First Sixty - Acumen Anthology
Bonhams will host the launch of `First Sixty’ the
Acumen Anthology, a celebration of 25 years of the best poetry featured by the
magazine produced by Patricia Oxley, Danielle Hope, Glyn Pursglove, and William
Oxley. At the launch event there will be a short reading, a cocktail party,
and copies of the Anthology on sale at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, London, on
Tuesday April 13th at 6.30pm to 8.00pm. For an invitation to the launch, contact
Patricia Oxley on PWOxley@aol.com or T: 01803
851098.
First published
in 1985, Acumen Literary Journal is open to all and features works by everyone
from the former
poet laureate, winners of the Queen’s gold medal for poetry, also
poetry fellows, academics and writers who simply submit works via the post.
There is even a poem in this new Anthology written
under a pseudonym by the murdered Queen of Nepal who wrote under the pseudonym Chandani Shah before she was married. They
were broadcast on Nepali radio but she died in the massacre of the Nepalese
royal family and this poem is one of her few surviving
works.
Patricia Oxley says: "First Sixty is an anthology of
readable,
meaningful poems which cause a reader to laugh, cry, think, agree, disagree,
but, above all, enjoy.” The book includes work by 195 poets over 332 pages and
reads like a poetic social commentary and a brief history of changing poetic
forms and concerns, at the very reasonable price of
£9.99.
Over the years there has been much praise for Acumen.
Dannie Abse says: “Over the years Acumen has just got better and better.” Wendy
Cope offers: “Congratulations to Acumen on its 25th anniversary. Long may you
continue to publish good poems and interesting articles.” Andrew Motion wishes
the publication a “Happy 25th
birthday.”
Editor since the inception of Acumen, Patricia Oxley
was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, and educated at North Manchester Grammar
School and the University of Salford where she trained as an industrial chemist.
But she abandoned science for the arts, especially poetry and after a number of
years associated with several literary magazines she decided in 1985 to produce
a quality literary journal herself. She now lives in South Devon with her
husband, the poet William Oxley, has two grown up daughters and six
grandchildren.
She received a first class BA (Hons), as a mature
student in English Literature from the University of London in 1992. She has
edited the correspondence between William Oxley and her late father-in-law,
Harry Oxley, published as ‘Letters Between a Father and a Son 1966-1970' (Salzburg 1988);
'Selected Poems
of the United Kingdom' (Spiny Babbler, Kathmandu, 2000); and was
co-editor with her husband of ‘Modern Poets of Europe' (Spiny Babbler, Kathmandu, 2003) an
anthology of European poetry in English
translation.
