Klänge (Sounds) was Kandinsky’s only poetry publication—a collection of prose poems, accompanied by 56 of his own inimitable woodcuts, 12 of them in colour. It appeared in late 1912, or early 1913 (the exact date is uncertain) from the Munich publishing house, Piper, and thus came at a crucial time in Kandinsky’s artistic life: just after he had made the great breakthrough into abstraction, and likewise just after the publication of his seminal text, Über das Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art). These were not the only poems that he wrote—others are preserved in the artist’s papers—but these are the ones he chose to publish, and in a lavish edition.

This selected edition presents an overview of all of Huidobro's work, from 1914 until 1948, when his final, posthumous volume was published. moving from the early symbolist work, though the high avant-garde phase towards the end of the First World War, then through the phase of Altazor and Temblor de cielo (Skyquake), the highpoint of his career (both published 1931), and on into the quieter late poetry which synthesises the previous work and settles down into a post-vanguard style. Also includes manifestos and interviews.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain experienced a literary Renaissance akin to that in England, with great poets, dramatists and novelists establishing new forms and blazing new trails: Garcilaso de la Vega, Gongora, Quevedo amongst the poets, Lope de Vega & Calderon de la Barca amongst the dramatists (although both were also poets), Cervantes - of course - amongst the prose writers. The Renaissance in England was also a time when translations of contemporary European literature became more common, beginning with contemporary Italian works, and the importation of the Petrarchan sonnet, and then Montemayor's Spanish version of arcadian pastoral. While Spanish literature was not the main focus of English translators during this period - no doubt affected by the strained political relations bnetween the two countries - it did attract some particularly fine writers to try their hand. This selection is driven by what is available, but it also manages to cover some of the greatest Spanish writers of the Renaissance and the Siglo de Oro: Juan Boscan, Garcilaso de la Vega, Jorge de Montemayor, Miguel Cervantes (some poems from 'Don Quixote'), Bartolome & his brother Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, Luis de Gongora, Francsico de Quevedo, Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza and Juan Peerez de Montalban. The translators are Herbert Aston, Philip Ayres, William Drummond of Hawthornden, Sir Richard Fanshawe, Thomas Shelton, Sir Philip Sidney, Thomas Stanley and Bartholomew Yong. The translations are never less than effective and, especially in the case of Fanshawe's Gongora, often show rare genius at work.

The first double-issue of Shearsman magazine for 2021. Poetry by Charlotte Baldwin, Linda Black, Melissa Buckheit , Charlotte Baldwin, Susan Connolly, Harriet Cooper-Smithson, Claire Crowther, Amy Crutchfield, Jane Frank, Amlanjyoti Goswami, Christopher Gutkind, Mandy Haggith, Jeremy Hooker, David Johnson, Norman Jope, L Kiew, Peter Larkin, Mary Leader, Carola Luther , Robin Fulton Macpherson, Olivia McCannon, Peter Robinson, David Rushmer, Maurice Scully, Aidan Semmens, Lucy Sheerman, Hannah Cooper Smithson, Agnieszka Studzińska, Scott Thurston, Anannya Uberoi, John Welch, Petra White, Tamar Yoseloff & translations of Marta Agudo (by Lawrence Schimel), Kjell Espmark (by Robin Fulton Macpherson), Kinga Tóth (by Annie Rutherford) & Virgil (by David Hadbawnik). With this issue, Shearsman magazine marks 40 years of publication.

In 1925, Fernando Pessoa wrote a guidebook to Lisbon for English-speaking visitors, and wrote it in English. The typescript was only discovered amongst his papers long after his death, but has not hitherto been made available in the UK or the USA. The book is fascinating in that it shows us Pessoa's view of his native city - and Pessoa, as an adult, rarely left Lisbon, and it figures large in his poetry. The book can still be useful to visitors today, given that the majority of the sights described are still to be found. A fascinating scrap from the master's table....

The first double issue of Shearsman magazine for 2023 features poetry by Martin Anderson, Nora Blascsok, Melissa Buckheit, Stuart Cooke, Carrie Etter, Amy Evans Bauer, Alec Finlay, Amlanjyoti Goswami, Daniel Hinds, Emily Tristan Jones, Norman Jope, Kenny Knight, Mary Leader, Rob Mackenzie, James McLaughlin, Eliza O'Toole, Michelle Penn, Sophia Nugent-Siegal, Peter Robinson, Jaime Robles, Maurice Scully, Aidan Semmens, Nathan Shepherdson, Maria Stasiak, Cole Swensen, G.C. Waldrep, Carl Walsh and Petra White, plus translations of Anna Akhmatova (by Stephen Capus) and of Merece Rodoreda (by Rebecca Simpson).

The first double-issue of Shearsman magazine for 2022, and features poetry by Tim Allen, Kate Ashton, Isobel Armstrong, Carmen Bugan, Jonathan Catherall, Wendy Clayton, Tom Cowin, Claire Crowther, Julian Dobson, Katy Evans-Bush, Amlanjyoti Goswami, Lynne Hjelmgaard, Penny Hope, Eluned Jones, Fiona Larkin, Mary Leader, DS Maolailai, James McGonigal, James McLaughlin, Deborah Moffatt, Mark Russell, Tim Scott, Robert Sheppard, Rufus Talks, Rimas Uzgiris, Ann Vickery, Margaret Ann Wadleigh, Polly Walshe, Fiona Wilson, Elzbieta Wojcik-Leese; and translations of Max Jacob (by Ian Seed), Denis Rigal (by David Banks) and Mario de Sa-Carneiro (by Chris Daniels).

The Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro (1893–1948) is one of the most important figures in 20th-century Hispanic poetry and one of its pioneering avant-gardists. Originally from an aristocratic Santiago family of landowners and winemakers, Huidobro was fortunate to have the means to support himself and his family while he found his artistic way. After an early phase writing in a quasi-symbolist style in his native city, he moved to Paris and threw himself into the local artistic scene with a passion, quickly publishing several collections in 1917–18, and then a selected poems in French in 1921. Influenced initially by Apollinaire, Huidobro befriended forward-looking French writers such as Reverdy and Cocteau, as well as the artists, such as Picasso, who were then revolutionising painting and sculpture in the city. He was to reach his artistic maturity in 1931 with the publication of two master-pieces: the long poem, Altazor, and the book-length prose-poem Temblor de cielo (Skyquake). Two further original collections and an extensive Selected followed during his lifetime, all published in Santiago. While he also published successful novels and plays, it is for his poetry that he is best remembered today. With his impetuous love life, his political posturing, his often miscalculated attempts to bestride the public stage in Chile, Spain and France, not to mention an unparalleled ability to make enemies, Huidobro makes a fine subject for a biography. Volodia Teitelboim’s impressionistic biography of Huidobro was first published to coincide with the centenary of the poet’s birth in 1993, and has the advantage of being written by someone who actually knew him, and many of the other significant figures in Chilean poetry of the 1930s and later. As the author relates in the course of the book, he started out as, and remained, an admirer of the poet’s work, but he is commendably clear about Huidobro’s personal faults – and about the causes of the breakdown in his own relationship with him. He was to reach his artistic maturity in 1931 with the publication of two masterpieces: the long poem, Altazor, and the book-length prose-poem Temblor de cielo (Skyquake). Two further original collections and an extensive Selected followed during his lifetime, all published in Santiago. While he also published successful novels and plays, it is for his poetry that he is best remembered today. Volodia Teitelboim's impressionistic biography of Huidobro was first published to coincide with the poet's centenary in 1993, and has the advantage of being written by someone who actually knew him, and many of the other significant figures in Chilean poetry of the 1930s and later. As the author relates in the course of the book, he started out as, and remained, a fan of the poet's work, but he is commendably clear about Huidobro's many personal faults - and about the causes of the breakdown in his own relationship with him.

The first double-issue of Shearsman magazine for 2020 contains poetry by Martin Anderson, Sarah Barnsley, James Bell, Katherine Collins, Jennifer K. Dick, Mark Dickinson, Carrie Etter, Amlanjyoti Goswami, Ralph Hawkins, Chris Holdaway, Gad Hollander, Andrew Jordan, Lisa Kelly, Mary Leader, Rosanna Licari, Abegail Morley, Simon Perchik, Meghan Purvis, Peter Robinson, David Rushmer, Nathan Shepherdson, Jennifer Spector, Matthew Stoppard, Jasmine Dreame Wagner, G.C. Waldrep, plus translations of Ivano Fermini, Vaiva Grainytė & Kęstutis Navakas, Víctor Manuel Mendiola, and Celia Parra by Timothy Adès, Ian Seed, Rimas Uzgiris, and Patrick Loughnane, respectively.

The Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro (1893-1948) is one of the most important figures in 20th-century Hispanic poetry and, with Cesar Vallejo, one of the pioneering avant-gardists in Spanish. Originally from an upper-class Santiago family, Huidobro was fortunate to have the means to support himself and his family while he found his artistic way. After an early phase writing in a quasi-symbolist style in his native city, he moved to Paris and threw himself into the local artistic milieu with a passion, quickly becoming a notable figure, publishing a large number of books in the period 1917-1925. Influenced initially by Apollinaire, Huidobro quickly befriended both forward-looking French writers such as Reverdy, Cocteau and Radiguet, and the Spanish expatriate artists, including Picasso and Juan Gris. He reached his poetic maturity in 1931 with the publication of two masterpieces: the long poem, Altazor, and the book-length prose-poem Temblor de cielo (Skyquake). Two further collections would follow during his lifetime, both published in Santiago in 1941. While he also published successful novels and plays, it is for his poetry that he is best remembered today. El ciudadano del olvido was published in Santiago in 1941, as one of a pair of volumes that summed up Huidobro's shorter poems from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s. The two books show the author as a quieter figure, more mature, but somewhat ground down by misfortune - he had been forced by economic circumstances to return to Chile in the early 1930s, and was subsequently distressed by his lack of recognition in his homeland, by the rise of Fascism in the 1930s, by the fall of France in 1940, and by the collapse of his second marriage. The book contains some of his finest individual poems, less creationist than his previous efforts, and somewhat more surrealist than he would no doubt have cared to admit. The book and its companion, Ver y palpar (forthcoming in this series) are vital to an understanding of the range and complexity of Huidobro's poetic achievement.

Adam, published in 1916, is Huidobro's earliest mature work and his first attempt at free verse. While still full of rhetorical gestures from his previous symbolist (or modernista) style, heavily influenced by Ruben Dario, the book shows the author moving into very new territory, if at this stage not fully able to cast off his previous allegiances. It is fair to say that the book would today be forgotten, were it not for the author's spectacular later career, but it retains some interest as a transitional volume, albeit not as much as that demonstrated by El espejo de agua (The Water Mirror), also first published in 1916, but written after Adam. Adam is a young man's book, embarrassingly so at times, as the author proudly sets out his stall, but it represents a major leap forward. With his claim to Emersonian influence, his dismissal of traditional Hispanophone poetry in the Preface, and that typically outrageous tone-one we will meet many times in his later works, where he shouts from the rooftops, "Look at me!", and lays into his perceived enemies-it's hard to ignore the fact that Huidobro was all of 21 when he began this poem. The sins of youth, indeed.

The second double-issue of Shearsman magazine for 2020 includes poetry by Kate Ashton, Richard Berengarten, Guy Birchard, Daragh Breen, Susie Campbell, Makyla Curtis, Jodie Dalgliesh, Giles Goodland, Mark Goodwin, Lucy Hamilton, Kit Hanafin, Jill Jones, John Levy, Julie Maclean, Andrea Moorhead, Diane Mulholland, Luke Palmer, Alexandria Peary, John Phillips, Hannah Star Rogers, Paul Rossiter, Jaya Savige, David Sergeant, Simon Smith, Tupa Snyder, Maria Stasiak, Janet Sutherland, Helen Tookey, Denni Turp, Nadira Wallace, Sarah Watkinson, Charles Wilkinson, Judith Willson, Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese, plus translations of Sylvie Marie (from Flemish) by Richard Berengarten.

In 1931, while on holiday in Arcachon, Huidobro and the Franco-German artist and writer, Hans (Jean) Arp together wrote Tres novelas exemplares (Three Exemplary Novels — no doubt a reference to the Exemplary Novels by Cervantes, to which of course they bear no resemblance at all), a set of wild quasi-surrealist "stories". In 1935, Huidobro — once again living in Chile — offered the set to a publisher in Santiago, but was told that the book was too short. Accordingly he wrote two further stories on his own, and the whole volume was titled Tres inmensas novelas. Which are therefore, not three, not huge and not novels. This volume offers all five stories in a bilingual format, and the cover is almost a copy of the one used in the first edition.

The second double-issue of Shearsman for 2019 features poetry by Clark Allison, Annemarie Austin, Benjamin Balint, Miranda Lynn Barnes, Alison Brackenbury, Rachael Clyne, Andrew Duncan, Chris Emery, Gerrie Fellows, Adam Flint, Mark Goodwin, Lucy Hamilton, Jeri Onitskansky, Alasdair Paterson, John Phillips, Paul Rossiter, Alexandra Sashe, Kate Schmitt, John Seed, Robert Sheppard, Maria Stadnicka, Andrew Taylor, James Turner, Rimas Uzgiris, Rushika Wick and Tamar Yoseloff & translations of Greta AmbrazaitÄ— by Rimas Uzgiris and Toon Tellegen by Judith Wilkinson.

Huidobro published Horizon carre in Paris in 1917), and quickly followed it with Tour Eiffel (in French and Spanish; Madrid, 1918), Hallali (in French; Madrid, 1918); Ecuatorial (in Spanish; Madrid, 1918), Poemas articos, likewise published in Spanish in Madrid, and El espejo de agua, a Spanish-language volume from 1916, reissued in Madrid in 1918. Horizon carre is heavily influenced by the work of Guillaume Apollinaire and marks Huidobro's definitive arrival on the avant-garde scene in Paris, even if-it has to be said-the volume is derivative. Huidobro's French was good even before he arrived in Paris: he had been educated well in Santiago, but this would not have prepared him for the linguistic and intellectual ferment he would find upon arrival in the main seat of the international avant-garde. Many of his early French-language manuscripts show signs of corrections by his friends at the time-the French poet, Pierre Reverdy and the Spanish artist, Picabia, both being among them.

The prose-poem Temblor de cielo is more apparently unified work than its companion, Altazor, although this might owe more to its style of delivery: an ecstatic outpouring of words that largely revolve around the themes of love, sex and death. The Isolde to whom much of the poem is addressed is an idealised feminine figure-part goddess, part idealised beloved, part Isolde from Wagner's opera (another ecstatic outpouring on the theme of love, sex and death) and part Ximena Amunategui, the young woman who had become the poet's second wife. I tend to think that the central impetus for the work is an erotic storm occasioned by the second Mrs Huidobro, notwithstanding the artistic fusion with the other elements mentioned above. The poem is also a sustained lyric effusion of a kind that Huidobro had never produced before, and it marks the point at which his work moves on from the barnstorming avant-garderie of his younger years to a more mature style, albeit one influenced by surrealism, a movement which Huidobro had previously attacked. It is also the last time that Huidobro was to adopt the god-like narrative persona that occurs in his earlier work. In Temblor, as in some earlier works, God is conflated with the poet-creator, as he is in Altazor, where the opening lines reflect the opening of a love-poem addressed to Ximena that the author published (to great scandal) in the Santiago newspaper, La Nacion: "Naci a los treinta y tres anos, el dia de la muerte de Cristo" [I was born at the age of thirty three, on the day Christ died]. (It should be noted that the author was 33 when he first met Ximena, which gives the imagery another dimension.)

The first double-issue of Shearsman magazine for 2019. Contains poetry by Michael Aiken, Jonathan Catherall, Claire Crowther, Cathy Dreyer, Kerry Featherstone, Adam Flint, Amlanjyoti Goswami, Norman Jope, Peter Larkin, Mary Leader, John Levy, DS Maolalaí, Ruth McIlroy, James McLaughlin, Julie MacLean, Valeria Melchioretto, Diane Mulholland, Luke Palmer, Yogesh Patel, Simon Perchik, Peter Robinson, David Rushmer, Aiden Semmens, Vik Shirley, Gerry Stewart, Louise Tondeur and Petra White, plus translations of Dmitry Kedrin & Maximilian Voloshin by Alex Cigale.

In 1928, shortly after his marriage to Ximena Amunategui, and after meeting the actor Douglas Fairbanks, who expressed interest in the possibility of a new swashbuckler, Huidobro began writing his version of the Cid legend as a novel. The result is a highly readable, if slightly arch, version of the story, that casts aside the style of romantic 19th-century historical fiction in favour of more modern approaches and cinematic influences. Style aside, the book can be read a straightforward tale of adventure that sits happily alongside the 1961 epic movie that starred Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren and had thousands of extras. More than one line of the script for that movie sounds as if lifted from Huidobro's novel. The translation by Wells appeared quickly, under the title Portrait of a Paladin in 1931, in both London and New York, and this reprint offers the original version with only some minor edits, together with a new afterword and an extensive glossary to aid with figures, both legendary and genuine, from Old Spain.

Huidobro published Poemas articos in Madrid in 1918, this being the last of a rapid series of publications which established him as a major new talent both in French and in Spanish. Poemas articos is particularly interesting in that it shows the author taking on board lessons learned from Guillaume Apollinaire-an early friend in Paris-and probably also Pierre Reverdy, although this is something of an assumption, given that Reverdy repudiated his early work from this period and the poems that might have been an influence are no longer extant; the two poets also fell out, for reasons that are unclear. In any event, this is his longest Spanish-language volume up to this point, and marks a significant breakthrough. This edition also includes variant French versions.

Klange (Sounds) was Kandinsky's only poetry publication-a collection of prose poems, accompanied by 56 of his own inimitable woodcuts, 12 of them in colour. It appeared in late 1912, or early 1913 (the exact date is uncertain) from the Munich publishing house, Piper, and thus came at a crucial time in Kandinsky's artistic life: just after he had made the great breakthrough into abstraction, and likewise just after the publication of his seminal text, UEber das Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art). These were not the only poems that he wrote-others are preserved in the artist's papers-but these are the ones he chose to publish, and in a lavish edition.

The first issue of Shearsman magazine for 2018 features poetry by Michael Aiken, Geraldine Clarkson, James Coghill, Adam Flint, Robin Fulton Macpherson, Mark Goodwin, Harry Guest, Tania Hershman, Jeremy Hooker, juli Jana, Eluned Jones, Norman Jope, Kenny Knight, Rosanna Licari, Julie Maclean, Caroline Maldonado, Jennie Osborne, Mark Weiss, Mark Russell, Alexandra Sashe, Ian Seed, Vik Shirley, Mark Weiss, and translations of Du Fu into Scots and English (from the Chinese) by Brian Holton.

Amorgos Notebook (Cuaderno de Amorgos) is a collection from 2007 that won for Elsa Cross Mexico's most prestigious poetry prize, the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, especially valued by its recipients as the winner is chosen by her peers in the literary world. Elsa Cross' work over the past several decades has demonstrated a considerable fascination with Greece, and this sequence takes its departure from the island of Amorgos, in the Cyclades, home of remarkable ancient sculptures, and spectacular terrain.

The second issue of Shearsman magazine for 2016. This issue features work by Agatha Abu Shehab, Isobel Armstrong, Michael Ayres, Ken Bolton, sean burn, Sarah Cave, Stuart Cooke, Tom Cowin, Claire Crowther, Cathy Dreyer, Carrie Etter, Michael Farrell, Robin Fulton Macpherson, Valentino Gianuzzi, Mark Goodwin, Mark Harris, Maria Jastrzebska, Eluned Jones, Jill Jones, Julie Maclean, Sheila Mannix, Alasdair Paterson, Simon Perchik, Ian Seed, Hilda Sheehan, Lucy Sheerman, Rachel Sills, James Sutherland-Smith, Jon Thompson; plus translations of Mercedes Cebrian (from Spanish, by Terence Dooley), Kjell Espmark (from Swedish, by Robin Fulton Macpherson) and Mario Martin Gijon (from Spanish, by Terence Dooley).

The second issue of Shearsman magazine for 2015, this includes new poetry by Juana Adcock, Astrid Alben, Carmen Bugan, Claire Crowther, Ian Davidson, Mark Dickinson, Clayton Eshleman, Gerrie Fellows, Samir Guglani, Lucy Hamilton, Lee Harwood, Dorothy Lehane, David Miller, Helen Moore, Sabiyha Rasheed, Peter Riley, Jaime Robles, Ian Seed, Aidan Semmens, Lucy Sheerman, Donna Stonecipher, Janet Sutherland, Philip Terry, Helen Tookey, Elzbieta Wojcik-Leese, Amy Wright and Tamar Yoseloff, and translations of Philippe Jaccottet by Ian Brinton, Osip Mandelstam by Alistair Noon, Winett de Rokha by J. Mark Smith and Marina Tsvetaeva by Angela Livingstone.