DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Prospective students
Current students
About the Department
Research
Part-time study
The Tabla Book of New Verse
EDITOR
Stephen James
NOTE: The TABLA Book of New Verse has ceased publication. All back issues are now sold out, but old copies can still be tracked down on the internet. The contents of the last three issues can also be read on the National Poetry Library website.
The Tabla Book of New Verse (1998-2004) and its predecessor Tabla poetry magazine (1992-1997) published work by some of the most prominent figures in contemporary verse, including Seamus Heaney, Carol Rumens, Paul Muldoon, Charles Tomlinson, Kathleen Raine, Medbh McGuckian, John Burnside, Peter Redgrove, W.S. Merwin, Charles Simic and Pauline Stainer. It prided itself equally on the publication of excellent work by less familiar names, some of which was sourced from a tie-in competition.
Our annual anthologies were widely praised in the poetry press for their contents and elegant design. Tabla also repeatedly enjoyed the distinction of publishing poems which were then shortlisted for the Best Individual Poem of the Year category of the Forward Poetry Awards.
TheTabla publishing venture was founded in 1991 by Stephen James and Emma Aylett. It was named after the traditional Indian drum-set which, with its ability to yield subtle variations of tone and timbre, offered the editors a metaphor for the kind of poem they hoped to hit upon.
"Tabla seems to have been with us always, effortlessly scaling the Olympian heights which so many gaze upon enviously ... Publication in Tabla is something to which good poets should aspire."
Orbis magazine
"Tabla cares about its content, with every contribution read and measured before publication and the layout clean and clear, a joy to read."
Writers’ Monthly
"In both content and presentation it has gone from strength to strength"
Poetry Review
"A fine annual view of what's going on ... worth hunting out"
Buzz magazine
"The annual format is good, and there are few poetry publications around with quite its combination of class and bite"
Mario Petrucci
"Tabla is excellent"
John Kinsella