Sheffield-based poetry publisher with an ethos of craft, care and collaboration. Books, recordings, films, walks, performances. Editor: Brian Lewis. https://longbarrowpress.com
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'Left at the corrugated autocentre, the same flagpole, a different flag. It used to be a chequered racing flag and now it is a union flag, or half of a union flag. The other half is missing, worn away by wind, nothing more than wind.' longbarrowblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/05/s...
In fairness, my Nokia was manufactured in 1947, and hasn't emitted any sounds for at least five years
somethingactualsize / paintedwoodmagnet Colour version of the image for the front cover of 'done / donebycolinsacket'; forthcoming 'nonuniform' from Uniformbooks.
'Flag' (Ghana), 2009, acrylic paint on canvas, Fred Wilson
Still, a useful opportunity to check if my phone is still capable of making sounds
Relatively little of this rubbish in Hillsborough (so far), possibly due to the near-continuous traffic. I passed through Glossop on Wednesday evening, and there seemed to be more flags than people. Depressing.
The toxification of public space
'Left at the corrugated autocentre, the same flagpole, a different flag. It used to be a chequered racing flag and now it is a union flag, or half of a union flag. The other half is missing, worn away by wind, nothing more than wind.' longbarrowblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/05/s...
Butterbumps booming from brackish phragmites, gorged on the bootlace bounty. Harriers quartering over. Campfire wisp from the holme’s relief in the pearl of the roseate dawn; boat slides from creek into tidal waters, trailing its fuchsia ripple. 'Eely' Steve Ely longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
I call you grandson, and you look and in that look, you become my grandson. Like this, like light returning from one mirror to another, we create each other. 'The Blue Hour' Angelina D'Roza Out now from Longbarrow Press longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
Earth nailed to the Sun like a hoary vulture, a birch leaf trapped in the meltwater whorl. The basking perihelion widens the ascent from the Río de Oro to the Norwegian Trench, the swollen lodes of Europe. 'Eely' Steve Ely A symphony in four movements longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
'Flag' (Ghana), 2009, acrylic paint on canvas, Fred Wilson
Nothing is quite absolute and whether you’re seeking or fleeing, all roads lead home. Move far enough in one direction, landfall always rolls around again like dawn. 'Hemisphere' @petegreensolo.com A short book A long poem An impossible journey Out now longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
Fortunately, the British people are too smart to be taken in by this self-serving charlatan, as history shows
The bit of pavement in Birstall where Jo Cox was killed, near the library. I take a photograph, of nothing, to remind me of nothing, and how her name sails clear of it how her speech is written on a history and the killer’s name forgotten soon as said. Peter Riley
Don’t tell me to report anything suspicious that I may see. Tell me instead how with rosy steps the morn advancing drives the shades of night away and standing barefoot on a Herdwick rug, earthfast, I’ll call to the common mind that it is needed, urgently, its common care. Peter Riley
Longbarrow Press reminds you what it's all about. Wonderful account here from editor Brian Lewis of the Sheffield imprint's first 19 years.
This was a great event in a lovely venue. Home-made cakes and bicycles repaired! (That’s one for any Jennings fans out there.) Thanks to Mary, and Brian, and everyone who came along.
Afterwards we even had some chips and a quick walk on the beach. A little midweek miracle. Thanks again @maryearnshaw.bsky.social for inviting us and @cwjoneschris.bsky.social for driving 💖
Great evening with Sheffield's @longbarrowpress.bsky.social publisher & poets last night in Mecycle cafe/bar/bike workshop in Ainsdale, Southport. (Photos of poets reading to follow) The next Poets' Corner evening is 8 October and booking opens at 1pm today: www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/sou...
What a special evening - three poets and a publisher travelled all the way from Sheffield for this evening of readings in Southport, along with one from down the road in Liverpool. Thank you all and I hope you all enjoyed it too!
Thanks to everyone who joined us for the Longbarrow showcase at Mecycle in Southport last night. Very special thanks to @maryearnshaw.bsky.social for organising & hosting the event. Some excellent readings from @cwjoneschris.bsky.social Fay Musselwhite @helentookey.bsky.social & @petegreensolo.com.
"You can’t make taro edible without a little work. Look how lovely this pestle with the bird’s head handle, its wings in the wind. How much like today with its worn-smooth stone. You touch me without purpose as I walk by. The bird in its extraneousness." longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
"The end of the work is the possibility of connection, that the book, if it has been made well, might become 'a site of exchange', that it might have use and value to others, whether the others are many or few." longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/inventory
It's a thin line between 'something for everyone' and 'nothing for anyone'
"The end of the work is the possibility of connection, that the book, if it has been made well, might become 'a site of exchange', that it might have use and value to others, whether the others are many or few." longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/inventory
Earth nailed to the Sun like a hoary vulture, a birch leaf trapped in the meltwater whorl. The basking perihelion widens the ascent from the Río de Oro to the Norwegian Trench, the swollen lodes of Europe. 'Eely' Steve Ely A symphony in four movements longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
Many thanks, Andrew!
No cross, no colour. The fields marked and abandoned by flag and flower.
My enthusiasm for flags peaked at the age of 5 or 6, and was largely confined to the various iterations of the Welsh flag that were a staple of seaside sandcastle-building. The Welsh flag was obviously better than the English flag as it had a dragon on it. Flags were something that you outgrew.
Hideous racist abuse & assault filmed in a park not far from us. Racists emboldened. Heartening at least to hear of a solidarity picnic in response. And yet today, the UK Government persists on keeping the focus on immigration. This feels such an incredibly dangerous moment.
Don’t tell me to report anything suspicious that I may see. Tell me instead how with rosy steps the morn advancing drives the shades of night away and standing barefoot on a Herdwick rug, earthfast, I’ll call to the common mind that it is needed, urgently, its common care. Peter Riley
Bunch of weirds
"You can’t make taro edible without a little work. Look how lovely this pestle with the bird’s head handle, its wings in the wind. How much like today with its worn-smooth stone. You touch me without purpose as I walk by. The bird in its extraneousness." longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
First sunlight cast along the canal represents eight Canada geese as a golden flotilla. Under their gold they worry and watch as usual. What kills me in love is when the world falls into the song and laughs itself out again. 'Truth, Justice...', Peter Riley longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
One of the many small bits of writing I'm doing this month is academic essay on #NatureWriting and disability, but not working in academia now I feel out of the loop about new scholarly work in the area. I know @louisekenward.bsky.social is working on this area, but who else should I be aware of?
it steers me north by east all the way to the end of the land 'To the End of the Land': a text & audio collaboration between Martin Heslop & Helen Tookey, grounded in the landscapes of Nova Scotia. Out now from Longbarrow Press. Order the pamphlet & CD here: longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
Ted Hughes’s Patrington A Guided Walk through Ted Hughes’s National Service landscape with poet & Hughes expert, Steve Ely 11.00-3.00, Saturday 4th October, 2025 More information and tickets here: www.eventbrite.com/e/ted-hughes...
"Those places are so resonant, they speak of the past, but that inevitably makes you think of the future..." @helentookey.bsky.social and @martinheslop.bsky.social on their new text/audio collaboration 'To the End of the Land'. Full interview here: longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/on-the-air
The sea and the soul – poet, painter, and philosopher Etel Adnan on the elemental blues of being www.themarginalian.org/2022/07/01/e...
Are they demonstrating against the library, I wonder
A beautiful book, one of my 'favourites' (among so many) from the brilliant @longbarrowpress.bsky.social
Abysmal kerning, too
AI Smith
"The last few years of apparent stasis and rapid, almost convulsive, change resulting in the creation of new spaces, the loss of old spaces, and the off-and-on of the meanwhile spaces in which many of Sheffield’s creative conversations happen." longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/urban-vill...
Thank you, Susie
First sunlight cast along the canal represents eight Canada geese as a golden flotilla. Under their gold they worry and watch as usual. What kills me in love is when the world falls into the song and laughs itself out again. 'Truth, Justice...', Peter Riley longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
The summer grows late, cool, ragged, precious. Clouds like ungainly brooms are sweeping showers across the slates ... — ‘A Crow’ by #EdwinMorgan, published in Sweeping Out the Dark (Carcanet, 1994)
Would really like to go to this in October. smallpublishersfair.co.uk
Sky darkens bright with ancient light from uncountable pinprick galaxies, where ‘Oumuamua is lost in space, swept blind in the Big Bang’s current. A little eel slips off, begins to make her way downstream. 'Eely' Steve Ely A symphony in four movements Out now longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
If you happen to be in London in late October, the Small Publishers Fair takes place in Holborn on Fri 24 / Sat 25 Oct, with around 60 small presses and artists (line-up to be confirmed, but we'll be among the stallholders, alongside Shearsman, Uniformbooks, and others) smallpublishersfair.co.uk
Wake up everything you can think of. Language for instance. Any language. Swedish. Du som har mitt hela hjärte. Work it out, until it smiles on you and breaks your heart. From ‘Nine Poems’, in 'Truth, Justice, and the Companionship of Owls', Peter Riley longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
The London Review Bookshop (near the British Museum) has a few, as does Chener Books in Dulwich (and if either of them has sold out their stock, they'll be able to quickly reorder from us)
Poppy Event Horizon
Many thanks, Jordan - much appreciated. Have just sent you a message (or messages) in Chat.
An unwelcome development (one of many, of course), but we should be able to resume deliveries to the US on Monday (I'll be sending any orders as 'gifts', and marked as such, so the additional charge will be around 50p)
Walking, we go at walking speed, and so miss nothing, the faint squeaking in the grass, the clicking of gorse, the burning oilfield beyond the horizon. ‘Nine Poems’, Peter Riley, in 'Truth, Justice, and the Companionship of Owls' (Longbarrow Press, 2019) longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
'writing along an invisible line whose end is infinite' “The idea was to walk the line from Peacehaven to the Humber. I had devised the notion that the physical act of walking would help me to locate what was lost”. 'Meridian' Nancy Gaffield longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
And Pete will be with us in Southport next week at the next Poets' Corner evening at Mecycle in Ainsdale. Fully booked but never too late to join the waiting list! www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/sou...
"A book is a record of processes: textual, temporal, material. It is made out of the world and it makes its own world and it makes its way through the world. Each of these worlds is imperfect. Yet the possible book shows me that another world is possible." longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/inventory
So hoist the mainsail and stutter the chronicle of days and swell those organs with radical pride and declare we’re going back to the home no longer there. From 'Truth, Justice, and the Companionship of Owls', Peter Riley longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
Oh my gosh, everything from Longbarrow looks gorgeous! I want *all the books*! Some poetry collections here that will definitely be top of my wishlist. (Thanks @shannonmattern.bsky.social for the reskeet that sent me here 🙏🏻)
Many thanks, Fran (and Shannon)
To both possess and be possessed by what has been forbidden. Do we ever learn to live with less? The literal work of keeping the apricots from going to waste. I want this. The Blue Hour Angelina D'Roza Longbarrow Press Out now longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
Wishing you, and Dottie, the very best for a positive outcome.
I bought this a while back, loved the CD accompaniment. Looking forward to Helen and three other Longbarrow poets reading next Wednesday at Mecycle in Ainsdale, Southport. Tickets all gone long ago! But there's a waiting list and you never know your luck! www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/sou...
'writing along an invisible line whose end is infinite' “The idea was to walk the line from Peacehaven to the Humber. I had devised the notion that the physical act of walking would help me to locate what was lost”. 'Meridian' Nancy Gaffield longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
We can but hope
So hoist the mainsail and stutter the chronicle of days and swell those organs with radical pride and declare we’re going back to the home no longer there. From 'Truth, Justice, and the Companionship of Owls', Peter Riley longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
"A brilliant press." - Ian McMillan "You'll never see a dud from Longbarrow." - Charlie Connelly Current publications longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
Will be interesting to see the revised costs for posting to the USA (after the 'duties' have been added)
Yes, I've been following the last few weeks' developments, so the current impasse comes as no surprise.
Alarming, and baffling... Other than the US suspension, the Click & Drop online service is still working OK for me (have bought postage for addresses in the UK and Germany today). A cache issue, perhaps? I'm sure you've tried everything, though...
Human infrastructure
postal services and libraries are the two most beautiful public goods we have
Transatlantic mail, 26 August 2025
I loved this book - it's proper gorgeous.
Many thanks, Fran
I was looking for the fault the tripping switch the place where the signal jumped the tracks To the End of the Land: a text & audio collaboration between Martin Heslop & Helen Tookey, grounded in the landscapes of Nova Scotia. Order the pamphlet & CD here: longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
Given recent developments, I feel somewhat vindicated in my decision to remain a print-only publisher
'To have brought a shell to bed with me, picked from a Welsh cove. To have spoken to no one, to have let grammar abrade and brighten with the wet stones. To return now with something to tell you. “The sea”, says Adnan. “Nothing else”.' Angelina D'Roza longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
Big broodfish winter at sea: enter the river each spring to seek their redds—Gironde, Garonne, Dordogne. Everything’s against them: bycatch, gravel works, Golfech’s hydroelectric plant and pressurised water-cooled reactors. 'Eely' Steve Ely Out now longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
Thank you, Philippa! Will post the book to you tomorrow.
A knockout opening paragraph. @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social, Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas.
Thanks - neither Royal Mail or the govt sites are offering much clarity at this stage, and much of the information I've found elsewhere has been contested by various commenters. I guess we'll find out in due course (one way or another)
Based on the information I've been able to piece together, the charge incurred in sending goods (including 'gifts') from the UK to the US (payable by the sender in the UK, e.g. via Royal Mail) will be 10% of the cost of the item. Delays likely too. A pointless, confusing mess (like every Trump E.O.)
Big broodfish winter at sea: enter the river each spring to seek their redds—Gironde, Garonne, Dordogne. Everything’s against them: bycatch, gravel works, Golfech’s hydroelectric plant and pressurised water-cooled reactors. 'Eely' Steve Ely Out now longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
A pleasure! Good to see the books arrived safely.
The Rentaghost suite
@kfbullen.bsky.social has developed a useful and interesting site based on her research into Axholme place-names: axholmeplacenames.wordpress.com
It is a fascinating landscape. I made several 'tours' of the north of the Isle in 2017 - drawn by its flatness, its apparent blankness, and histories of energy extraction. Only in stopping can I see the blades turning above the strip farms. I blink out the frequency, one eye shuttered and released.
Steve Ely's recent collection 'Eely' explores these themes, and the landscape itself (focusing on the reshaping of the rivers by Vermuyden et al, and the contemporary obstacles to the migration of the European eel). This might be of interest: longbarrowblog.wordpress.com/2024/03/26/e...
"The Dutch River was a correction, an attempt to alleviate the flooding caused by the re-routing of the Don. It is still the Don, as it nears the Ouse, the Don turned brackish and tidal, it is more than the Don and less than the Don, all rivers and none." longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/dutch-river
Almost certainly not poring over the page proofs of "Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius", for which he received an advance of £88,000 in 2015, and which remains unpublished (and, I suspect, unwritten)
Currently on offer here: www.booksaboutart.co.uk/products/the...
The rates have barely changed in 15 years (likewise guest speaker fees at UK universities)
An unexpected find in a Sheffield Oxfam bookshop, and a fascinating document of small press activity (designed by @uniformbooks.bsky.social). "...those strange, eerie times when the ship was alone in the fog, adrift among the icebergs, when there was nothing to see and everything to listen out for."
