Light: A Quarterly of Light Verse, published in Chicago since 1992 by founding editor John Mella, bills itself as "the only magazine available in [the U.S.] devoted exclusively to Light Verse." The verse in each issue begins with a several-page feature on a writer of light verse, and ends with a reprint of a poem by a past master. Sections in between vary from issue to issue and each gathers poems that share something thematic, for example: children's verse, political poems, poems on marriage. The magazine has included the verse of Wendy Cope

Wendy Cope

Wendy Cope, OBE is an award-winning contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely with the poet Lachlan Mackinnon.-Biography:...

, Tom Disch, X.J. Kennedy, John Updike

John Updike

John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....

, and Richard Wilbur

Richard Wilbur

Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....

, among many others.

Contributors

Notable contributors include Maureen Cannon

Maureen Cannon

Maureen Cannon published more than 1,000 poems in Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, Reader's Digest, Light Quarterly, and a great variety of other publications...

, Wendy Cope

Wendy Cope

Wendy Cope, OBE is an award-winning contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely with the poet Lachlan Mackinnon.-Biography:...

, Thomas Disch, Willard R. Espy

Willard R. Espy

Willard Richardson Espy was a U.S. editor, philologist, writer, and poet. He is particularly remembered for his anthology of light verse and word play, An Almanac of Words at Play, and its two sequels...

, Gavin Ewart

Gavin Ewart

Gavin Buchanan Ewart was a British poet best known for contributing to Geoffrey Grigson's New Verse at the age of seventeen.-Life:...

, Dana Gioia

Dana Gioia

-Poetry:It was as a poet that Gioia first began to attract widespread attention in the early 1980s, with frequent appearances in The Hudson Review, Poetry, and The New Yorker. In the same period, he published a number of essays and book reviews...

, Albert Goldbarth

Albert Goldbarth

Albert Goldbarth is an American poet born January 31, 1948 in Chicago. He is known for his prolific production, his gregarious tone, his eclectic interests and his distinctive 'talky' style. He has been a Guggenheim fellow and won the National Book Critics Circle award in 1991 and 2001, the only...

, R.S. Gwynn, Donald Hall

Donald Hall

Donald Hall is an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2006.-Personal life:...

, A.M. Juster, X.J. Kennedy, James Kirkup

James Kirkup

James Falconer Kirkup, FRSL was a prolific English poet, translator and travel writer. He was brought up in South Shields, and educated at South Shields Secondary School and Durham University. He wrote over 30 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays...

, Felicia Lamport, James Laughlin

James Laughlin

James Laughlin was an American poet and literary book publisher who founded New Directions Publishers.- Biography :He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Henry Hughart and Marjory Rea Laughlin...

, Bob McKenty, William Matthews

William Matthews (poet)

William Matthews was an American poet and essayist.-Life:Raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Matthews earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University, and a master's from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.In addition to serving as a Writer-in-Residence at Boston's Emerson College, Matthews...

, John Frederick Nims

John Frederick Nims

John Frederick Nims was an American poet and academic.-Life:He graduated from DePaul University, University of Notre Dame with an M.A., and from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in 1945.He published reviews of the works by Robert Lowell and W. S. Merwin...

, Maurice Sagoff, William Jay Smith

William Jay Smith

William Jay Smith is an American poet. He was appointed the nineteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1968 to 1970.- Life :...

, W. D. Snodgrass, William Stafford, John Updike

John Updike

John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....

, GailWhite, Richard Wilbur

Richard Wilbur

Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....

, children's writers Charles Ghigna

Charles Ghigna

Charles Ghigna is an American children's author, poet, speaker and nationally syndicated feature writer....

, J. Patrick Lewis

J. Patrick Lewis

J. Patrick Lewis is an American poet and prose writer noted for his children's poems and other light verse. He worked as professor of economics before devoting himself full-time to writing in 1998.- Career :J...

, and Jack Prelutsky

Jack Prelutsky

Jack Prelutsky is an American writer of children's poetry. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife, Carolynn.-Early life:...

, cartoonist Jim Siergey, anthologists William Rossa Cole and Robert Wallace, and critic Richard Kostelanetz

Richard Kostelanetz

Richard Kostelanetz is an American artist, author and critic.He was born to Boris Kostelanetz and Ethel Cory and is the nephew of the composer Andre Kostelanetz....

.