The first volume, consisting of two issues, of the new official journal of the British Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA) was issued recently. Its editorial board, led by editor Mick Short, promises a journal which should be of great interest to linguists, literary scholars and teachers who are concerned with contemporary controversies over the nature of literature and how it is to be studied and taught. Subsequent volumes of Language and Literature will consist of three issues. The aims of the journal are clearly announced in the editorial of the first issue: