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Blast

I have to admit that I’m a magazine junkie. With the possible exceptions of golfing and bridal magazines I’ll read any magazine – from the trashy tabloid to high-brow literary – anywhere; anytime; dentists’ waiting rooms, doctors’ waiting rooms, hairdressers’ salons and, most of all, public transport. In fact, magazines are made for public transport. Unlike reading novels you can finish an article, story, or review in the space of a P.T. trip without the narrative being interrupted by annoying practical details like getting off. Buying a magazine and making it last over a week of P.T. transport is an art, as is choosing the right magazine for the right journey. It’s not an exact science but there are compelling reasons for giving this matter serious consideration.

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Blast reinvented itself as a poetry-centric magazine in March 2005, and is now something akin to the Chicago-based Poetry – a lot of poetry, followed by critical writing about poetry – though Blast is shorter and Australian. Like Poetry, it is an upper-echelon affair, born from a philosophy of quality. The problem with the new Blast, for better or for worse, is that many of the same names keep coming up. Kevin Brophy, Jan Owen, Michael Sharkey and Leon Trainor have featured in four out of seven editions. Elizabeth Campbell, Bruce Dawe, Mike Ladd, Paul Magee, John Jenkins, Philip Salom, Petra White appear in three out of seven. The problem, you ask? They are all good poets!

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