River River Books
@riverriverbooks.bsky.social
Where Poetry Moves. Two editors, publishing (at least) two exceptional poetry titles a year & the Plainwater Nonfiction Series. Poetry submissions open in May. Posts by editors @hanvanderhart.bsky.social and @amorak.bsky.social www.riverriverbooks.org
GOOD MORNING! ☀️ Cover reveal for Martha Zweig’s Snails of the Apocalypse, design by Alban Fischer, which you can PREORDER TODAY! 📚💙🎉 riverriverbooks.org/store/Snails...
Hi y’all—we haven’t used Substack for a minute, and we need to say no to invitations to participate in posts (interviews, features, etc). Leaving this here so folks know why! 📚💙 We love small presses and their authors!
Only small press publishers take the time to add personal notes and swag to customer orders. 💙 Loving these two from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social
Get your fresh interview with Beth Gilstrap at South 85 Journal right here! www.south85journal.com/2026/ Many thanks to Renee Kalagayan! 📚💙
![Q. How did you see these possibilities Lof hybrid work] at play in your book?
A. I think hybrid work is a fun place to experiment and play and innovate. At the same time, I think hybrid work is also an exceptional place to work on extremely difficult material, particularly in terms of trauma.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sczn3f6ljcfwpxryk6cmenbr/bafkreifdefjiu4wag6jczk2bqjzuna44v6srphbq65zyguqtilnlghm3oa)
New interview up over @south85journal.bsky.social thanks to the lovely Renee Kalagayan for the lovely conversation about my latest, There Is News Along The Ohio River out now from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social www.south85journal.com/2026/
South 85 Journal
south85journal.com
#SummerReading recommendation: PASTORAL, 1994 by Joe Wilkins, a finalist for the 2026 #FirecrackerAward in Poetry! @riverriverbooks.bsky.social riverriverbooks.org/store/Pastor...
Bookstore
Bookstore selling contemporary poetry collections published by River River Books.
riverriverbooks.org
The old plan was to sit a spell, then walk in flammable quiet. The new plan is to trick the whale into opening her mouth and then we get in. Zoë Ryder White @zoeryderwhite.bsky.social
“Sorry but spring will always interrupt.” —Martha Zweig, from forthcoming SNAILS OF THE APOCALYPSE (September 2026)
Editing is so lovely—lingering over lines. Looking for stray threads. Ah, Martha’s book is sooo gooood! 📚💙🔥 SNAILS OF THE APOCALYPSE, coming to you Fall 2026 from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social!
Come prowl. Lest we forget how keenly we loved Martha Zweig
Don’t miss this great interview with poet @esylviapoet.bsky.social in The New Bedford Light! Read it in full here: newbedfordlight.org/poet-elizabe...
Ahem—the editor will be in the shipping department this morning—if you buy a book, it will ship today! 📚💙 riverriverbooks.org/store/
Bookstore
Bookstore selling contemporary poetry collections published by River River Books.
riverriverbooks.org
Ah, wonderful to see Joe Wilkins’ Pastoral, 1994 on this list! Find your copy at Itasca, or RiverRiverBooks.org! @clmporg.bsky.social 📚🎉🎉🎉
Tune in to Episode 90 with @preetivangani.bsky.social, out today! 📚💙🎧 Listen here: share.transistor.fm/s/b6cd1fe1
Of elegy, of aunts, of mothers and father, of Bombay, of form and revision, of the inexhaustibility of grief and hope and joy—join @preetivangani.bsky.social on Episode 90 as she reads from her new collection FIFTY MOTHERS, out now from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social! share.transistor.fm/s/b6cd1fe1
By Joe Wilkins, from his book Pastoral, 1994, which I really loved @tomsnarsky.bsky.social #smallpoemsunday
Celebrating Joe Wilkins’ Pastoral, 1994 among other incredible titles tonight at @clmporg.bsky.social’s Firecracker Awards! 🎆
River River Books@riverriverbooks.bsky.social · 2y agoI come from the fields the flowery stink of alfalfa hot breath of wheat Joe Wilkins, from Pastoral, 1994 (River River Books, 2025)
Browse our #PrideMonth reading list for nonfiction, drama & hybrid works from @akashicbooks.bsky.social, @riverriverbooks.bsky.social, @uglyducklingpresse.bsky.social, @readfuriously.bsky.social, @hubcitypress.bsky.social, @redhenpress.bsky.social & more indie presses: www.clmp.org/news/a-readi...
A Reading List for Pride Month 2026 - Community of Literary Magazines and Presses
For Pride Month, observed annually during the month of June, we asked the many independent literary presses and magazines that make up our membership to share with us some of the literature by…
clmp.org
<<wolf whistle>> This poem. "Sonnet Overheard at Phone Booth” by Elane Kim.
The Slowdown@slowdownshow.org · 4mo ago"The sonnet has survived multiple centuries by always adapting," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1489. "If a sonnet is about turning to the unexpected, then the poet takes it further by looking in unexpected places." Read "Sonnet Overheard at Phone Booth” by Elane Kim: bit.ly/4c83Cdq
New review of @preetivangani.bsky.social’s Fifty Mothers in Austin Poetry Review! Many thanks to Candice Daquin 🙏📚💙💙 Read here: austinpoetryreview.com/book-reviews...
We read all our submissions. 📚❤️ Everyone receives a response—before we announce our selections. It’s simple, really.
Happy Midsommar/solstice—join Elane Kim and hear sonnets from ANTIBODY (@riverriverbooks.bsky.social, 2026) on Episode 89! 📚💙🎙️ Listen here: share.transistor.fm/s/7a9b0b76
And now clap your hands and cross your fingers for both, Corrie Williamson and Joe Wilkins (and @riverriverbooks.bsky.social😊) 👏🤞🤞🤞 bsky.app/profile/rive...
River River Books@riverriverbooks.bsky.social · 2mo agoWe are SO excited that Corrie Williamson’s Your Mother’s Bear Gun and Joe Wilkins’ Pastoral, 1994 are BOTH finalists for the High Plains International Book Awards! 📚💙 Congrats, Corrie and Joe! 🎉🎉🎉 See the finalists here: highplainsbookawards.org/finalists/
"Or possibly call it the rustle in the dry / wheat that grew wild through / our back field," Love Poem for Naming in Corrie Williamson's SWEET HUSK (@perugiapress.bsky.social, 2014) Loving this poem and this book! 🫶🌱🌳🐦⬛🌾🫶 #poetry 📚💙
![Love Poem for Naming [some lines are indented]
Find the word for it. Nightly sound
of breath
beside me. Call it a hand
run up and down a length
of taut-skinned tree bark,
poplar, maybe.
Arrowed shape
the old shipmakers
harvested for masts.
Or possibly call it the rustle in the dry
wheat that grew wild through
our back field,
where I built nests when I was small
as I imagined the speechless animals
did, flag leaves
brittle, shush-saying over my head.
Hidden there
just long enough
for my mother to worry. Come to the porch,
dishtowel on her shoulder,
casting
my name over the afternoon.
Keen and honest
as the iron
[continued in next image/ALT text]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zdfxqin2sdxjsbsmrcjuqbw4/bafkreib6aeqxhw3mk7z3nnedqyi2r7whlhbxhf7vj4uzuslwwa5cwgfea4)
![[text continued]
bell in the garden. I would
explode from the chaff,
grassy-haired,
a wild grouse. Most nights:
his back.
The moon
turns its white face between the blinds.
If I woke him,
demanded, The moon,
name it, would he say
a bowl of gold butter
on our breakfast table?
The upended shell of earth's silver
turtle twin? No,
I'd replay.
An ivory Viking longship, tipping
into black sea. Your shoulder
blades'
parenthetical. No, this: your body
is the boat, its fine,
slumbered rigging—
that drumming in the keel.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zdfxqin2sdxjsbsmrcjuqbw4/bafkreide3n4jhfsnwndk4maa3syax6rctyyplhzggamqrt66ahkwgwwn5a)
Jennifer A. Sutherland 💙 from HOUSE OF MYTH AND NECESSITY (River River Books) “Did you think that we would spell it out for you?” @jasutherland.bsky.social @riverriverbooks.bsky.social
PASTORAL, 1994 by Joe Wilkins, published by @riverriverbooks.bsky.social, is a finalist for the Firecracker Award in Poetry. Tune in to the awards ceremony this Thursday, June 25: www.clmp.org/event/2026-f...
2026 Firecracker Awards Ceremony - Community of Literary Magazines and Presses
GATHERING
clmp.org