SCR6 is afoot

...or a jar

...or a door—a portal into other universes!

...or an online poetry magazine.

Anyway, SCR, disreputable parent of The Chimaera, has a Travelling Special as its theme for January, 2008. It's now up and running at

http://www.shitcreekreview.com/

Climb on board the little canoe! It's perfectly safe...

Wander amongst the verbal and visual artefacts crafted by

Mark Allinson, C.B. Anderson, David Anthony, Alison Brackenbury, Emily Brink, Patrick Carrington, Antonia Clark, Robert Clawson, Peter H. Desmond, William Doreski, Dennis Greene, Nigel McLoughlin, Tim Murphy, Amy Nawrocki, Cindy Nelson-Nold, Stephen Payne, Thomas Rodes, Peter Wyton, Mark Bulwinkle, Justin Evans, Patricia Wallace Jones, Peter Schwartz, R. K. Sohm, Donald Zirilli, Nigel Holt and Captain Philip Barrie. Lurking somewhere behind the scenes are Peter Bloxsom and Angela France.

The scientific reasons for SCR's January issue coming out in February are explained with amazing clarity here.

The theme for our next issue (May, 2008) will be 'Masks'. You will
find details on our Submissions page. Submissions for the Shit Creek Review May 2008 issue must be received by March 23rd, 2008.

Happy paddling!

Chimaeric Kudos

Co-editor of The Chimaera, Peter Bloxsom, has been short-listed for the Open Poetry Sonnet Competition, which has a first prize of £1400! Mike Alexander, who contributed to the Proto-Chimaeric II, is also on the short-list. Well done, and Good Luck!

Frank Osen, who contributed to The Chimaera #1, has won The Best American Poetry Poem Challenge II. What an esoteric challenge! What a strong poem!

The Return of The Chimaera

This time The Chimaera is obsessed with Translation.

Traduttore, Traditore? you ask.

The answer is—Found in Translation!

http://www.the-chimaera.com

But there's general poetry and prose, and a spotlight feature on Tim Murphy's alcoholism poems too: 'A Prayer for Sobriety'.

Poems and prose by L. Ward Abel, Mary Alexandra Agner, Arlene Ang, Neil Carpathios, William Doreski, George Good, Howie Good, Simon Hunt, James Keane, Guy Kettelhack, Don Kimball, David W. Landrum, Ralph La Rosa, Dave McClure, Margaret Menamin, Corey Mesler, Chris O’Carroll, Samuel Prince, Gail White, Peter Wyton, and Donald Zirilli.

Translations by Mark Allinson, Robert Bolick, Antoine Cassar, Catherine Chandler, Debjani Chatterjee, Adam Elgar, B. J. Epstein, Rhina P. Espaillat, Anna Evans, Andrew Frisardi, Susan McLean, Nigel McLoughlin, Chris Mooney-Singh, Aaron Poochigian, Henry Quince, Jennifer Reeser, Wendy Sloan, Janice D. Soderling, Alan Sullivan and Timothy Murphy.

Lots of high-quality reading in this one. Congratulations to all our authors, especially Dr Debanji Chatterjee, who was awarded an MBE for services to Literature in the Queen's New Year's Honours List.

The Examiners

John Whitworth's poem 'The Examiners', published in last October's The Chimaera, was placed second in the Times Literary Supplement Foyles poetry competition, judged by readers. 'The Examiners' and other poems by John Whitworth can be found in The Chimaera here:

The Examiners

John's poem 'Not You' was one of TC's Pushcart Nominations:

Not You

And his 'Naughty, Naughty' was a gruesome part of The Shit Creek Horror

John's tenth book of poems Being the Bad Guy is available from Peterloo Poets, here.

The Chimaera's Pushcart Prize Nominations

These are the poems nominated by The Chimaera for the Pushcart Prize. Congratulations to these poets, and to all those other poets who appear in The Chimaera:

Alison Brackenbury 'In the gap'

Don Kimball 'Prayer for My Father'

Peter Richards 'An Adolescent Contemplates Leaving'

David Rosenthal 'Bechtle’s Alameda Gran Torino, 1974'

Salli Shepherd 'Homesick'

John Whitworth 'Not You'

The poems can be found under their authors' names in the Current Issue here:


http://www.the-chimaera.com/

The Chimaera Lives!

The Chimaera has arrived. It has crawled out of the primeval sludge of The Shit Creek Review and and now runs on its own four heterogeneous paws, gallivanting across the fields and foothills of Poetry and Prose which border on Mounts Parnassus and Helicon, and around the Lycian Way.

There is more real poetry here than you could shake a lyre at, and vigorous prose discussions too, as well as entertaining true fictions. We have picked what we think is the very best from a huge volume of submissions, and the result is a curious and provocative mix of styles, preoccupations and perspectives. We chose the work that appealed to us most, based entirely on high quality as we saw it.

To give a roll-call of authors in our first issue would be tedious and spoil the fun of exploring for yourself. And there are other mysteries for you to uncover, too: What is the magical Poem of the Day? How does being an Expat relate to being a poet? Who will win the William McGonagall Prize for Chimerical Verse? How can garlic bread be fraught with danger?

So pull on your Corinthian helmet, hop onto your faithful Pegasus and fly on over to http://www.the-chimaera.com to find out for yourself!

And mark you this: The Chimaera's next issue will accept general prose and verse submissions, as well as articles, essays and poems for a Translation special feature. Read the Submissions page for details:

http://www.the-chimaera.com/Submissions.html

Oh, by the way: expect something rather gruesome from The Shit Creek Review's Horror Department soon--very soon.

The Chimaera cometh

Chimaeras, ‘begotten between Feare, and Darknesse, which vanish with the light’ (Cornwallys).