About
“… an auspicious start for the Canadian small press Rufus Books”
Times Literary Supplement ❧ 21 July 2006
¶ Rufus Books Publishing is an independent small press specialising in quality publications of poetry and short stories by authors primarily from Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
¶ First established in 2005, Rufus Books Publishing launched into the world with Matthew Francis’s acclaimed poetry collection Whereabouts, and went on to publish 16 chapbooks and trade editions until it ceased operations in 2015. After a lengthy hiatus, we have emerged once more with the abiding vision to bring greater exposure and exchange of writing and the craft of book making from both sides “across the pond.”
¶ Using the best papers and techniques that adhere to traditions of old as well as a view to the modern, transcendence of the word in its best possible expression into tangible book form is the focus and celebration of all our publications. As such, the choice of artwork, graphic design, and printing is vital in the production of the unique books created by Rufus Books Publishing.
¶ Authors published by Rufus Books have included Jeremy Clarke, Matthew Francis, Gill Gregory, Jeremy Harman, Thomas Joachim Kingston, A.F. Moritz, Ruth Roach Pierson, Michael Lee Rattigan, John Reibetanz, and Anthea Simmons. Most books are out of print, but please enquire in case we have a few copies to hand.
The way in which Matthew Francis navigates through the strictures of his form, doubling and tripling meanings as he goes, is not just astonishingly virtuosic but moving: he is a poetic Houdini, escaping into a locked box in order to liberate his subject self. ❧ David C. Ward, PN Review
Few first collections are as coherent in their layout and consistent in their tone of voice. Gill Gregory’s well-defined voice relies on melting down time and space to fashion a fluid wakefulness as it usually only occurs in dreams. Clearly there is an ambitious mind behind these poems, keen to explore complex inner worlds that can barely be expressed ... the result is utterly exciting. ❧ Tears in the Fence
Fernando Pessoa’s heteronym Alberto Caeiro reminds us that “To exist is enough to be complete.” This is certainly what Caeiro would have said of it if he had been sent The Complete Poems for review. The translator, Michael Lee Rattigan, who is also the enabler, cannot be congratulated enough. ❧ John Pilling, PN Review
Jeremy Clarke’s clarity of vision and tactility of imagery matches Hopkins. Whatever he writes about—people, animals, things, places—it is as if he is seeing them from within. He doesn’t impose his own expression, or even experience, upon them. The expression is of the thing in itself. ❧ Andrew Nicholson
Sound of Hungry Animals is a well-measured collection that showcases A.F. Moritz’s considerable talents as a poet. As a meditation, it manages to present its preoccupations with both compression and elegance. ❧ Ben Meyerson