Money flees the scenes of its crimes,
bolts to its pile on the upland plains
to laze on the plumpest cerulean upholstery,
warding off gravity with icons and charms
lifted from ancient tapestry tales.
'The Gleaning'
Fay Musselwhite
A new collection
Out now
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.
'The Gleaning'
Fay Musselwhite
A new collection
Published today by Longbarrow Press:
/2026/04/30/the-gleaning/
Local distribution, 26 April 2026. Four miles, ninety minutes, two deliveries, two hills, one sunset, one city.
Our first event took place in Sheffield on 27 April 2006, which makes 20 years of Longbarrow Press. Thanks to all the poets, artists, readers, audiences, and many others who have been part of this project. Some reflections from last year:
longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/inventory
The best way to mark a milestone is to make new work. Fay Musselwhite's excellent new collection 'The Gleaning' - itself ten years in the making - is published on Thursday, and is available to pre-order:
/current-publications/fay-musselwhite/
As has been well documented elsewhere, this continues to be a challenging environment for small presses - rising costs, declining sales, crumbling infrastructure - and the 'making do' can sometimes interrupt the making. For all that, it's a privilege to be able to do this at all.
This work is sustained by the work of others. Today I'm thinking of Helen Mitchell's work for @smallpublishers . @emmabollandstudio & @rachel_artsmith 's work for @intergraphiabooks . Colin Sackett's work for @uniformbooks . @eireannmor 's work everywhere. Thank you.
"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."
'To Scale': a walk from York to Goole
longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/to-scale
Poets' shoes, The Harlequin, Sheffield, 21 April 2026.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for 'Habitation' last night: an excellent collective reading by Angelina D’Roza, Steve Ely, Pete Green, Rob Hindle, Chris Jones and Fay Musselwhite.
"Land, class and nature run through these poems like family threads or mineral deposits."
'The Gleaning'
Fay Musselwhite
A new collection
Published 30 April 2026
Now available for pre-order from Longbarrow Press:
/current-publications/fay-musselwhite/
We'll be among the 60+ poetry publishers at the Free Verse Poetry Book Fair on Saturday 25 April (organised by @thepoetrysociety ). Hope to see you there (you can find us next to our tablemates @intergraphiabooks )
St Columba’s Hall, Pont Street, London, SW1X 0BD (near Knightsbridge & South Kensington tubes). 12pm-6.30pm. Free entry.
Further info:
.uk/event/free-verse-poetry-book-and-magazine-fair-2026/
Habitation: a collective reading on the theme of 'land, class, nature' with Angelina D’Roza, Steve Ely, Pete Green, Rob Hindle, Chris Jones, Fay Musselwhite.
Tuesday 21 April (7.30pm start)
Upstairs at The Harlequin, 108 Nursery St, Sheffield, S3 8GG
Free entry, all welcome
'To meet without meeting. I make up a companion for myself, with whom I might walk in near silence, it is no-one that I know, no-one that I want to know. An unfinished companion. An outline. To fill the spaces ahead. Now and repeatedly. One and another. No distance at all. Or one and once only.'
Scenes from the the Trans Pennine Trail, York to Selby, 2 April 2026.
Habitation: a collective reading by Angelina D’Roza, Steve Ely, Pete Green, Rob Hindle, Chris Jones, and Fay Musselwhite.
The Harlequin, 108 Nursery St, Sheffield S3 8GG
Tuesday 21 April (7pm doors, 7.30pm start)
Admission free, all welcome. Book here: /e/habitation-a-longbarrow-press-reading-tickets-1985846302749
