News

2008-06-11 - Forthcoming Changes and The Forum

Hello all. Just a little interim message to say that there are going to be some changes coming soon at the roundtable review - so watch this space. Also, whilst your browsing the webosphere, tale a look at The Forum, which keeps you up-to-date with all the latest programmes at the tate modern.

The latest edition of the roundtable review is now published. Please browse our poetry, art, fiction, theatre, and ideas sections.

2007-12-10 - DONJONG HEIGHTS RUSSIAN SONNET CHALLENGE

The roundtable review has teamed up with Norwich's Eggbox Publishing, publishers of brand-spanking new cuttin' edge poetry, to launch a zinger of a Winter competition.

1st Prize: £50

Runners-up: A copy of the special hardback edition of 'Donjong Heights' by Ben Borek Judges: Ben Borek and Nathan Hamilton, managing editor of Eggbox Publishing. A selection of the poetry editor's favourites will also be published in the January/February edition of 'the roundtable review'.

Deadline: January 10th.

Ben Borek's 'Donjong Heights' is the latest book from Norwich's Eggbox publishing (http://www.eggboxpublishing.com/). A novel-in-verse, it was given it a five star review by Toby Litt in Timeout and the first print run has already sold out, which is a cause for some celebration. So, since 'Dongjong Heights' is written in Russian sonnets, or 'Onegin' stanzas, after Pushkin's similarly structured 'Eugene Onegin', we're inviting everyone to try out the form for themselves, and send us their efforts.

Here are the rules of the form:

14 lines, iambic tetrameter (that's one metrical foot shorter than a Shakespearian sonnet).

The rhyme scheme is as follows, and note that whether the letters are in upper or lower case is of importance - upper case denotes where the
rhyme should be masculine (stressed on the final syllable), lower where it should be feminine (stressed on the penultimate syllable):

aBaBccDDeFFeGG

Here's an example from Vladimir Nabokov, it being the first stanza of his poem 'On Translating 'Eugene Onegin'':

What is translation? On a platter
A poet's pale and glaring head,
A parrot's screech, a monkey's chatter,
And profanation of the dead.
The parasites you were so hard on
Are pardoned if I have your pardon,
O, Pushkin, for my stratagem:
I traveled down your secret stem,
And reached the root, and fed upon it;
Then, in a language newly learned,
I grew another stalk and turned
Your stanza patterned on a sonnet,
Into my honest roadside prose--
All thorn, but cousin to your rose.

We will allow for some variation in the rules, as Borek himself does. Trip along to http://www.eggboxpublishing.com/
DonjongSample.pdf to read a sample of the book.

To enter, simply send your Russian sonnet, along with your name and contact details, to poetry@roundtablereview.co.uk with the subject"Russian Sonnet Challenge" .

2007-11-15 - November Edition Published

Welcome to the latest issue of the roundtable review. We have our usual mixture of great features, views and reviews. Click on the links on the left hand side to navigate our six sections.

2007-09-15 - New Edition of Roundtable Review Hits the Net

The new edition of the roundtable review is now online, and has some wonderful new features, original writing and reviews. Click on the section links on the left to browse through the lastest issue.

2007-07-15 - Edition 7 Published

The latest edition of the roundtable review is published today, in our new look format. However, if you are a regular visitor to the roundtable review fear not. Despite our minor superficial surgery, we still have all the best from the worlds of fiction, poetry, theatre, film, ideas and the visual arts. In this issue you can read reviews of Joan Lingard's new novel, After You've Gone, the forthcoming French adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover, and George Monbiot's climate change warning, Heat. Warhol is revisited by Stuart Lenig and John Terry considers the roots of folk theatre. What's more we have some of the best new fiction, poetry and dramatic writing around. So dive in by clicking on the sphere on the right.