Longbarrow Press

From river to pond,
the heron steps and pauses
over a mined world.

Longbarrow Press is delighted to announce the publication of Have You Always Been Here?, a series of pamphlets by Matthew Clegg.

“Have You Always Been Here? emerged through walking with another person. My partner’s way of seeing birds, insects and overlooked details changed how I paid attention, and ultimately changed the poems themselves. The title came from my partner, inspired by a heron we encountered. It’s also a question that runs through the project itself: about attention, presence and what we fail to notice.”  Have You Always Been Here? is the collective title of three pamphlets – Eyes Front, Crystals & Dust, The Living – that developed from two years of dawn walks in Sheffield’s Rivelin Valley during the COVID-19 pandemic. The haiku, tanka, haibun and prose poems are framed by illustrations by the poet’s partner, and the pamphlets are accompanied by a set of postcards. Click here to read ‘Tzu-Jan in Post-Nature’, a short post in which Matthew Clegg introduces the project. You can also read a poem from Eyes Front here, and listen to an episode of Chris Jones’ Two-Way Poetry Podcast in which Clegg discusses the influence of the Chinese poet T’ao Ch’ien on his own work.

Have You Always Been Here? 
Three 32-page pamphlets + three postcards
£18 

UK orders (+ £2 postage)

Europe orders (+ £6.85 postage)

Rest of World orders (+ £11.50 postage)

We’ve also created a limited three-for-two offer on Matthew Clegg’s three hardback collections with Longbarrow Press: West North East, The Navigators, and Cazique. Please note that this is a UK-only offer (ends 30 September 2026). Click here for further details of the collections and to order the books.

Join us later this month for the launch of The Gleaning, the second poetry collection by Fay Musselwhite. This one-off event in central Sheffield features a collaborative performance with guest readings from Matthew Clegg, Naomi Frisby, Ray Hearne, Rob Hindle and Karl Hurst. The launch takes place upstairs at Shakespeare’s, 146-148 Gibraltar Street, Sheffield S3 8UB, Wednesday 30 September (7pm doors, 7.30pm start). Admission free, all welcome. Click here to book for this event. Click here for further information about The Gleaning.

“A cancelled book launch. Not the end of the world. What would that look like. Would we know it if we saw it. I rise to leave. My clothes are damp with sweat. I’ve scarcely moved in the last two hours.” An earlier attempt to launch The Gleaning was abandoned due to extreme heat; click here to read ‘Seven Degrees’, an account of the cancellation by Brian Lewis.

While forest furs the earth, a subterrain
shrugged from shrubbery and trees
mulches over land’s rock-bones,
our lungs unpleat and iron streams our veins.

Longbarrow Press is delighted to announce the publication of The Gleaning, a new collection by Fay Musselwhite.

As the human journey from rural to urban continues, emerging cities grapple with the chaos of burgeoning influx. Whether by circumstance or unscrupulous practices, land, class and nature frequently feature in skirmishes that trespass on the lives and
communities of those who will benefit least from their outcomes.

Floods, freezes, enclosure and gentrification are among the threats rolling in on all sides to divide and exploit the marginalised. At the lean end, some fall by the wayside; others struggle on; others still rise to the challenge and celebrate their lives. Meanwhile, the countryside is further eroded by the hard surfaces and regimented requirements of human priorities.

Land, class and nature run through these poems like family threads or mineral deposits. Stories gleaned from the ever-changing tensions between these enduring forces highlight the movement of populations and the shifting layers of matter on our planet, while revealing ancient legacies that drive the mechanisms of our minds.

Fay Musselwhite‘s debut collection Contraflow (Longbarrow Press, 2016) was acclaimed by Peter Riley for its “impressive capability in handling a long breath, as well as narrative continuity, rhythmic and sonic presence”. The Gleaning moves into new terrain – thematically and geographically – with poems of displacement and exile, and an extended dramatic sequence that reimagines the events surrounding Sheffield’s first parliamentary election in 1832, and the riot that ensued.

The Gleaning
132-page hardback
£14.99  £14 (launch price)

UK orders (+ £2.50 postage)

Europe orders (+ £6.85 postage)

Rest of World orders (+ £11.50 postage)

You can order the book securely by clicking on the relevant PayPal link above (major debit cards accepted – no PayPal account required). Click here to read the opening poem, ‘Crow and Rainbow’.

“Saturn has been shrunk to a football, its rings at a tilt, and most of the colour worn away. Weather patterns. It’s part of a scale model of the Solar System. The scale is 1:575,872,239. The model is spread out along 6.4 miles of the trail. Size and distance. I’ve missed Jupiter. Almost a mile back.” Earlier this month, Brian Lewis set out on the fourth in a series of walks through the counties of Yorkshire. An account of this excursion – from York to Goole, via the River Ouse, the Trans Pennine Trail, and the gas and ice giants of the Outer Solar System – appears here.

Click here to browse and buy our current publications. You’ll receive a free copy of Inventory (a pamphlet drawing on twenty years of Longbarrow Press) with orders over £8.