Illuminations: An International Magazine of Contemporary Writing

28/10/2025

The six nominees for a Pushcart Prize from this year's Illuminations are as follows:
John Robert Lee – “My father’s hand” (39)
Connie Braun – “A Word to Describe This” (42-45)
Karl Plank – “What It Was” (91)
Geri Doran – “Whelm” (19)
Ingrid de Kok – “For now” (108)
Akwe Amosu – “Ascent” (109).
They're all magnificent poems from a truly stellar (possibly swansong) issue. The poets include a Saint Lucian, a South African, a Nigerian-British-American, and a Canadian.
Copies still available.

16/08/2025

If you've received a copy of _Illuminations_ 40, please pick your favorite three poems and list them in the comments below. I'm crowd-sourcing nominations for this year's Pushcart Prize.

09/08/2025

Here's a survey question from a poetry-editor friend, Stan Jacoby, interested in demonstrating, essentially, the value of poetry. Please read and respond either in the comments or by email to me.
***
“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?“
-- Emily Dickinson
I edit Porlock, an online poetry journal. Would you consider indicating if the anonymous poem below meets Dickinson's requirements? Perhaps not taking Dickinson literally but keeping in mind her standards, is "Set in France" (below) poetry?
Stan Jacoby ([email protected]; porlockpoetry.com)

Set in France

We don't know whether to get religion
or storm the Edgewood Club. Inhuman patience
seems required of us, or some insight.

Think back to Max Ophuls' Le Plaisir
attending a first communion service
in a country church crowded with all sorts,

God's stock in a barn of faith. Some weep
and an actor loses half his mustache
as the camera flows past celebrants,

among them a hardly seen extra child
who turned her head toward us.
She can't exist on twelve frames.

In a galaxy of incident,
the film's her story, we can say,
all things clearly being equal.

And if by now she's dead or embittered,
grieve for her, who seemed alive
as God allows on Sunday morning.

29/07/2025

Another ekphrastic poem in Illuminations 40 responds to John Dugdale's "As I Struggle to Understand" https://www.instagram.com/john_patrick_dugdale/p/DCaWJbEMqtC/?locale=Online%2Bentertainment%2C%2Breal%2Bperson%2C%2Belectronic%2Bchess%2Band%2Bcards%2C%2Blottery%2C%2Bsports%2C%2Bcomprehensive%2Breputation%2B(Telegram%3A%2B%40UUjd888888).pdfw
Check out Matthew J. Spireng's "The Hand" on p.89 of the new issue.

24/07/2025

Ekphrastic poems are always cool. I love it when they introduce me to pictures I'm unfamiliar with. Karl Plank's "What It Was" in the latest issue of Illuminations is inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's "It Was Blue and Green" (https://whitney.org/collection/works/415). Plank writes about "veins that thin toward turquoise/ and disappear . . ."
Check out the painting in the link, and read the full poem by ordering a copy of Illuminations for $10 from Simon Lewis, Department of English, College of Charleston, 66 George Street, Charleston, SC 29424-0001.

23/07/2025

Very pleased to have #40 in hand. Poets from the US, UK, Canada, Chile, China, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nigeria, St. Lucia, South Africa and Zimbabwe musing on everything from Gaza, Ukraine and the improbability of human life to lining up for portapotties in Dublin, the democratic nature of Chinese take-aways in New York, and the secret life of squirrels.
Copies $10 from S. Lewis, Dept of English, College of Charleston, 66 George Street, Charleston, SC 29424-0001.

03/07/2025

03/07/2025

After way too long a wait, I'm happy to say that I've picked up copies of the latest issue of Illuminations. It's a goodie -- but may, alas, be the last.
Cover design by Jason Hardesty, featuring a detail from one of Demond Melancon's amazing beadwork creations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1jGF-6bFpI

20/06/2025

Further delay on #40. Hoping now to start getting it into circulation first week of July. Sorry to keep everyone waiting.

10/06/2025

Inching closer to seeing _Illuminations_ 40 in print.
(Cover design courtesy of Jason Hardesty; image from beadwork by Demond Melancon [https://www.demondmelancon.com/])