Poetry Review

Magazine of The Poetry Society

Poetry Review is the magazine of The Poetry Society, edited by the poet Wayne Holloway Smith. Founded in 1912, shortly after the establishment of the Society, previous editors have included poets Muriel Spark, Adrian Henri, Andrew Motion and Maurice Riordan.

Founded in January 1912, the publication took over from the Poetical Gazette, a members' news magazine for the newly formed Poetry Society. It was first edited by Harold Monro, who was ousted after a year by alarmed, more conservative minded trustees. He was followed by Stephen Phillips (1913–15). Galloway Kyle, The Poetry Society's founder and director, presided over the Review from 1916 to 1947. Kyle was editor until his death in 1967 at the age of 92. Other former editors include Adrian Henri, Andrew Motion and Mick Imlah. Fiona Sampson held the role from 2005 to 2012. A series of guest editors followed—George Szirtes, Charles Boyle, Bernardine Evaristo, Moniza Alvi, Esther Morgan and Patrick McGuinness—until Summer 2013, when Maurice Riordan assumed the editorship for the next four years. The Review was at first a monthly magazine and then from 1915 to 1951 became bi monthly, turning quarterly in 1952. It has published the work of poets including Thomas Hardy, Rupert Brooke, Robert Frost, W. H. Auden, Ezra Pound, Philip Larkin and Allen Ginsberg. In Spring 2014 the magazine returned to the title The Poetry Review. The current editor is the poet Wayne Holloway Smith, who succeeded Emily Berry in Spring 2022, who in turn succeeded Maurice Riordan with the Spring 2017 issue. It is published in March, June, September and December and given to each subscribing member of the Poetry Society.