Memory flows like a river, and it is through its constant flow that we come into being.

Twelve of our most exciting contemporary writers consider the subject of rivers and how they shape us throughout our lives, demarcating cities as well as moulding our creative consciousness.

Tessa Hadley revisits Rumer Godden's The River; Jo Hamya pays homage to Virginia Woolf; Michael Malay goes nightfishing for eels along the River Severn; Marchelle Farrell revisits the tropical waterfalls of her childhood home in Trinidad; and Caleb Azumah Nelson is drawn to the Guadalquivir in Seville.

Tender and astute, By the River explores the cultural, social and psychological significance of the rivers that run through our societies and our minds, bringing together writers in a celebration of water and its transformative qualities.