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... one of the few, rare, literary magazines I always read from cover to cover.

X.J. Kennedy—

A History of The Dark Horse

The first issue of The Dark Horse was typeset by Gerry Cambridge in early 1995 on the kitchen table of an Ayrshire caravan, its base for its first two years. From these modest beginnings, via two years in Hugh MacDiarmid’s former home, Brownsbank (where Cambridge was poet in residence), it’s now Scotland’s pre-eminent poetry magazine, with strong links to the United States and a considerable and increasing reputation. The full story of its first twenty years, the characters, the stramashes, the controversies, the highlights, can be read about in Cambridge’s entertaining divagatory account, The Dark Horse: The Making of a Little Magazine, which goes some way to explaining the attraction of such an enterprise. For readers wishing a briefer insight into the magazine’s motivations and outlook, please see Cambridge’s essay, ‘Why we do it—Editing a Poetry Magazine’.

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Click on the cover for more information

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20th Anniversary Issue

Twice the extent of the usual issue of the journal, this 20th anniversary number includes new poems by the likes of Kay Ryan, A. E. Stallings, Ian Duhig, X. J. Kennedy, Wendy Cope, Vicki Feaver, Bernard O’Donoghue and Dana Gioia.

 

The magazine is available to purchase as a back issue from the subscriptions page.

20th Anniversary Launch Events

 

2015 marked the 20th anniversary of The Dark Horse. To celebrate, we had three launch events, in Edinburgh, London, and New York, on 4th, 12th and 20th June respectively that year. 

Video of the Edinburgh event

20th Anniversary Magazine, Issue 34

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