From Glasgow to Saturn

Dear Readers,

It is with great pleasure that we present the long-awaited Issue 22 of From Glasgow to Saturn. This contains a selection of prose and poetry from the myriad talents of Catherine Baird, Patrick Holloway, R. A. Davis, Bethany Anderson, Izabela Ilowska, Siobhan Staples, Mizzy Hussain, Caroline Moir, Michelle Waering, Andrea Stout, G. W. Colkitto, Alan Bissett, Kathrine Sowerby, Katy McAulay, Mairi McCloud, Mark Fraser, Kirsty Neary, Anneliese Mackintosh, Katy Ewing, Matthew Baxter, Kirsty Logan, Gill Davies, Angela Blacklock-Brown, Elly Farrelly, George Craig, Thomas Walpole, Carol McKay, Evanglia Daskalaki and Vivien Jones.

You can read the poetry and prose online, or via our supershiny, free, downloadable pdf, which you can print off or upload to some kind of new-fangled e-reader gizmo or simply save to your desktop.

Cyril Connolly once said that there are two kinds of literary magazine: hotels and clubs. Hotels ‘fill up every week with a different clique.’ Clubs are occupied by a single clique whose purpose in life is to keep non-members out.[1]

Over our nine-month editorship of From Glasgow to Saturn, we have tried to be more of an hotel than a club. We have travelled in a different direction than James Byrne, editor of the ultra-clubbish The Wolf, who announced in a recent editorial that he will publish nothing but ‘demanding’ work which possesses ‘layers of multiplicity of meaning’; writing that ‘hovers among uncertainties.’[2]

In the hands of the present editors, From Glasgow to Saturn did not seek to promote (or discredit) any particular style of writing. We opened our doors equally to poetry that was free or accentual-syllabic, obscure or accessible. We had no preference for prose that was realistic instead of fantastic, gritty instead of uplifting. All we looked for was writing that worked.

So what kind of writing do we consider to work? Does a poem work if it makes the reader think deeply about the human condition? Does a story work if there’s a twist at the end the reader didn’t see coming? Ultimately, the judgment of what works is subjective; it is felt but cannot be explained; the editors’ judgment must be final, and like the decision of a jury, does not need to be justified.

In Issue 22, we offer poetry and prose pieces which, in our collective opinion, work well. Here you will find concrete verses, experimental formats, characters dark and delightful. We hope you enjoy the issue and find something that moves you. Please feel free to leave comments letting the writers and editors know what you make of the selection.

And with that, our task is complete. It is now time to hand over the editorship to a new and sparkling team: Paul Deaton, Megan Primrose and Siobhan Staples. We wish them well for the next incarnation of the University of Glasgow’s creative writing showcase, and look forward to their launch in the autumn.

With good wishes,

Alan Gillespie, Nick Boreham and Sheila Millar

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[1] Cyril Connolly, ‘Fifty Years of Little Magazines’, Art and Literature 1 (1964).

[2] James Byrne, ‘Editorial’, The Wolf, issue 19 (2008), pp 2-3.