Published in Issue 22 of Visionary Tongue, Summer 2007.
Quarterly magazine of literature and the arts.
This reviewer has only seen the PDF version* of Gold Dust, but that was put together with obvious care and attention and this alone would make for pleasant reading. This is a new lay-out for the magazine and it’s now illustrated with photos throughout. But that is not the extent of its virtues. The contributors also seem to be chosen for the due care and attention they lavish on their work, all of a good standard, particularly the short fiction which explores the mundane to the paranormal via crime. This carries through to everything: each of the three reviews of books is in depth and considered—if not particularly concise. The interview with children’s poet Ken Nesbitt is similarly thorough. The poetry is a mix of the fun and the serious, with a ten pound prize in their Star Poem Contest (though their ten pound Cover Photo Competition pictures were absent from my PDF file). Their articles cover the submission process, writing poetry and touring literary Dublin.
My only problem with the PDF file was that the columnal format of the text does lead to lots of mouse clicking up and down, till you get a sort of screen-sickness, with text rising and falling like the motion of the sea. But this is a trifling, and rather fanciful, complaint.
Overall, this is a satisfying publication, obviously fuelled by a genuine passion for both reading and writing and that makes Gold Dust a useful tool for reader and writer alike.
Free from website: www.golddustmagazine.co.uk
*requires Adobe Acrobat, available from www.adobe.co.uk/acrobat