prepublication coverage:

The Guardian

BBC Wales online

BBC Wales Breakfast 07/05/2025 (55 mins in)

BACK IN PRINT!

Lleisiau hanner cant o feirdd yn llifo gydag afonydd Cymru. Pob cerdd yn Gymraeg a Saesneg, wedi’i chyfieithu o’r naill iaith i’r llall.

Fifty Welsh poets speak for and with the rivers of Wales.Every poem translated Welsh to English, English to Welsh.

An anthology of poems about rivers is the obvious eco follow on to Northey and Owen’s last outing together, which was to collect verse about the A470, Wales’s main trunk road. And it’s terrific too – if you didn’t know how wilily-wet, watercourse-beset, rill-rich,brook-bombarded, nant-naturalised and aber-anaesthetised Wales was, then start here.

Peter Finch

Peth gwerthfawr a chalonogol yw gweld bod nentydd ac afonydd Cymru’n rhedeg trwy ddychymyg a meddyliau ein beirdd. Ma’er gyfrol hon yn rhodd pwysig i bawb sy’n poeni am lendid ac iechyd ein dyfroedd dwyieithog.

Poems that celebrate the rivers of Wales. These are not generic river poems, but specific poems about particular rivers, from their source, tributaries, through course, to estuary – washing up against the rural, the urban, the industrial, the unspoiled…

No two rivers are the same. From the least bog-trickle to the two-hundred-mile embrace of Hafren/Severn, each has its own voice, often many voices, each specific to the place it flows through and reflects. This is the insight that makes for such a rich and varied anthology. More than just a showcase for the range and reach of Welsh writing in two equal languages, this is a water-map that catches the whole of Wales, its history and landscapes, its diversity and fine connections, in its glittering net.

Philip Gross, author of
A Fold in the River, Troeon/Turnings and The Water Table

Following the same pattern as our best-seller, A470, this is an entirely bilingual Welsh/English Cymraeg/Saesneg, with each poem in the langauge it originated in, alongside its translation.

Edited by Sian Northey and Ness Owen

What a breath-taking rolling watery wonderful ride of a book! With a chorus of diverse voices, it honors these vital lifelines in all their fragility and strength, urging a deeper sense of urgency for their protection as concerns over our polluted waterways intensify. A powerful tribute and a call to action.

Deb Alma, The Emergency Poet

Due out May 2025, please pre-order! There's nothing we like better than taking a trolley load of parcels to the post office when the first batch of books arrive.

Immerse yourself in this river of rivers, its narratives and lyric moments. All our griefs and joys course through it.

Paul Henry

Arachne Press acknowledges the financial support of the Books Council of Wales.

Ranging from moving personal naturalistic recollections of a local river (‘never, never leave the town’) to metaphorical verses of water and symbolic representations of rivers and their meaning for us (‘water completes us’) or (‘ripples of my own story’) one feels inspired and empowered.
A much needed plea for us to wake up and appreciate these natural wonders that we have taken for granted and ignored and polluted for decades – Should be sent to every water company in the UK for its ‘not for profit’ board members to read.
A beautiful bi-lingual collection from the poetic sons and daughters of Rachel Carson and John Muir that makes you want to go and sit by your own river and tell it you will protect it. Gobaith. Ymlaen.

Poets:
Adele Evershed
Alun Gibbard
Catrin Mari
Chris Kinsey
clare e potter
Des Mannay
Grug Muse
Fiona Owen
Gareth Writer-Davies
Gareth Culshaw
Grahame Davies
Gwenno Gwilym
Haf Llewelyn
Hywel Griffiths
Iris Anne Lewis
Jo Mazelis
Kathy Miles
Lesley James
Manon Awst
Mari George
Martin Daws
Mat Troy
Matthew M C Smith
Meleri Davies
Menna Elfyn
Natalie Ann Holborow
Natasha Gauthier
Ness Owen
Nick Rawlinson
Pat Edwards
Rae Howells

Robbie Burton
Sam Robinson
Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch
Sian Northey
Siân Melangell Dafydd
Si Griffiths
Siôn Aled
Stevie Krayer
Susan Walton
Suzanne Iuppa
Taz Rahman
Tracey Rhys
Zoë Brigley
Zohrah Evans

National Library of Wales 22/05/2025 5pm (in collaboration with West Wales Rivers Trust),

Browsers bookshop, Porthmadog 24th May 2025 7pm

Online launch, publication day 29th May 2025 7pm free tickets - PLEASE BOOK to get the link!

The Hours, Brecon (5th June 2025 6.30)

Aberystwyth Poetry Festival - a workshop on poetry in translation 6th June 2025 (time tbc) As part of a day (£tbc) or all weekend pass (£45)

Poetry Pharmacy (Bishops Castle) 8th June 2025, 11am please book in advance tickets £5 includes refreshments

Hafan yr Afon, Newtown 8th June 2025 4pm

University of Cardiff Library (10th June 2025 6-8.30pm) in the Rare Books Collection

Waterstones, Swansea (11th June 2025 6pm)

Pen'rallt, Machynlleth (12th June 6pm for 6.30)

Wirral Poetry Festival, Bebington Library, Bebington. Saturday 4th October 10.30-12.00