I threatened to announce the new Angel Exhaust 16 in detail, but I haven't
got very much to say and more alarming concerns have arisen.

The poetry section of AE 16 is now edited by Simon Smith and occupies
two-thirds of the publication  so there is rather less of Andrew Duncan's
homilectics, in fact just one substantial piece, the final instalment of
his review of Conductors of Chaos  (or rather of parts of the anthology
since he  omits all reference to several major poets in it) + an unbalanced
review of Kevin Nolan and the rest is just silliness. There's also a good
provocative article by Robin Purves on Robert Crawford's Scotland, a bit of
Tom Lowenstein's journal and Nicholas Johnson blowing his own black
trumpet.

The poetry section is something of a rag-bag but has good substantial
contributions by Ric Caddel, Ralph Hawkins, John Kinsella, Tony Lopez,
Michael Ayres,  Kelvin Corcoran and others which more than justify the
entire exercise.

It costs £4 plus postage. Order from 35 Stewart's Way, Manunden, Bishops
Stortford, Herts. CM23 1DR.


This will be the last issue of Angel Exhaust to be edited by Andrew Duncan.
The magazine will continue under a different editor; I don't know if Simon
Smith will still be editing the poetry or not.

Although Andrew claims that he has been wanting to retire from A.E. for
some time my feeling is that he has been driven to this, and his polemical
discourses  silenced, by the paranoia which rages through the world of
British experimental or radical poetry.

The latest episode involved a certain author in the more northern zones of
this country believing (wrongly) that he had been accused of being a
homosexual in Angel Exhaust 16, telephoning the magazine's grant-giving
body in a state of mindless fury, and threatening litigation. The arts
board in question appears to have taken this seriously and the magazine's
whole future is under threat whether edited by Andrew or not.

If this is all true, and the onslaught of fury against Andrew from
criticised poets has managed to suppress his critical writings and stop the
magazine,  I can only say (allowing for a certain sense in which he had
brought all this upon himself) that it is  the most shameful thing to have
happened since I have been involved in British poetry.


/PR




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