by Peter Hammerton Harry Potter, my favourite fantasy series, has its own sport: Quidditch! Everyone loves Quidditch, but not everyone loves how it works. Here’s a brief summary: wizards and witches fly on broomsticks around a stadium. Each team has three Chasers (who score 10 points for every time they throw a ball through a […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #35 – Fantasy – can be downloaded here.
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by Michael Angerer The beauty of Fantasy – and, in part, the reason why it was chosen as this issue’s theme – is both how varied its meanings can be and how close they ultimately are to the etymological root of the word. A quick glance at the Oxford English Dictionary, preferably in its handy […]
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by Tom Saer Push your eyes until the logic’s gone and then, in millions and millions of yards and scars of smiles in eyes The destination singing to the cracks in mattresses is on your right I know I’m making deeper crevices when walking while there’s everything but softness round my ears: things […]
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by Monim Wains Welcome to Oxford, the best university in the world! (For three years running, don’t you know, no one in the UK has ever done that before!) And welcome to Oriel, the hands-down, no questions asked, best college in Oxford. That’s quite an introduction to live up to, but the number of times […]
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by Chris Hill We tend to respect things that have endured for a long time. We respect our professors Because we know that years of hard study have given them knowledge. That time has taught them more than books could. We respect antiques As relics of an era before our own. As […]
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A PDF of the print version of Issue #34 – Dawn – can be downloaded here.
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by Gustas Mockus
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by Rhiannon Savage
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by Colleen Cumbers Euphoria A struggle, a fight After an interminable darkness The first rays pierce through Penetrating the body, the heart, the soul The body The thrill pulsing through the veins The gush of intoxication Splendour Beauty The fervency of the mortal The golden tinge to the world around you Everything, all that ever […]
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by Yi Yun Soo 這無邊無際的大海 Zhèwúbīan wújìde dàhǎi 是思鄉情懷 Shìsīxīang qíng huái 亦是龐大的夢想 Yì shìpáng dàde mèng xǐang 更是為未來擁抱的希望。 Gèng shìwèi wèi lái yōng bào de xīwàng 有了希望 才有力量 Yǒu le xīwàng cái yǒu lìliàng 活出一個無悔的人生。 Huóchūyí gèwúhuǐ de rén shēng This vast, boundless sea Could be our longing for home [And also] our […]
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by Gustas Mockus
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by Joe Gardiner
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by Martin Yip The night is darkest just before the dawn. That was a quotation that Edward Leung purportedly took from a Batman film, as shown in the documentary Lost in the Fumes. Leung was a student from the University of Hong Kong who majored in philosophy. More importantly, he was and remains a figurehead […]
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by Tom Saer Forgetting this is what my time together knows, considering [I hit the bottom and] the way that darkness has been put to use since goodness knows BC. But now the bonfire substitute illuminates the shame with preset ambiguity: Are there any ways to warn my friends About the Fallout […]
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by Lauren Hill; original composition for piano, flute, clarinet, violin and cello. Performed by players from the CHROMA ensemble. Score to be found here.
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by Amanda Higgin Xanda and I are on the bus heading from my home town into Oxford. The skies outside are grey, a welcome cool after months of heat. I’m wearing jeans for the first time since June! A few seats in front of us, I spot Boris Johnson’s scruffy form on the front page […]
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by Rory Turnbull With charts, once showing routes across the sea, Rejected now (some lost, some thrown away), And ships exposed upon the ocean grey, What should we do in life’s great odyssey, This parlous passage to felicity? For, in the swell, the surf, the spiteful spray, Drowned by the water-flood, I fear we may […]
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by Tobias Thornes Very soon they missed him, When the air conditioning leaked, And everyone complained about The smaller, harder seats. And when the new train screeched to halt Half an hour late, Few among the passengers Thought it worth the wait. But Progress wouldn’t hearken To this first journey’s curse: They’d spent too many […]
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by Soo Yi Yun The heavy downpour, the brief thunderstorm, and petrichor fill up the air— down the cycling path and the memory lane called home. The rain in Oxford has been reminiscent of my home country since last week. In a tropical country like Malaysia, it is common to have downpours every now and then. […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #33 – Passage – can be downloaded here: Issue #33 – Passage
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by Tom Saer Categorical return to my island the contract sees still breathing sworn on cherry blisters but now, don’t worry, I have a stronger hardback body of 8-year-old mermaid me Matchless bathing mansion waiting to show its flat excited chest a dream much closer to both of our folds At the biggest surprise of […]
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The Psycho-Social Implications of the EU-Turkey Deal on Greek Islands. by Jacob Warn At the edges of Europe, there are borders you can cross, borders you cannot cross, and borders you may cross if you so wish, and to which you may or may not return. If you’re seeking refuge in Europe, the chances are […]
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A comic by Joe Gardiner. Read the original ‘Gravity Man’ comic from the start of this academic year here.
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by Tobias Thornes They’ve given him his notice, They’ve settled on a time, To disappear who forty years Has trundled down this line. The window-wipers dry his eyes, The air-brakes sigh and hiss, As round the bend once more they send The friend that we will miss. Hear him hum as up he starts, Feel […]
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by Tom Saer
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Is this art? Is this art? Is this art? Is this art? Is this art? Is this art? Is this art? Is this art? Is this art? Is this art? Is this art? Is this art?
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by Chloe Jacobs I don’t know why bitterness is my mother tongue Why my readiest tools are sharp Biting Where I learned to be so cruel Who schooled me in dead-eye dead-pan Spoken-word violence Who taught me to pick fights Take names, break kneecaps Bite to the elbow the hand extended To feed me I […]
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by Kryssa Burakowska
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by Joe Gardiner
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by Fanxi Liu
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by Amanda Higgin Xanda and I have met up in my home town for lunch, since she’s passing by on her travels. It’s a typical, fairly rural town full of commuters and old people, without much left to tell you that it used to be the second largest city in the country after London. I […]
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by Emma Gilpin Lines on a flag that means freedom, The same freedom that lets A kid walk into a shop and stand in line To buy a weapon. Lines on a page from centuries past Enshrined in a mythology That says this is freedom, This wild west, Hunger Games fantasy of a kid In […]
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by Christopher Hill As I walk into the Jesus College lodge to ask where to go for the play, I notice the porter flag down a student who I would later find out to be part of the backstage crew. I didn’t catch the whole conversation but it went something along the lines of: ‘I’m […]
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by Tom Saer She said I should process my feelings before destroying other eyes To the point that they laugh I tried to say I wasn’t less-than-one-week-old love leftovers But maybe that wasn’t so convincing There are tears in my ear still Soft salt in the morning at least They came I think from Orphean […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #31 – Fragment – can be downloaded here: Issue #31 – Fragment
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by Joe Gardiner
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by Caroline Ball Imagine yourself years from now, when by a freak coincidence all recordings of the Star Wars films have been lost. All that survives are brief extracts…from the prequels. Sounds horrifying? I’m only just getting started. Not only have you lost 90% of the original material, but no single surviving clip is longer […]
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by Michael Leong you’ve done my maths and i’ve done yours, so put your exes into my whys and back in again and let’s see where we go. follow the pencil, dot the lines and I’ll slide down your curves, my regression, unintended equilibrium decision tree yields mutually assured destruction but we’ll rest where our […]
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by Soo Yi Yun If you feel hollow inside, Embrace those fragments of light through your curtain slit. You will be alright – Day by day, bit by bit. If you feel hollow inside, Draw out those fragments of love From the darkest corners of your mind. They are like the dove That brings you […]
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The Poor Print 