Perhaps the most valuable part of doing a writing course is placing yourself in an environment where the urge to write is taken seriously. If so, then Matter must be the physical manifestation of that: a designated and beautifully-designed space where new writing stands up beside the big names; a real book that makes it into shops and stuff, sometimes as far away as London. That said, my fondest memories of Matter aren't from appearing in it, but from editing an issue with a group of close friends in 2006. Lots of food, lots of arguments. It taught me as much as any seminar did about taste and judgement, not to mention publishing. There are plenty of small magazines around, and some of them attached to university programmes, but how many are run by the students – and different students every year? Matter is special as much for devolving editorial control into the hands of writers as it is for the writing itself.

Frances Leviston