This is the cover for Inventing truth. The wishbone image is drawn from a poem in the collection and reflects the tenuous, forking routes that hopes take through lives.
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."
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.
In Denise Riley’s recent short collection of essays, A Chorus of Ears
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in the way...
This week I have the pleasure of inviting award-winning poet, Rhian
Elizabeth, to reflect upon a poem from her collection maybe i’ll call
gillian anderson ...
There are several reasons why a fiction writer might initially deprive
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chronol...
Havershall and Woodmansey Typewriters, formed in the aftermath of the First
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Woodmans...
I have a proof copy of Reznikoff, *Testimony*. It’s the size of a good
brick, the kind you might want to throw through the plate-glass window of
an inves...
Here is a poem from Jean Stevens’ new collection Stick Woman just published
by Broken Sleep Books. Jean is our guest poet: more poems later this month.
I’m...
NAPLES? MAYBE BUT THERE’S A MAN HERE FITTING A KITCHEN SO MAYBE NOT Ask
yourself why bees survived the fire in the great cathedral. No, actually,
it’s not ...
I spent my 60th birthday last Tuesday, and the rest of the week, in
Northumberland with Lyn, in West Thirston, midway between Morpeth and
Alnwick. We met u...
Let’s start with the news that a new magazine was born today. The proud
parents (William Thompson and James O’Hara-Knight) have called it Yield and
you can...
There will come magpies, foxes,
badgers, stoats. And still
she lays her heart in the basket boat. (“Coracle”)
The coracle in these poems is sometime...
This is the fifth – and final – instalment of groups of 3 poems selected
from my 2010 sequence of poems which takes Homer’s The Odyssey as its
starting poi...
Traveling, Paul Vangelisti, Shearsman Books, 2025, ISBN: 9781848619845 ,
£10.95 / $18 A Book of Psalms, Alan Baker, Shearsman Books, 2026, ISBN:
9781837380...
One of the things that seems to have happened in the poetry world over the
last few years is the adoption of religious and liturgical forms and ideas
for a...
I've been out for a new single release cocktail inspired by Ally London's
latest marvel. Having listened to 'Whiskey Vermouth' on repeat since it
came ou...
I was delighted to find that fellow poet, Neil Leadbeater, had brought out
another collection, shared this time with Lori Levy (interviewed by Neil
h...
Lovely to have a haiku selected for the BHS Museum of Haiku Literature
Award. I’m honoured, and a bit overawed, to have my poem in such good
company. The w...
Faber, 2015, pp. 341 In this sun, swords and sandals summer of Hellenic
excess, now is the perfect time to revisit Christopher Logue’s War Music
but, if yo...
I haven’t had much time for reading lately. Poems and stories I’ve read in
the past pop into my head a lot though. Mallarmé’s ‘Brise marine’ is one of
thos...
Do you remember the first stories you heard? Perhaps they were told by the
person looking after you, or they were read to you from books your parents
had l...
Do you remember the first stories you heard? Perhaps they were told by the
person looking after you, or they were read to you from books your parents
had l...
The Wombwell Rainbow is putting out a call for unpublished poems and short
prose on your local neglected water courses. What history, geology,
industry has...
Here’s something I wrote around that time, beautifully performed by the
amazing actor Nichole Bird for Live Canon Poetry (it was shortlisted in
their open ...
I counteach step, each breath, each pull, or lift, or hold;I countin sets
of twoor four, of five or eight or ten.Quantifying movement,we measure the
time c...
Wow! It's been a while since I've posted in here!
In this modern age of Substacks, Bluesky, Insta ect etc the humble blog
seems incredibly retro. I s...
My blog has been rather neglected of late, in part because of my low energy
levels, followed by cataract surgery and then a nasty chest infection, but
I am...
We’ve been away for a holiday – and a good rest after a turbulent time in
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my youn...
I've a new essay over at the *North Sea Poets* substack, addressing the
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standards a...
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...
Today is National Poetry Day in the UK, and this year's theme is 'Refuge'.
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displaceme...
Generally Speaking (about Bookshops) Although there is undoubtedly a few
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crime se...
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...
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...
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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