"So much to enjoy here. If you have picked up the book to dip, buy it at once!" Maggie Gee (foreword to Matter 9)

Matter 9 is a real feast of storytelling - a buffet of delights for those who like to savour great writing. From poems to novel extracts, short stories to script and children's fiction... it's all here. Not only does the magazine celebrate the best new writing to emerge from Sheffield Hallam University's acclaimed MA Writing course, it also features newly commissioned work by some of the more established stars of the literary world.

We start with a foreword by acclaimed novelist Maggie Gee, who is a visiting professor at Hallam. Then, novelist and short story writer Alison MacLeod imagines what becomes of Sylvia Plath in the afterlife in her stunning story 'Sylvia Wears Pink in the Underworld'. Maurice Riordan, T. S. Eliot Prize and Whitbread Award nominee, contemplates the meeting of three animal 'gods' in a new poem 'Stars and Jasmine' and journeys into the realms of Old English in 'Charm'. Short story writer Adam Marek, longlisted for the Frank O'Connor Prize, takes us on one boy's unsettling journey through the cobbled streets of a grimy city in 'If Dead Fish Could Blink', while Forward Prize nominee Julia Copus allows us to see what happens to two sweethearts lingering in the garden of a crumbling house. Fellow Forward Prize nominee Tim Turnbull lets us witness the charged atmosphere of a gathering in 'Dark Ages' and shows us the gulf between the aristocracy and one of their entertainers in 'Jolly John Nash'.

Hallam's new voices also deliver. With them we travel from coastline to countryside, jazz club to strange island, past to present, Nepal to Texas. We have two fantastic, new poems from each contributor: Angelina Ayers, Helen Cadbury, Fay Musselwhite, Ruby Robinson, Louise Wilford and Noel Williams; a film script extract from Kate Hainsworth; a children's novel extract from Helen Cadbury; short stories by Susan Clegg and Rebecca Swirsky and novel extracts from Kate Hainsworth, Marian Iseard and Kate Mitchell. We think it's a great selection of work that will suit anyone with a love of engaging, immediate, thought-provoking writing. Something, as Maggie Gee says, to 'dip' into, or to immerse yourself in when you have plenty of spare time. We hope you enjoy Matter 9 as much as we've enjoyed putting it together. If you do, join us on Twitter and Facebook to let us know what you think. And please tell your friends about us too!

A. J. Ashworth (Editor)

Matter 9 is available to purchase through paypal at £4.99