Welcome to Rufus Books
Loose your moose! We've updated our website, sure as spring has sprung...
Rufus Books Publishing is an independent small press based in Toronto specialising in the creation of quality publications by poets primarily from Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. 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 artwork, graphic design, and printing are vital in the production of the unique books, chapbooks, and broadsides created by Rufus Books Publishing.
Recent & Forthcoming Titles
Molly, Etc.
SCOTT ELDER
"Scott Elder's small, seemingly slight poem, 'Your Neighbour Will Catch You', packs quite a punch. It is the matter-of-fact statement like the opening line 'The way is not clear' that pulls the reader into a sophisticated litany of imagery and rhetorical questions that juxtaposes against each other like pieces of a broken puzzle. It is once elegiac and fluid, each re-reading rendering another layer."
— Malika Booker
Uncertain Densities
IAIN BRITTON
"Uncertain Densities is a call to bring intimacy back into the act of observation, to touch the world — as Britton says — with our eyes. His exploration of touch doesn’t stop at the poems: the physical book itself is a delight to hold. The slight indent of the letterpress-printed title on the thick, textured handmade paper gives the impression that words are meant to be felt as well as read."
— Keziah Cho, The Indiependent
Stone Hours
JEREMY CLARKE
"Reading Jeremy Clarke's poems is like watching something emerge out of the consciousness of the street. The language too feels its way along: precise, tenderly inventive. The place is littered with stray voices and brief psalms — beautiful, tiny adjustments to the progress of the book. It is, in effect, a religious process, with its prayers and psalms and hymns, a kind of liturgy for the permanent in the fleeting."
— George Szirtes
News & Notes
Iain Britton's upcoming lunchtime reading at Unity Books in NZ
14 April 2026
While spring has well and truly sprung in the UK, and just about in Canada, in New Zealand autumn is coming on with a reading by Iain Britton at UNITY BOOKS in Wellington on 17 May. Besides reading from his new chapbook Uncertain Densities, he'll be happy to expound on what exactly his "Haptik" poems are all about. How demanding his Muse must be!
Michael Lee Rattigan finally meets up with an old friend in Lisbon
14 April 2026
Fernando Pessoa was patiently waiting outside his usual café in Lisbon, Portugal, to meet with the translator of his Alberto Caeiro poems into English, our very own Michael Lee Rattigan (and a murder of crows along for the ride, a nod to his chapbook Nature Notes). Expecting Thomas Crosse, there was nothing to disappoint in Michael who came instead!
Jeremy Clarke's "Host" on exhibition at Eton's Verey Gallery until 14 June 2026
30 March 2026
"Host" comprises an edition of seven original poems by Jeremy Clarke DMT-printed onto a sheet of watercolour paper that the poet left on a London rooftop in Bloomsbury over a winter from 21 Dec 2016 to 20 Mar 2017. One of these is on exhibit as part of "Elemental" that speaks to Eton College's cultural relationship with the material world.
Readings & Other Happenings
17 MAY 2026
Unity Books
57 Willis Street
Wellington 6011
@ 12 to 1 PM
LIVE READING
To Be Haptik or Not To Be Haptik
To be sure, Iain will be reading from his new chapbook, Uncertain Densities: Poems for Diane Arbus, but his heart is set on "Haptik" poems now, and he can't wait to tell you more about them. A perfect lunch break's excursion to Wellington, NZ.
6 NOV 2025 — 14 JUN 2026
Verey Gallery
Eton College
Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 6DW
SUNDAYS @ 2:30 to 5 PM
ART EXHIBITION
Elemental
Jeremy Clarke's "Host" is on display at Very Gallery as part of the exhibition "Elemental" which uses the College Collections to explore Eton's cultural relationship with the traditional four elements of Air, Fire, Water and Earth.
"I am only interested in poetry, which occurs more often in verse than in prose."
— John McGahern
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