I've a new essay over at the *North Sea Poets* substack, addressing the
decline of reviewing culture, the rise of the poetry prizes, artistic
standards a...
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Matthew Stewart weaves his ways through poetry
Purchase my collection here...
Ten pounds gets you a signed copy of The Knives of Villalejo with free p&p!
Endorsement for The Knives of Villalejo
"Matthew Stewart is a poet of consolidation, truth, and freshness, with a mastertful sense of economy. His poems matter, and his first collection has been too long in coming. These poems have the rare quality of resonating a long way beyond their modest physical limits."
Rory Waterman
About Me
- Matthew Stewart
- I live between Extremadura, Spain, and West Sussex, England. Full collection, The Knives of Villalejo, with Eyewear Publishing. Two pamphlets, both now sold out, with HappenStance Press. You can get in touch with me via e-mail: matthstew@gmail.com.
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The best U.K. poetry blogs according to Rogue Strands
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Sometimes you can be forcibly reminded how very different the world is outside the English-speaking, industrialised and largely urbanised west. But there a...
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With thanks, as ever, to Hilary Menos and Andy Brodie at The Friday Poem, my review of Anna Woodford’s third poetry collection has been published today, here.
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“Skail” is an old Scots word meaning scattering or dispersal. Richie McCaffery’s poems explore that theme in a post-lockdown world and the aftermath of the...
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Selected Poems, Lindley Williams Hubbell, Isobar Press, 2025, ISBN 978-4-907359-50-8, Long Island Triptych, Lindley Williams Hubbell, Isobar Press, 2025, I...
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The lovely irony of drinking ‘Seattle’s best coffee’ in a Yorkshire market town’s supermarket cafe! Not quite a free thing to do, but pretty cheap, inspire...
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My friend of about eight years, artist Philippa Sutherland, died last month. She’d been ill for some time and I’d been visiting her weekly for a year. We w...
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My spreadsheets of rejections are growing. Here are their current sizes - *Magazines* *Texts* *Prose* 165 95 *Poetry* 61 136 Conclusion: I write more ...
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Michael Vince’s generous, intelligently reflective Legwork impressed me deeply. It’s a book that repays careful reading and rereading. I’ll try to say why ...
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Reading Bernard O’Donoghue’s Farmers Cross in 2012, it was the poem ‘Vocation’ that caught my eye. The speaker considers a … Continue reading →
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An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for com...
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It’s a year ago today that my brother died. If grief is love with nowhere to go, the wind phone can be a place for those feelings to land, even momentarily...
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*Now everybody's heard of Bletchley Park and the work they did breaking secret codes, but what they don’t tell you was where they got the signals from t...
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My work OOO is on. Family Riches are in the last throes of packing. Be careful and please look after the place while we are gone. I’m hoping to get a load ...
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Collaborative doodling with inks and mad brushes.
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All poets/writers periodically hit a moment where things stall: you finish something, a poem, a novel, a piece of writing that’s taken as much energy as yo...
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The subjects of S.J. Litherland’s new book are mainly her familiar ones: a Warwickshire childhood with a harsh father and memories of WW2, her adopted Durh...
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In August last year I wrote about Tom Paulin’s poem of hurt and slow healing ‘A Lyric Afterwards’. It wasn’t … More
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A couple of weeks ago I did a reading with Peter Kenny at at Arundel Arts Junction, a lovely eclectic event which also included a comic improv act, jazz fo...
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When I began this blog in August 2020, I wanted to bring attention to debut poets and the sterling work undertaken by small poetry presses in discovering n...
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Things on the allotment have started coming to flower and fruition - things like roses and chives and broad beans and pinks and mint and jasmine and st...
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Early books, above … *176 Interruptions*, scheduled for July, is a revised and expanded edition of 99 Interruptions (published in 2022 and now almost out...
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My husband and I recently visited David Austin Roses in Shropshire. It set me thinking about why I love roses: the scent, the sweet-shop colours and the si...
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In early spring a book arrived that I had been eagerly anticipating. Atomic Masquerade by Clara Etherin did not disappoint. Witty, exuberant, layered and i...
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I am as afraid of the left as I am of the right and the centre disgusts me. Men and women in the room are screaming into mirrors. While dreamers ...
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'McCready is an intensely physical and embodied writer with a forensic gaze on the world around her' 'a very feminine collection, centring on the exp...
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Mini anthology: 'Exhibition Cards for Imaginary Paintings' - see here These stylish Little Black Books arrived in the post today as my contributor c...
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Little SongFirst year: words left, like Gods returning to the underworld.In the second, I lived as if I we both were dead.The words returned around year th...
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My poetry pen has to be set aside for a while after a book comes out, or allowed to rest under whatever I’m reading, listening to, looking at. This happens...
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My poetry pen has to be set aside for a while after a book comes out, or allowed to rest under whatever I’m reading, listening to, looking at. This happens...
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Today is National Poetry Day in the UK, and this year's theme is 'Refuge'. On a global scale, the world is experiencing the highest levels of displaceme...
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John’s family would like to notify you all of the funeral service which is being held to celebrate his life.This will be held at 10.00 on Friday 14th July,...
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Generally Speaking (about Bookshops) Although there is undoubtedly a few collections of poetry that are criminally bad, you wouldn’t head to the crime se...
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The concept of poetic ecological collapse has been widely discussed, and so I add here only a few additional notes of personal reflection. Readers will kno...
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It’s been a while since I did once of these, but maybe there’s something here to tempt you. Christmas is just around the corner… If you’re interested in an...
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I thought I'd posted this a couple of weeks back, and realise now that I didn't, but better late than never – this is an excellent tribute to the poet Ma...
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