‘I love the idea that these documents have been collected by someone, or by many people; that they have been considered worthy of curation, have been gifted to or purchased by an institution that will then catalogue those materials according to an impersonal ordering system, and store them for some future eye to cast itself over. I say ‘I love’ these things but they also bother me a great deal, generating a conflict within me that sparks something—some kind of energy—too.’

What can poets do when faced with the archive and what it holds or excludes? How might poets open, dismantle, excavate, interrogate, reshape and/or expand the archive? How might a poem itself become an archive? The poems and other contributions within this issue of Rabbit offer us several possible responses and keen insights. Contributors include: Brenda Saunders, Rozanna Lilley, Willo Drummond, Rachael Mead, Laurie Duggan, Isabella G Mead, Petra White, Bonny Cassidy, Lauren Russell, Angela Gardner, Janaka Malwatta and more.

Poetry for this issue was guest co-edited by Anne Casey and Jason Wee.