We’ve long admired the fruits of Jacob Denno and his combined collaborators’ collective labour – having introduced the debut issue of his Popshot Magazine back in our early days, we sought his views on illustration and poetry in 2010, and just last year we grilled Denno about his new print shop. No surprise then that, as his publication enters a new dawn, we should once more discuss the many merits of his literature and illustration periodical.
And so, to that new dawn: traditionally an illustrated poetry magazine, Denno has opened up Popshot’s floodgates to welcome the brave and the bold in all manner of literature – short stories and flash fiction now sitting side by side with that poetry and, of course, the ever-splendid artistic meanderings of Popshot’s brilliantly curated illustrators. The magazine’s eighth issue kicks off its new status as The Illustrated Magazine of New Writing and, rather fittingly, is entitled The Birth Issue.
Apparently you’ll find “literary musings on the birth of nations, transvestites, eternal youth, a life spent in freefall, and how society might operate if we all had transparent foreheads”, which is all well and good – but most importantly, if we know Jacob and Popshot Magazine, you’ll find carefully curated content, eye-popping imagery, and an unbridled passion that will bring each page to life. Brilliant.
Brandon Loving for the poem ‘Spring Cleaning’
Phil Couzens for the short story ‘A Graveyard for Mice’
Darren Hopes for the flash fiction piece ‘String Theory’
Chris Thornley for the poem ‘Ultrasound’
Peter Strain for the poem ‘Birth of a Nation’
Zagny Ormut-Durbin for the poem ‘Birthday’
