It is an honour to be writing the introduction to Propel Magazine’s inaugural issue. I want to start by thanking everyone who submitted work for our consideration, as well as the twenty poets featured in this issue for their brilliant poems. When Anthony first approached me about guest editing the first issue of Propel, I was immediately moved by the idea of an online literary space dedicated to poets who are building up to their first full collection, and of the magazine “acting as a free and open resource for editors, readers and curators alike”. While publishers can easily draw on pamphlets, competition shortlists or other literary publications for potential future debuts, avenues like Propel offer another valuable resource from which to discover new and exciting talent. 

The poems which encompass this issue are wide-ranging in terms of their themes and formal approaches, but all of them offer the reader language and imagery that is innovative, precise, and compelling. The selected poems all bear re-reading; beyond the task of having to select twenty poems from over four hundred submissions, I found myself drawn back to those poems which ask difficult – and at times irresolvable – questions, as well as those which inspire me to see familiar subjects in a different light. During a time of conflict and crisis, I find myself pondering lines such as these: “I am told to write more / about suffering” (Yanita Georgieva); “my mother / is crying because I have spent all my money / on a Care Bear the colour of soap” (Jo Bratten); “i blend camaraderie & outrage” (Simon Maddrell); “I love five people approximately and none of them are here” (Tom Bailey); “You are needy, threaten lumps, failure, but I stir and stir” (Suyin Du Bois). I hope these poems will resonate with you.

— Mary Jean Chan
September 2022