Agenda is one of the best known and most highly respected poetry journals in the world, having been founded in 1959 by Ezra Pound and William Cookson.

It is edited by Patricia McCarthy, who co-edited the magazine with William Cookson for four years until his death in January 2003. She is continuing, as Seamus Heaney says, ‘to uphold the lofty standards of Agenda’.

"Agenda is one of the two literary periodicals in Britain. I admire it for its attentiveness to all kinds of contemporary poetry… and its consistent stress on the importance of poetry in translation from other languages." Thom Gunn

"Agenda, as the title insists, does several things that need to be done if literary culture is to stay in good shape. First of all, it stimulates and sponsors new poetry by poets whose writings and espousals have given the magazine its personality from the beginning. Agenda has a second important function which it discharges by doing work of critical advocacy for poets of marked or under-rated achievement, living and dead." Seamus Heaney

Timeless Quotes by William Cookson >

Agenda News

                                         Bicentenary

                              Robert Browning b. 7th May 1812

                                         Two Essays

Michael Goldman:

The Humour in Browning’s  Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister: a layman’s  view

Tony Roberts:

Living with Browning:  an appreciation of the poet in his bicentennial year

                       Agenda Retrospectives Vol 46 No3

                                 Published April 12th 2012

                   Included in the Retrospectives issue of Agenda are:

Poems on the first and second world wars, and on general themes, by known voices such as Maureen Duffy, Alison Brackenbury, Penelope Shuttle, Robert Wells, Peter Dale, Simon Jenner, Peter Carpenter, and others – and new voices such as Jane Lovell, Clare Best, Judy Shalan, Robin Renwick.

    Six chosen, exciting young Broadsheet poets pointing out of the past and present, to the future of a poetry that matters, including an essay by a former young Broadsheet poet, now an established poet, Zoe Brigley: part I of three parts in which she reviews young poets featured in Agenda’s pages and website who have gone on to have collections published.

    Essays by well-known critics and academics such as Josephine Balmer, Robert Wells, Simon Jenner, Andrew McCulloch, Peter Dale on undeservedly neglected poets from the 30s, 40s and 50s. These include Bernard Spencer, Sidney Keyes, Anne Ridler, E.J. Scovell, A.J. Tessimond, William Hayward, Laura Riding and the short-lived Argentinian poetess, Alejandra Pizarnik.

                              Broadsheet 17 & 18 are now online

         Don't miss the latest supplementary Poems --  Essays -- Reviews

                           Submission Policy Change

        Agenda is to trial a new submission policy starting April 2012.

                Please visit the Submissions page for full details

If you are planning, or already have submitted work to Agenda, help us keep you informed of any submission changes by signing up to our free newsletter