Stand Magazine

Poetry Collection  

Archived since Vol 14 (1)
Modern Archive

32 issues

Stand appears quarterly, featuring the best in new writing - poetry, fiction, and criticism.

Stand was founded in the 1950s and for many years edited by the remarkable and dedicated poet Jon Silkin.

Stand has always promoted work by new and established poets, short-story writers and critics, and continues to do so. Stand is an independent company and charity primarily based at the University of Leeds.

Stand now and how it all began

From London, where it was published from 1952 to 1957, Stand moved to Leeds after Editor Jon Silkin had been Gregory Fellow in Poetry there. It moved to Newcastle in 1965, and back to Leeds in 2000. Stand is an independent company and a charity but works in close association with the School of English at the University of Leeds. The School was proud to be able to host the 50th, 60th and 65th birthday celebrations for this distinguished magazine.

Stand has played a major role in bringing the work of Russian and East European writers in translation to an English-speaking audience. Recently, Stand has promoted contemporary Chinese poets, and will soon publish poetry and prose fiction from Indonesia and Singapore.

Jon Silkin wrote about Stand:

"I began Stand in London. The magazine's inception was greatly assisted by the American firm for which I was then working as a lavatory cleaner. One day, the foreman approached the five or six janitors and told us that he wanted us to work overtime, but at the flat rate. Then, as now, work was scarce, but I was so incensed by the foreman's attitude that I tried to organize a tiny union of janitors to protest against our treatment. This was unsuccessful and in the event I took the can. My employers were so anxious to get rid of me that they gave me a day and a half's holiday pay. Before I left, I went to the stationary department and, with the money, bought at a discount the paper for the magazine I intended to produce."

Stand has always promoted work by new and established poets, short-story writers and critics, and continues to do so. Stand has published work by writers who have gone on to become established figures - Ken Smith, Tony Harrison, Michael Hamburger, Geoffrey Hill, and Douglas Dunn. Twice winner of the Booker Prize, Peter Carey, first appeared in the UK in Stand. Some of Terry Eagleton’s most acute reviews appeared in many issues of Stand.

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  • First Issue: Vol 14 (1)
  • Latest Issue: Vol 21 (4)
  • Issue Count: 32
  • Page Count: 3,626
  • Published: Quarterly
  • ISSN: 2041-4056