The judges of The London Magazine Poetry Prize 2026 award first place to Nina Reljić for her poem ‘Helen When Asked’, with second and third place awarded to Henry Woodland and Natalie Perman.
Review | A Village as Small as a Thimble by Gabrielle McClellan
‘If Müller’s oeuvre captures the absurdities of this dogmatic regime, then Heimatliteratur is the paradox of village and fatherland, the intractability of home and violence.’
Gabrielle McClellan reviews Herta Müller’s The Village on the Edge of the World.
Review | Cloughed Up by O. J. Williams
‘As well as fulfilling a boyhood fantasy of building a hillside village, Portmeirion was Clough’s propaganda piece, the culmination of a career spent campaigning against unchecked “bungaloid growth” by pestering the local authorities.’
O. J. Williams reviews Sarah Baylis’s Portmeirion.
Archive | At Noon by Elizabeth Jennings
‘Lying upon my bed I see / Full noon at ease. Each way I look / A world established without me / Proclaims itself. I take a book / And flutter through the pages where / Sun leaps through shadows.’
From 1956, poetry by Elizabeth Jennings.
Essay | The Practical Limits of Daylight: In Memory of J. H. Prynne
‘Here, then, is the inevitable clarion call to Prynne sceptics: read, read quickly, submit to the strange music, resist the cop in your head, be persuaded to rejoice, let the healing fountain start.’
Will Fleming on J. H. Prynne.
Interview | Wayfaring Stranger: An Interview with Andrea Luka Zimmerman
‘At the cinema people ask questions on process, whereas at the outdoor screenings I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a question about process; the audience talk more of themselves, their own experience.’
Lydia de Matos speaks to Andrea Luka Zimmerman.
Essay | Ophrys, or Of Seduction by Alicia Kopf
‘Modern biology strengthens what Darwin already noted: nature experiments constantly with sex and gender, without being reduced to any single pattern.’
Alicia Kopf on Darwin, sexual selection and orchids.
Essay | Sylvia, the Ghost Writer by Melanie McGee Bianchi
‘If she’s tampering with me and my middlebrow money-grubbing from some supernatural plane, perhaps it’s just another chore to check off for the overachiever who once journaled, “What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless”.’
Melanie McGee Bianchi on Sylvia Plath’s guest editorship of Mademoiselle and Plath’s cult of perpetuity.
Interview | Post-Pastoral: An Interview with Zakia Sewell
‘As someone of mixed heritage, I contain or embody the oppressor and the oppressed.’
Joseph Williams interviews Zakia Sewell.
Review | Common People by Fonie Mitsopoulou
‘The novel’s central question is this: can afflicted people find community and security outside of the households they were born into, or is everyone willing to manipulate and deceive those around them if the situation calls for it?’
Fonie Mitsopoulou reviews Mieko Kawakami’s Sisters in Yellow.
Essay | Imaging the Invisible by Oriol Ponsatí-Murlà
‘When something like this happens then the image isn’t merely a banal transposition of reality. It creates a certain reality, of a very particular character, because it has the capacity to go beyond itself. To transcend itself.’
Oriol Ponsatí-Murlà on the advent of photography and documenting the dead.
Fiction | On Not Knowing English by Sergi Pàmies
‘I distract myself with the idea that human beings can be divided into two categories: those who wait, and those who make others wait. If forced to, I’d describe myself as one of those who wait.’
Short fiction by Sergi Pàmies.
Essay | Flags Made in China by Marina Garcés
‘If we take a closer look at them, flags don’t express the eternal identity of nations but the power relations upon which today’s nation states have been constructed and consolidated.’
Marina Garcés on Catalan flags and nation states.
New Issue and Tote Bag Bundle
With the new issue and tote bag bundle, save 20% on the cost of the Catalan Issue 2026 and the bespoke TLM tote. The latest issue includes Marina Garcés on Catalan flags and nation states, Oriol Ponsatí-Murlà on the advent of photography and documenting the dead, posthumous short fiction by Mercè Rodoreda and artwork by Mari Chordà and Àngels Ribé. The…
£20.00
Podcast
On The London Magazine podcast, we speak to brilliant writers, poets and artists about their craft, inspiration and career so far. New episodes every month.
Podcast | Ann Goldstein
Ann Goldstein discusses the oxymoron of the ‘celebrated translator’, her early encounters with Italian through Dante and the story of how she became Ferrante’s translator. Goldstein reflects on Ferrante’s unique syntax and style, as well as the broader challenges of Italian–English translation.
Podcast | Gurnaik Johal
‘This is where I say to any budding writers out there: write historical fiction!’
Gurnaik Johal on The London Magazine Podcast.
Podcast | Leo Robson
‘One of the things that the novel is about is different forms of chronology that we mark things by.’
Leo Robson on The London Magazine Podcast.
Archive
The London Magazine has a publication history spanning almost three hundred years, and has featured work by some of the most prominent names in literature, from John Keats to Hilary Mantel. In this curated selection, we share our favourite pieces from the TLM archive.
Archive | At Noon by Elizabeth Jennings
‘Lying upon my bed I see / Full noon at ease. Each way I look / A world established without me / Proclaims itself. I take a book / And flutter through the pages where / Sun leaps through shadows.’
From 1956, poetry by Elizabeth Jennings.
Archive | A 1962 Survey of Poets
The February 1962 edition of The London Magazine was dedicated to poetry.
Editor Alan Ross spoke to several poets at the time about their craft and thoughts on poetry, including Robert Graves, Philip Larkin, Derek Walcott, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and more.
Archive | The Predicament of International Style: British Painters in 1961
‘The real merit of British painting is that it is at its best romantic, unclassical, particular, fanatical, self-obsessed and the result of close observation in a misty country that has longish winter evenings.’
A survey of British painters in 1961.
