River Wolton
Highly commended in the 2007 Book & Pamphlet Competition
River Wolton grew up in London and lived in Sheffield for twenty years before moving to north Derbyshire.
She recently completed two years as Derbyshire Poet Laureate and works as a writing facilitator, specialising in tailor-made writing projects that engage people of all ages and backgrounds.
She is a co-author of the Route 2008 anthology of stories about mothers and daughters, Some Girls' Mothers.
ETIQUETTE
Lisa, a Californian who’s cantor in her local synagogue
and volunteers as paramedic in the occupied West Bank,
explains the etiquette of checkpoints:
how the ambulance waits to be ushered forward,
even with patients on the point of death
at all costs don’t move first.
One night she spent an hour edging towards
a silent jeep, tapping, then banging on the hood
while the boy inside lay by his gun, asleep.
– River Wolton, The Purpose of Your Visit (Smith/Doorstop, 2008)
Smith/Doorstop titles
'The Purpose of Your Visit' (pamphlet, 2008) was highly commended in the 2007 Book & Pamphlet Competition.
Full-length collection coming in 2010
In The North magazine
North 44 (November/December, 2009)
Awards
- First prize, Chroma Queer Writing Competition (2008)
- Highly Commended, Book & Pamphlet Competition (2007)
- First prize, Red Pepper competition (2004)
Reviews
‘(Her) gift to us throughout this pamphlet is to allow us to better understand the personal challenges of sadness, conflict and even fear, by considering the global urgencies of war, poverty and violence. Her narratives use language and images that are strong, simple and clear, and they provide us with a stillness within which we can listen to her voice and share her experience.’ – Rosie Shepperd, Magma
‘She writes about the big subjects – life, love, death – in a gloriously easy and accessible style.’ - Tribune
‘... the real achievement is in the voice. There is no explication of opinion here, no sermonising, just brutally honest observation. This is conflict restrained by the poetic form and rendered all the more frightening for it.’ – Jane Bluett, Assent (formerly Poetry Nottingham)
‘She explores a palpable contemporary world, tilting it to view its planes and angles. She is alert to the experience of exile and displacement … Her writing is rhythmical and confident, the details telling. River Wolton is a poet to watch.’ — Moniza Alvi
Publicity
Complimentary copies of Smith/Doorstop titles are available for publicity or review, and a 40% discount is provided for trade sales. (Contact us using the form here.)
To book a Smith/Doorstop poet for a reading, talk or interview, contact The Poetry Business on marketing@poetrybusiness.co.uk or phone 0114 346 3037.
