About Two Rivers Press

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	Hearthstone by Butler, Joseph These poems grew out of working with a family of 3 generations of blacksmiths in an Oxfordshire forge, they are linked up with the Greek myth of Hera and Hephaistos, the crippled god of fire and metalworking, and patron of craftsmen, and bound up with his own family drama. £9.00		Mrs. Marvellous by Pugh, Victoria Witty delicate poems, full of insight £8.00

Two Rivers Press, an informal co-operative, was founded in 1994 by artist Peter Hay and has published over 50 titles. We are interested in new writing from Reading and the Thames Valley, and in supporting it with bold illustration and design. Our three main strands are poetry, local history, and new editions of classic poems and short fiction, especially with some local connection. (eg Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol).

Our list of local poets includes Jane Draycott, Susan Utting, Paul Bavister, Adrian Blamires, Joseph Butler, A.F. Harrold and Ian House.

Local author Adam Sowan has published with us: A Much Maligned Town: opinions of Reading 1586-1977 (new edition coming); Abattoirs Road to Zinzan Street: Reading’s streets and their names, 2nd ed. 2004; The Holy Brook (2003), an account of Reading’s secret third river, with a map and walking guide. Sumer is icumen in (2006) is a beautifully illustrated edition of this famous song dating from about 1250 CE and written, probably, by the monks of Reading Abbey.

‘Classics’ include Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Cat Jeoffry by Christopher Smart, The Drunken Boat, by Arthur Rimbaud, Kubla Khan, by Coleridge, and Shakespeare’s Winter and Spring songs from Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Some successes:

Christina the Astonishing by Jane Draycott and Lesley Saunders featured on Radio 4’s A Good Read

Jane Draycott’s No.3 from Uses for the Thames from Tideway (2002) shortlisted for the Forward Prize Best Single Poem

Susan Utting’s Woodwork from Houses without walls commended for the Forward Prize Best Single Poem in 2006 and featured as Poem on Sunday in the Independent on Sunday

Adrian Blamires’ Effect of Coastal Processeschosen for Waterstones 3 for 2 offer in Best New Poetry 2005

Joseph Butler Hearthstone read at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2006

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