The writing is provocative, surprising, energetic, and the construction, physically and stylistically, is terrific. Instead of having separate sections for different genres (which can be fatiguing), a couple of poems are followed by a short story, a comic, a street artist profile, a couple more poems. It helps to break down the genres, which can be ambiguous anyway, and to focus on the creativity. The result is a quality book that will appeal to more than just other creative writers, though some of the contributions may prevent it from landing on more conservative coffee tables. The most disturbing is Jennifer Lee’s ‘Our Father’, a macabre tale of terrifying paternal abuse that goes in for Tarantino-type gratuity. If you don’t like this story, you may like the next, Jason Cotter’s ‘Good Day For It’, an elegantly written story about a country boy on the morning of his father’s funeral. Its deliberate slowness and careful unveiling of detail work to poignant effect.

An audio CD is included inside the cover with twenty-four tracks; the first track, Emilie Zoey Baker’s ‘Llegends’, about home-grown celebrities, is an hilarious start to a zany mix of slam-style, spoken-word poetry and more beat-driven spoken-word songs. Again, the quality is impressive

GDS is published once a year. In this instance, the advantages of extra production time and a concentrated budget are considerable. For a thirty-year old magazine, it feels surprisingly youthful.