The Backstage ClanSmooth Diaos day is going anything but. Judging by how the stagehands treat him, you wouldnt guess that hes the foreman who makes sure theres food on their tables or that this bunch of yokels work for Xians premier theatre company, where their unseen grafting makes all the dazzling performances possible. Whoever said showbusiness was glamorous? Keeping the gang out of trouble in the city's many dives and cheap noodle bars is a thankless job when all

my seal-grey limestone on your green slate

Vietnam and Chile to the beggars on the streets of Washington

Tait follows the reiver people as they are forced from their rural heartlands into the industrial and post-industrial North East of England in search of work

Smokestack Lightning is the 200th book from independent radical poetry publisher Smokestack Books

by John Manson

not come home to you

that feeds a longing/desire/determination to write in the Mamiaith (Mothertongue) that she speaks

the author’s alter ego

The Retrieved Attachments in Peter Robinson’s new collection are to people and places

violence and hope

Clyne opens up an exploration of Jewish and lesbian identity

Marine le Pen