Acumen is a literary journal that places an emphasis on poetry. The magazine is edited by Patricia Oxley who herself is not a writer but a reader of poetry. She has been editing the magazine for eighteen years and has taken it into the twenty-first century with some of the best poetry and criticism being written today. Acumen publishes a varied and impressive list of poets and critics.

The magazine is also known to be on the lookout for the new and unknown of all ages - in the search for fresh talent and quality work. Published three times a year (January, May and September) in A5 perfect bound, with at least 120pp per issue, the magazine contains approximately 50 new poems (including translations), reviews, poetry comment, and reader feedback. The critical articles aim to be well written and readable which, we hope, will set the reader thinking and promote discussion within the correspondence columns of the magazine.

Issue 48 contains new poetry, prose and reviews, including Charles Bukowski: pessimist above suspicion, and a poetic remembrance of Chernobyl.

Featuring: Brian Louis Pearce on David Miller, Mary Michaels on Dinah Livingstone, Oliver Mantel on Lachlan Mackinnon

Poems by: India Russell, Lynne Wycherley, David Harsent, Mario Petrucci, Gary Allen, Michael Cullup, Roy Davids, R.L. Cook, Cherry Hullock, Nigel Ling, Barbara Cumbers, Mercer Simpson, Andy Croft, Sean Elliott, Alan Brownjohn, Nick Blair, Mark Gallacher, Kenneth Steven, Geoff Bould, Martyn Crucefix, Patricia Bishop.