Beadnell poet Katrina Porteous is celebrating the launch of not one but two new books this month.

The first, Longshore Drift, is a collaboration with renowned maritime artist James Dodds, whose work is on show at Hartlepool Art Gallery from 25 June-11 September. Longshore Drift consists of Katrina's long poem about the fishermen of the Suffolk coast, first broadcast on BBC Radio 3, accompanied by James' striking linocuts.

We've always lived on the edge, boy;
Small boats, lines and nets.
We've always fished as the old men fished,
And the old men showed the sea respect.

Katrina is already well-known for her writing about fishing on the Northumberland coast. `When I visited Aldeburgh in 2002, the Suffolk coast was new to me,' she says. `Its physical geography surprised me, its stony shores unexpectedly bleaker and more exposed than the sandy beaches of Northumberland. In the four weeks I spent there, however, I soon found many similarities to home - particularly in the crisis facing the longshore fishermen, who use small boats and traditional methods to catch cod, sole, herring and crabs. When I wrote this poem, seven boats fished from the beach at Aldeburgh. Two years later, only three are left. Longshore Drift is an attempt to capture a glimpse of what we are losing.'

Katrina also has new work in a second collaboration published this month, this time with a more local flavour. Tweed Rivers, edited by Ken Cockburn and James Carter, is a collection of new writing and art inspired by the rivers of the Tweed Catchment. Katrina's contribution is a long poem about the River Tweed itself, accompanied by photographs by well-known Border artist, Susheila Jamieson.

Katrina's poem is in three parts, beginning at the river's source, from where the Porteous family originates, moving on to the stretch which includes Peebles, Melrose, Kelso and Coldstream, and ending at Tweedmouth. `I spent much of last summer walking the Tweed from source to sea,' says Katrina. `Along the way I talked to people for whom the river is literally a way of life: hill shepherds, salmon fishermen, landowners, bailiffs, poachers, and some of the last remaining salmon netsmen. I passed through some of the most beautiful places in Scotland, and also the most bloody. As a Scot who grew up in England, I have tried to include all these voices in the poem.'

… Sinuously, through the ringing leaves -
Blackbird, song-thrush, echoing ever more distant -
Tweed, intent on the future, gathers its forces,

Under the shadowy embrace of seven arches,
Under the dark frown of Neidpath, sprung from the whin,

The blood of two hatreds fused in one green vein.

Tweed Rivers
Edited by Ken Cockburn and James Carter
ISBN 1-905222-25-4
Cover price £9.99
Available from: Luath Press Ltd, 543/2 Castlehill, Edinburgh, EH1 2ND

Longshore Drift
by Katrina Porteous
ISBN 0-9539472-9-7
Hardback, cover price £10
Available from: Jardine Press, 20 St Johns Rd, Wivenhoe, Essex, CO7 9DR