Poetry - Continuous since 1977
Since 1977, a tough little poetry journal called Blue Unicorn has been going its own way. Long based in the U. C. Berkeley environs (now across a bridge in San Rafael), it is in but not exactly of the San Francisco Bay Area poetry scene. Its subscribers and contributors come from 30 states and 6 countries.
Blue Unicorn looks for poems that you couldn't possibly confuse with prose. That distinctiveness may come from form--we welcomed rhyme and meter when these tools were all but banished elsewhere. But the kick can come just as well (or also) from original imagery, gleaming sensory description, or the imaginative handling of idea. We like poems that deserve, even demand, repeated reading. We also take translations, always looking for less familiar poets and languages, and the occasional piece of art.
Recent contributors include Jane Blanchard, Michael Cadnum, X. J. Kennedy, Daniel Langton, Constance Rowell Mastores, Susan McLean, Patricia Nelson, James B. Nicola, Simon Perchik.
Blue Unicorn appears in April and October.