''The Flea'' was an online literary and art magazine (webzine or
e-zine
An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer magaz ...
). Its content was mostly related to poetry, and included work belonging the differing styles of
formalism
Formalism may refer to:
* Form (disambiguation)
* Formal (disambiguation)
* Legal formalism, legal positivist view that the substantive justice of a law is a question for the legislature rather than the judiciary
* Formalism (linguistics)
* Scient ...
and
free verse
Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French ''vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech.
Definit ...
by established authors and new writers. It focused partly on the authors and resources of a number of online poetry forums, such as
Eratosphere and The Gazebo.
History
''The Flea'' was founded by Australian poet Paul Stevens in 2009 with the technical assistance of Peter Bloxsom, who also edits the online sonnet journal 14by14.
It published many notable poets from the U.K., U.S. and Australia, including
Les Murray,
Robert Mezey
Robert Mezey (February 28, 1935 – April 25, 2020) was an American poet, critic and academic. He was also a noted translator, in particular from Spanish, having translated with Richard Barnes the collected poems of Borges.
He was born in Philadel ...
,
,
Stephen Edgar
Stephen Edgar (born 1951) is an Australian poet, editor and indexer.
Background and education
Edgar was born in Sydney, where he attended Sydney Technical High School. After time spent living in London, he later returned to Australia, going o ...
,
Maryann Corbett
Maryann Corbett (née Zillotti, Washington, D.C.) is an American poet, medievalist, and linguist.
She grew up in northern Virginia. She did her undergraduate work at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and graduated with ...
,
Rhina Espaillat
Rhina Polonia Espaillat (born January 20, 1932, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a bilingual Dominican-American poet and translator who is affiliated with the literary movement known as New Formalism in American poetry. She has published ele ...
,
M. A. Griffiths, Rose Kelleher, Janet Kenny,
Timothy Murphy,
John Whitworth,
Clive James
Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.[Alan Gould
Alan Gould (born 22 March 1949) is a contemporary Australian novelist, essayist and poet.
Life and career
Gould was born in London to an English father and an Icelandic mother. His family lived in Northern Ireland, Germany and Singapore before ...]
,
Geoff Page
Geoffrey Donald Page (born 7 July 1940) is an Australian poet, translator, teacher and jazz enthusiast.
He has published 22 collections of poetry, as well as prose and verse novels. Poetry and jazz are his driving interests, and he has also writ ...
,
Peter Wyton and Ann Drysdale. ''The Flea'' is archived by The National Library of Australia's
Pandora Archive,
whose ‘Web sites are selected based on their cultural significance and research value in the long term’ (
Pandora Archive). The final issue was dated 2011.
[
]
Style
''The Flea’s'' visual style and layout reflected that of an early 17th-century English broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...
. It was named after John Donne
John Donne ( ; 22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's ...
's poem "The Flea", and published contemporary verse loosely in the metaphysical poetry
The term Metaphysical poets was coined by the critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of 17th-century English poets whose work was characterised by the inventive use of conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyric ...
tradition.
Blog
Information about ''The Flea'' could be found on ''The Flea's'' blog, where serious and less serious discussions of literary and other matters took place, as well as links to poetry and art-related sites of interest.
References
External links
''The Flea'' website
''The Flea'' Blogge
* http://novemberskypoetry.blogspot.com/2009/05/review-of-flea.html Christine Klocek-Lim reviews The Flea'' at November Sky Poetry
Nic Sebastian interviews Paul Stevens
2009 establishments in Australia
Australian literature websites
Defunct literary magazines published in Australia
Magazines established in 2009
Online literary magazines
Poetry literary magazines
Magazines disestablished in 2011
{{poetry-mag-stub