double issue of Shearsman magazine for 2007, featuring poetry from: Susana Arajo, Paul Batchelor, Linda Black, Andy Brown, Claire Crowther, Carrie Etter, Patricia Farrell, Fergal Gaynor, Mark Goodwin, Catherine Hales, Ralph Hawkins, Luisa A. Igloria, David Kennedy, philip kuhn, Rachel Lehrman, Tony Lopez, Rupert M. Loydell, Jill Magi, Sophie Mayer, George Messo, Mary Michaels, Robert Saxton, Janet Sutherland; and translations of Romina Freschi (by herself), Anna Glazova (by Anna Khasin), Gottfried Benn & Anna Hoffmann (by Catherine Hales), David Huerta (by Mark Schafer) and, from...

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) was perhaps the greatest poet to have worked in Devon. Born in London, the son of a goldsmith, he studied at Cambridge and later fell in with the London poets who had gathered around the magnetic figure of Ben Jonson. In order to make a living - since he had not pursued the family trade - he entered the Church and in 1627 was appointed chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham, whom he accompanied on an unsuccessful military expedition in 1627. In 1629 he was appointed to the living of Dean Prior, a village on the edge of Dartmoor, about half way between Exeter and...

Alexander Barclay, Richard Carew, Humfrey Gifford, Anne Dowriche, Sir Walter Ralegh, Sir Arthur Gorges, Joseph Hall, John Ford, Robert Herrick, Sidney Godolphin, William Strode, William Browne, Mary, Lady Chudleigh, John Gay, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. All of these are poets born in the two westernmost counties of England, or - like Hall and Herrick - poets who were active there. In time we stretch from the very beginning of the 16th century until the early 19th century. We begin with Barclay, a priest at Ottery St. Mary, and we close with Coleridge, the son of a priest at Ottery St. Mary, his...

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain experienced a literary Renaissance akin to that in England, with great poets, dramatists and novelists establishing new forms and blazing new trails: Garcilaso de la Vega, Gongora, Quevedo amongst the poets, Lope de Vega & Calderon de la Barca amongst the dramatists (although both were also poets), Cervantes - of course - amongst the prose writers. The Renaissance in England was also a time when translations of contemporary European literature became more common, beginning with contemporary Italian works, and the importation of the Petrarchan sonnet, and...