OASIS magazine was founded in November 1969 and has been in continuous production since then. The fifth series ran from July 1989 (Issue No 35) to November 1999 (Issue No 99). Issue No 100 (June 2000) was a special 88 page celebratory issue. The sixth series of the magazine began in December 2000 with Issue No 101.

OASIS publishes contemporary poetry and short fiction, and endeavours to present a large amount of work by each author. Contents are leavened periodically with older material, as well as prose-poetry, experimental work, translations, occasional reviews of important books, and articles, memoirs, letters - in fact, any form of writing that is new, vital, imaginative and attempts to extend the boundaries of literature.

Apart from normal anthological issues, occasional special numbers are also published, devoted to such subjects as translation, writing from particular areas or countries (e.g. Slovenia, Greece, Quebec), particular writers (e.g. a dead poets issue), or particular types of writing (e.g. prose). Indices are published at intervals.

OASIS supports no particular school of writing. It aims to be as eclectic as possible, while maintaining high quality, through seeking out a wide range of different types of writing. If it does have any bias at all, it is towards work that takes imaginative and linguistic risks, that is more innovative than what can normally be found in ‘establishment’ magazines. And in order to counteract native parochialism, good translations from all languages have always been an important part of the magazine.

Issues are usually published 3 times a year. Each is usually 32 to 36 pages in length. OASIS cannot be found in bookshops because of its format. It is issued only to subscribers and depends on them entirely for its existence since it receives no financial support of any kind from any organisation. Back numbers £2.50 each.