Issue One: 'Ocean'
Click here to read our debut issue, 'Ocean'.
Inside are ten wonderful poems inspired by the swirling seas that cover over 70% of our planet, accompanied by gorgeous illustrations, courtesy of our brilliantly talented illustrator, Kelsee!
We recommend reading the magazine with our Issue One playlist in the background (which you can find here), and a big cup of tea.
If you enjoy the issue, please share it with your poetry pals, tweet us @theadriaticmag, tag us on Instagram @theadriaticmag, or send us a good old-fashioned email at theadriaticmag@gmail.com.
Featured Poets
V.B Borjen
V. B. Borjen is an author and visual artist born in Yugoslavia and based in the Czech Republic. His first poetry collection in Bosnian, Priručnik za levitiranje (Levitation Handbook), won the 2012 Mak Dizdar Award for the best first manuscript by a young poet. His work in English and his recent visual art have appeared in The Esthetic Apostle, AZURE, Hypothetical, Chaleur Magazine, IceFloe Press, Honey & Lime, High Shelf, From Whispers to Roars, NEMA and elsewhere. A selection of his poems has been published in the Greek-Bosnian Anthology of Young Bosnian Poets (Athens, 2020), a project of the publisher Vakxikon and PEN International. He serves as Guest Editor of Palette Poetry and Frontier Poetry magazines.
Leo Cookman
Leo Cookman is a writer and musician from Kent. He writes for the YouTube channel
Wisecrack among other publications. His book of cultural theory, Time’s Lie, is available from Zero Books now.
Lori Graham
Lori Graham is a 55-year- old late blooming lesbian American poet. She currently resides in Woodbridge, England with her wife. She majored in English at the University of North Florida so that she could earn a degree whilst reading lovely books and writing about them. She has had the following work published: Last Month in Poems on Global Lockdown and CoronaVirus (Poet’s Choice July 2020), Out and Who Was She? in Other Worldly Women Press (July 2020), and Change is Coming in XR-Global Creative (August 2020).
Michael Lee Richardson
Michael Lee Richardson is a writer and youth worker based in Glasgow, Scotland. His short film, My Loneliness is Killing Me - directed by Tim Courtney - won a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Short Film, and has been shown at film festivals around the world. Michael’s work has also appeared in Proud - an anthology of queer, young adult literature edited by Juno Dawson - and Queering the Map of Glasgow. With Ryan Vance, he edited We Were Always Here, an anthology of queer Scottish literature, published by 404 Ink. Michael set up and ran Trans Youth Glasgow, and is a passionate advocate for queer young people. Outside of writing, Michael likes 80s makeover montages, witches and the popular competition reality show, RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Connor Byrne
Connor Byrne is a poet and performer from Brighton, now living in London. Their work explores being queer, trans, non-binary, and relationships with others and the world. They have performed nationally and internationally, at festivals, competed in slams and self-published two pamphlets.
Shufei Ewe
Shufei Ewe is – in no particular order – a copywriter, peanut butter aficionado, an English Lit graduate, and a serial overthinker.
Bethan Hay
Bethan Hay lives an island life in Orkney where she tries to write around her young children and work as a Home Carer. She has been published in Perhappened, Dreich’s Animals chapbook, and Fish Publishing. Due in Emerge Journal and an experimental piece to be used to launch The Aesthetic Directory. Longlisted for Cambridge Flash Fiction Prize, shortlisted for Fish Publishing Lockdown Prize.
Lynne Schmidt
Lynne Schmidt is the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, and mental health professional with a focus in trauma and healing. She is the author of the chapbooks, Gravity (Nightingale and Sparrow Press), and On Becoming a Role Model (Thirty West), which was featured on The Wardrobe's Best Dressed for PTSD Awareness Week. Their work has received the Maine Nonfiction Award, Editor's Choice Award, and was a 2018 and 2019 PNWA finalist for memoir and poetry respectively. When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her three dogs and one cat to humans.
Sue Watling
Sue Watling, writer and poet living near the north bank of the River Humber, is currently working on the performance of a poetic narrative which retells the Trojan War through the eyes of Thetis, mother to Achilles. Due to be presented earlier this year, but cancelled like so many other events, this is being rescheduled for 2021. Widely published in the area of digital education, Sue is now focusing on more creative approaches to writing, in particular poetry.
David Walshe
David Walshe is from Southport, and is currently working on his first collection of poems inspired by his passion for local history. Previous poems on this theme have been published by Black Bough Poetry, The Broken Spine Artist Collective and Victorian Dollhouse.