Rhyme all the ways a city battens down.
Say, river waters tide the roads to town.

Longbarrow Press is delighted to announce the publication of Little Piece of Harm, a new pamphlet by Chris Jones.

Little Piece of Harm is a narrative sequence that focuses on 24 hours in the life of a city that has been shut down in the aftermath of a shooting. As this act of violence ramifies outwards, the sequence explores the geographical reach of Sheffield – its urban settings and its rural landmarks – and eavesdrops on the city’s conversations. Pete, the narrator, comes into contact with a variety of people who reflect on this public killing in relation to private moments of trauma and harm. Five years in the making, Jones’s first publication since Skin (Longbarrow Press, 2015) skilfully employs a range of poetic forms to drive its stories and dialogues.

A beautifully produced 40-page pamphlet, Little Piece of Harm is available now from Longbarrow Press. You can read an extract from the book here, and order it by clicking on the relevant PayPal link below (major debit cards accepted – no PayPal account required).

Little Piece of Harm
£5

UK orders (+ £1.75 postage)

Europe orders (+ £4.50 postage)

Rest of World orders (+ £6.00 postage)

‘The more difficult it got to create sense and structure, the more pleasure I had in finding new lines of progression. You have to extract gratification from the process of composition, however stuck the needle, or else there is no point in doing the writing.’
In the second of three short essays reflecting on the themes, forms and narratives of Little Piece of Harm, Chris Jones considers ‘the “scaffolding” of rhyming structures’ and the role of this ‘scaffolding’ in developing tone and voice in the sequence. Click here to read ‘A City’s Designs’. The first essay, ‘Story Arcs and Safety Nets’, appears here; the third and final essay will appear on the Longbarrow Blog in early April.