‘We close in on the sonnet’s colour space, cadmium orange, soaking blue light, salt, sand and snow, a world of flakes and grains. It is ‘nearer and farther’, a speck made smaller, blown into air, land and sea. We listen to the fade.’  In the second of two essays for the Longbarrow Blog, Brian Lewis considers the ‘boundary conditions’ of the collaborative Rose of Temperaments project (co-curated with artist Paul Evans), taking in field recordings, night walks, the paintings of Kazimir Malevich, and the sonnets by Chris Jones, Geraldine Monk, Helen Mort and Alistair Noon that comprise two-thirds of the project’s ‘colour wheel’ (the poems can be accessed here). Click here to read ‘Black Square’ on the Longbarrow Blog.

On Friday 4 and Saturday 5 November, the Small Publishers Fair returns to the Conway Hall, London, showcasing the work of over 60 publishers from across the UK and around the world, with an exhibition and a varied programme of readings and talks (click here for details of the reading programme). Longbarrow Press will be sharing a stall with Gordian Projects over the two days of the fair; we’ll have a full range of titles and a number of special offers. Join us for the Gordian Projects showcase and a talk by Brian Lewis of Longbarrow Press in the Brockway Room on Saturday afternoon (2.30pm and 4pm respectively; full programme details here).  Later in November, poet Chris Jones reads at The Bath Hotel, Sheffield, with Dorothy Yamamoto (Tuesday 8 November), and reads and discusses his work in the atmospheric setting of the Turret House at Sheffield Manor Lodge (Saturday 19 November); click here for details of both events.  Longbarrow Press will also be taking part in a one-day Independent Publishers’ Book Fair at Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, on Saturday 26 November, joined by a handpicked selection of artists and small presses; a not-to-be-missed showcase of poetry, fiction, art writing, literary criticism, zines, and much more, with an evening performance curated by Gordian Projects. Further details will be posted here and on the Bank Street Arts website soon.

Finally, we’ve created a new short film in response to Fay Musselwhite‘s poem ‘Little Matlock’ (featured in her debut collection Contraflow), with images by photographer Karl Hurst. Watch the film below (you can also read and listen to the poem here):

Photographs: Karl Hurst. Click here to view more images in Karl Hurst’s Little Matlock series.