The Dark Horse was founded in 1995. It is an international literary magazine committed to British and American poetry, and is published in Scotland.

We like to think that the journal is characterised by a clear-sighted scepticism and an eye for the genuine. Not that we equate poetry with solemnity. We are, by turns, or sometimes simultaneously, serious, wry, humorous, iconoclastic.

We have a commitment to poetry in metre and rhyme, yet we remember Randall Jarrell's "Where poems have hearts, a metronome is beating here." We believe that we can recognise poems stout of heart. Not being evangelical or wholly partisan, we also print compelling free verse.

We publish a mix of essays, reviews, and interviews. One South African publisher wrote that our extended interview with Ian Hamilton, on poets, poetry, and small magazines, which appeared in issue 3, "should be copied and sent to every aspirant poet on the planet."

While many established poets have appeared in our pages, we are proud, too, of our discoveries. These include the first ever considerations of the work of Scottish poet Kirkpatrick Dobie, and of the Californian minimalist Kay Ryan. We were also among the first advocates of poets such as North Dakota's Timothy Murphy: writers in whom impressive technique matches a distinctive voice.
 
 The Dark Horse is in the tradition of the finest 'little' magazines: passionate about poetry, and a touch contrarian.