We’re so thrilled to reveal the cover and line-up for Issue 11, in all its burnt orange glory!

Fourteen queer contemporary poets, from Europe, Asia, North and South America and, hilariously, round the corner from our HQ in east London.

As always, we want each issue to reflect a diversity of ideas and experiences within the LGBTQ+ community and we hope these fourteen do that for you all.

There’s poems about queer childhood (“mango drawing” by Gayathiri Kamalakanthan) and urging to push against the boundaries in that childhood (“Red Jumper” by Annie Brechin). There’s also Gustav Parker Hibbett’s “High Jump as Icarus Story”,which packs so many ideas in but at its core is perhaps a look at why queer kids push themselves so hard (spoiler: we all want to be loved).

And speaking of love, there’s heartbreak (“Broken” by Nathan Evans) and how poetry can be used to vocalise that ache (“Stacks” by Sarah Donley) – but also a celebration of everyday relationships, whether that be home-haircuts in “A Latin American Sonnet CXXVII” by Leo Boix or the safety of co-habiting with your love in A. Shaikh’s “Domesticity”.

Poems in Issue 11

If Polari was a kind of Birdsong by Kym Deyn

Red Jumper by Annie Brechin

mango drawing by Gayathiri Kamalakanthan

A Latin American Sonnet CXXVII by Leo Boix

Stack by Sarah Donley

Chaturanga by Shaun Hill

High Jump as Icarus Story by Gustav Parker Hibbett

Broken by Nathan Evans

Domesticity by A. Shaikh

Fugue by Nico Amador

Alighting at the Beginning and End of the Line by Minying Huang

Butter by Alex Mepham

Song in Three Voices by Freya Jackson

Final Boy Finding a Husband by Stephen S. Mills