''Light'' (formerly ''Light: A Quarterly of Light Verse'') is an online journal that bills itself as "North America's longest-running journal of light verse."

History and profile

''Light'' was founded as a print journal in 1992 by a retired postal worker John Mella. Mella personally published the journal until 2008, when he founded the non-profit Foundation for Light Verse with a gift from poet

Joyce La Mers Joyce La Mers (1920 – October 2013) was an American writer of light poetry. Biography La Mers was born Joyce Duncan in Billings, Montana in 1920, the third child and only daughter of a successful livestock dealer. The Duncan family was devast ...

. The Foundation, headed by Mella, took over the publication of the journal. After Mella died in 2012, the magazine was relaunched as an online-only, semiannual publication, edited by his handpicked successor, poet Melissa Balmain. The all-volunteer staff includes poets

Kevin Durkin Kevin is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; ; ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicised from , an Irish diminutive form.''A Dictiona ...

, Coleman Glenn, Allison Joseph,

Julie Kane Julie Kane (born July 20, 1952 in Boston) is a contemporary American poet, scholar, and editor and was the Louisiana Poet Laureate for the 2011–2013 term. Although born in Massachusetts, Kane has lived in Louisiana for over three decades and ...

, Barbara Loots, and Gail White. Since 2017, Light has also published Poems of the Week on Mondays, inspired by current events. Each biannual issue (winter/spring and summer/fall) begins with a feature on a writer of light verse and includes reviews of light (or largely light) poetry collections. Sections in between have varied from issue to issue, including "Spectrum" roundups on types of light verse ( Little Willies, "impossible rhymes," etc.) and an occasional column, "Historical and Hysterical," by A. M. Juster. The magazine has published the verses of

Wendy Cope Wendy Cope (born 21 July 1945) is a contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire, with her husband, the poet Lachlan Mackinnon. Biography Cope was born in Erith in Kent (now ...

Thomas M. Disch Thomas Michael Disch (February 2, 1940 – July 4, 2008) was an American science fiction writer and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book—previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book"—in 1999. He had two other Hugo nominations and n ...

X. J. Kennedy X. J. Kennedy (born Joseph Charles Kennedy on August 21, 1929, in Dover, New Jersey) is an American poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and author of children's literature and textbooks on English literature and poetry. He was long known as ...

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

, and

Richard Wilbur Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets, along with his friend Anthony Hecht, of the World War II generation, Wilbur's work, often employing rhyme, and c ...

, among many others.

Contributors

Notable contributors include the following:

References

{{Reflist 2. Nicol, Alfred (August 2, 2013), "A New Morning for Light
A New Morning for Light

External links

''Light''
Biannual magazines published in the United States Defunct literary magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1992 Magazines disestablished in 2012 Magazines published in Chicago Online literary magazines published in the United States Online magazines with defunct print editions Poetry magazines published in the United States Quarterly magazines published in the United States