Firstly I would like to wish all subscribers, contributors and readers as happy, healthy and creative a New Year as possible in these troubled times. This issue marks a turning point for Fred (admin) and myself who have, with great pride and honour, run this journal for more than two decades, as Seamus Heaney said ‘upholding the lofty standards of Agenda’ which were, of course, established by the remarkable founding editor, William Cookson. However, it is with great excitement and enthusiasm (tinged of course with a little sadness) to announce that Agenda is being taken over by the University of St Andrews, with the illustrious poet and Professor John Burnside as the new editor. Agenda will be in excellent, creative, energetic and safe hands and John intends to keep intact the ethos of the journal which, it has been said ‘does what no other poetry journal does’.
Magic comings-together have often happened, for example, with issues of Agenda and this crossover also seems to have that magical ingredient; therefore it seems meant to be that John Burnside takes the helm. I hope I can be forgiven for adding a little autobiographical information here to explain this.
Many years ago, having lived abroad in Bangladesh, Nepal, Paris and Washington DC with my first husband, in my youth, I sent poems off to Agenda and had the good fortune to be adopted as an ‘Agenda Poet’ when William Cookson and Peter Dale were joint editors. When I returned to England, I would meet up on many Friday evenings with William, Peter, Sam Milne, Roland John and a few others. I met up with Michael Alexander several times, with Kathleen Raine for tea also, and, of course had many lunches with Grey Gowrie, a tremendous long-standing supporter and guardian of Agenda. I hardly ever attended poetry readings but I did go to one – I think in a dark little cellar somewhere in Brighton and heard the most wonderful, natural-sounding poems breathed out by the then almost unknown John Burnside. I immediately reported to William how utterly impressed I was by his reading, so William read his poems and made sure he got in touch with John, inviting him to read with poetry worthies in London (John refers to this in his introduction) – after which John’s illustrious standing as a leading poet became deservedly established.
It seems more than fitting, therefore, in terms of circles and patterns, that John now inherits Agenda. He, and his team at the University, will inject it with greater energy, inspiration and expansion. Fred (who is really a farmer and comes from Sussex farming stock way back, but who has a natural affinity with poetry, and editorial skills) and I have been a ‘team’ of only two and the task of running the whole thing does become somewhat draining, especially with no funding, or very little. Other journals have teams of specialists who, separately, undertake, for example, subscriptions, submissions, publicity, advertisements, manage reviews, organise readings and launches etc. and John will be backed up by a whole team of qualified helpers which will enhance further Agenda’s reputation in this demanding world of social media. William never used computers, cycled to the typesetter who spoke very little English on his butcher’s bike with hand- written poems tucked inside a dog-eared folder – and how very well he did with just this. However, it is a different world now with a barrage of submissions coming in via email and huge demands from the Arts Council (when we did have the funding).
In our time, since William died in January 2003, and Agenda suddenly fell to me (I had been co-editing it with William for about five years while teaching), we have obviously had to computerise the journal, and I have made innovations such as encouraging the publication of more women poets, as Agenda was originally quite a male bastion. I have also established young Broadsheet poets, one or two chosen ones to be highlighted in the journal and other talented ones showcased online, along with young artists. Accompanying the Broadsheet poets series, is another ‘Notes for Broadsheet Poets’ series for budding poets and their mentors. This is in print and online. I have had a special interest too (being half Irish and brought up in the Republic) to bring into focus gifted Irish poets both known and unknown. William Cookson had Scottish blood in his genes and he, similarly, encouraged Scottish poets such as W S Graham and Hugh MacDiarmid, amongst others. This is another reason it seems fitting for Agenda to have a Scottish (hence Celtic) flavour at times with its new residence in St Andrews. Of course, international issues have, at the same time, always been important to Agenda and John will continue to promote poems from around the world, with his wide contacts.
I would like to thank, firstly, the present trustees (of which I am one) for their generous support: Timothy Adès, translator/poet and W S (Sam) Milne, poet/dramatist, who have presided in the wake of earlier trustees Harold Pinter, John Bayley and Edmund Gray, grandson of Laurence Binyon.
Timothy and his wife, Dawn, very generously hosted Agenda’s 60th birthday celebration a few years ago in The Art Workers’ Guild in Bloomsbury. This has a special connection with David Jones who did by hand Agenda’s logo. Sam has been a regular reviewer, plus a proof-reader with me when we check – over the phone – the dot and dash of each page of Agenda from our separate proofs.
Immediate and special thanks also go to Jane Bromham and Carole Cornish of JAC design for their role in typesetting and printing, and with whom we have worked most compatibly over the years.
Final thanks go to all the readers, subscribers and contributors over the years and we are sure you will continue to enjoy Agenda as it crosses over into, not a new era, but an extended one, retaining its maverick character.
I have made many new friends through Agenda, even if only online, and I do hope we will keep in touch.
Very best wishes go to John Burnside and the University of St Andrews who will continue to promote, as David Jones put it, ‘carpenters of song’.