GOBSHITE QUARTERLY #1, 255mm x 255mm, 84pp, $5 (4/$16; outside US 4/$26) from Gobshite Quarterly, P.O. Box 11346, Portland, OR 97211-0346, USA (e-mail: subscriptions@gobshitequarterly.com; http://gobshitequarterly.com). A new forum for the neglected promise of a global village, featuring international and regional voices in both English and their native languages. This gorgeous first issue contains fiction by Karel Capek, Luisa Valenzuela, Jon Carr, Susan Daitch, Mike Martin, Andrea Dworkin, Frederic Raphael, and Bill Shields; poetry by Les Murray, Venus Koury-Gata, M.F. McAuliffe, Judith Steele, Douglas Spangle, James Sallis, and Alexander Theroux; plus an interview with Chuck Palahniuk and essays, memoirs, rants and credos by Paul Krassner, Alice Hutchinson, Judith Steele, Ian Shoales, Ivan Klima, Brian Wood, and Laura Esquivel.

THE LAYABOUT #5, A4, 40pp, £2.25 (3/£6:50; Europe 3/£10; r.o.w. 3/£13:50) from The Layabout, 17 Alwyn Close, St Ives, PE27 3HL (e-mail: gnome-power@ntlworld.com; http://www.angelfire.com/nb/layabout). A magazine of humour and jolly japes, with stories by Geoff Jackson, Larry Lefkowitz, H.M. Regasmar, Conan McPhee, Keith Lobban, and Chris Fox.

MASQUE NOIR #7, A4, 80pp, Aus$6 (US $6; UK £6) from Rod Marsden, P.O. Box 231, Corrimal, NSW 2518, Australia. A "new wave avant-garde publication", Masque Noir embraces high adventure, the glory days of the pulps, mystery, suspense, gumshoe action, horror and SF. Fiction comes from Mark Hodgetts, M.A. Lovecraft, Don Boyd, Lyn McConchie, Derek Muk, Rod Marsden, Barbara A. Custer, Clinton Green, Geoff Jackson, David Cowdall, Neil K. Henderson, Julia Andrejeva, Jens H. Altmann, and Austin J. Ford, plus Rod Marsden on Cthulhu's Australia.

MONOMYTH SUPPLEMENT #4, A4, 8pp corner-stapled, enquire to D.J. Tyrer, 38 Pierrot Steps, 71 Kursaal Way, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 2UY. An interim top-up to the editor's other titles Monomyth, Awen and Bard, this issue contains letters, poems and short articles, plus Kay Fletcher shares her experiences of self-publishing her novel on CD-ROM.

NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION #171, A4, 24pp, $3:50 (12/$36; Canada 12/$38; r.o.w. 12/$48) from Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570, USA (e-mail: info@nyrsf.com; http://www.nyrsf.com). Essays, reviews and topical comment for the SF field from a fourteen-time Hugo award nominee. This issue sees Michael Swanwich interview Gardner Dozois, Walter Minkel on the young adult fantasy boom, Zoran Zivkovic's overlapping realities, Henry Wessells on Rudy Rucker's Spaceland, Kathryn Cramer probing Peter Crowther's Mars Probes,, Damien Broderick on John Wright, and Joe Sanders on Karl Schroeder.

SCAVENGER'S NEWSLETTER #227, A5, 24pp, $2 from Janet Fox, 833 Main, Osage City, KS 66523-1241, USA (e-mail: foxscav1@hotmail.com; http://66.39.35.131/scavengers/). After 19 years supporting the small press, editor Janet Fox hangs up the rat's ears for the very last time. In addition to the regular market news and reviews columns, this closing issue features fiction by Dodie Miller, plus an interview with Janet herself about how tracking small press markets – and the small press itself – has changed over the past two decades.

SCHEHERAZADE #24, A4, 40pp, £3:50 (3/£9; outside UK 3/£11:50) from Scheherazade, 14 Queens Park Rise, Brighton BN2 2ZF (e-mail: liz@shez.fsnet.co.uk; http://www.shez.fsnet.co.uk). A magazine of fantasy and science fiction incorporating the gothic, the magical and the mythological, with fiction from Tanith Lee, Alexander Glass, Liz Williams, Hugh Cook, and Lyn McConchie, plus an interview with Patricia Kennealy Morrison.

OF ROSEBUDS by Ian Dougall, A5, 48pp, enquire to Ian Dougall, 948 Castle Lane East, Bournemouth, BH7 6SP. Collection of poetry comprising often cynical – and sometimes bitter – observations on life.

THE STATUS REPORT by Alex Frankel, ISBN 0-9544061-0-9, A5, 84pp p/b, £5:99 (US $7:99) from Alex Frankel, 123 Courthouse Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 6HY (http://www.affectedpublishing.co.uk). Collection of offbeat poetry and sketches, with themes including bottoms, bogeys, personalities and relationships.

THE HEALER by Amber Hayward, ISBN 1-895836-89-1, 251pp trade paperback, Can$17:95 from Tesseract Books, 214-21, 10405 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 3S2, Canada (e-mail: tesseract@bookscollective.com; http://www.bookscollective.com). Set in the heat of a Rio de Janeiro slum and an isolated plantation, this atmospheric debut novel tells the story of a man who inherits an incredible healing power, and the people whose lives he changes forever.

CREATIVE ARTS COURSES 2003, A5 landscape, 32pp, enquire to Creative Arts Courses, The Indian King Arts Centre, Fore Street, Camelford, Cornwall PL32 9PG (tel: 01840 212111; e-mail: indianking@btconnect.com; http://www.indianking.co.uk). Latest catalogue of residential courses for writers of all levels and persuasions. Groups are strictly limited to ensure full participation and individual attention.