some author activity: Flowers, Mc Donnell, Strang, Rogal, Carr + Nichol,

Neil Flowers has a new poem up at The Typescript; Conor Mc Donnell has a poem and statement up at the Spotlight series; Catriona Strang has a new poem in the "Tuesday poem' series; Stan Rogal has two new poems up at The Pi Review; Julie Carr has new work up at Antiphony; and a 1984 episode of the TVO program Canadian Literature is on YouTube, featuring the late Toronto poet bpNichol.

new from above/ground press: Robert Duncan at Disney World, by Andy Weaver

Robert Duncan at Disney World
Andy Weaver
$5

On       the third      night
I dreamt      of you, even
though       it was the wrong
        occasion,      wrong
coast,          wrong           specifics,
wrong           colour cape
                                     for this
stark meadow
                   larked into
hieroglyphic occlusion.
                  But location        is a life
long
         mistake,        a torchy        ballad
sang         too slow,         a swan
song sawn      into          the day’s fabric

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
January 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Andy Weaver’s fourth book of poetry, The Loom (University of Calgary), was published in 2024. He was a finalist for the 2024 Vallum Chapbook Award, and his chapbook So/I (above/ground) was longlisted for the 2022 Nelson Ball Prize. He teaches English and Creative Writing at York University.

This is Andy Weaver’s fifth above/ground press chapbook after Three Ghazals to the constellation Corvus (The Crow) (2001), Other Work for your Hands (2004), Concatenations (2014) and So/I (2021).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: I Am So Calm, by Alice Burdick

I Am So Calm
Alice Burdick
$5

You did it my way
after Christopher Pratt

Aesthetics are managed by direction -
put this here and it is much better.
A tunnel of disturbing balance.
Amused contribution -
a control that always asserts.
Truth and fiction work together.
Especially the fiction, because truth
is never believed. A lie
with a spark gets things done.
A memory flips over and here
we are, driving down the shore.
Hang a left into the tea cup.
A wheel turns, and we don’t
take each other seriously. Dirt
roads a buzz, nostalgic spare tire.
This work is about something,
maybe only the formality of rack
and ruin. I take away character,
the things that fall, stain, pigeon poop -
symmetry, that is what I make.
Rectangles continue, a road
curves and straightens, strangeness
descends into pristine correction.
This longing for order will clean
that which won’t be tidied. Is that
what you want? I want to understand,
to flatten, like these remains
of a seagull, a military symbol.
I’m not suicidal - bing bang, wharf.
Sleep, however, forever -
that is that, left, fine.
We’ll leave it there.
It doesn’t bother me.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
January 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Alice Burdick writes poetry, essays, and cookbooks in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She is the author most recently of Ox Lost, Snow Deep (a feed dog book/Anvil Press), and of Deportment, 2018, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Book of Short Sentences, 2016, Mansfield Press, Holler, 2012, Mansfield Press, Flutter, 2008, Mansfield Press, and Simple Master, 2002, Pedlar Press. Her practice often includes collaboration, and recently her poetry has been used in Woodlight, a series of three films created by Hear Here and Erin Donovan. Her poems have appeared in Aubade: Poetry and Prose from Nova Scotian Writers (Boularderie Island Press, 2018), GUSH: Menstrual Manifestos for Our Time (Frontenac House, 2018), Surreal Estate: 13 Canadian Poets Under the Influence, An Anthology of Surrealist Canadian Poetry (The Mercury Press, Fall 2004), as well as other anthologies. She is the author of many chapbooks, folios, and broadsides since 1991. Her essays have appeared in Locations of Grief: an emotional geography (Wolsak & Wynn, 2020) and My Nova Scotia Home: Nova Scotia’s best writers riff on the place they call home (MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc., 2019). She has authored three cookbooks for local publisher Formac Publishing. From 1992-1995, Alice was assistant coordinator of the Toronto Small Press Fair, and has been a judge for various awards, including the bpNichol Chapbook Award.  She is also a freelance editor, manuscript assessor, and workshop leader.

This is Alice Burdick’s third above/ground press chapbook after A Holiday for Molecules (2019) and PLEASURE BRISTLES (with Gary Barwin, 2018).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Radmore, Eleftherion, Niespodziany, Ross, mclennan + Armantrout,

Claudia Coutu Radmore has two new poems up at The Pi Review; Melissa Eleftherion has a new poem up at The Citron Review, and a further poem up at Verse Daily; Benjamin Niespodziany has begun a substack to post weekly poems and prompts every Sunday ; Stuart Ross has posted his annual poem for New Year's; a further section of rob mclennan's work-in-progress "the green notebook" is online at Community Mausoleum, and he has posted a couple of videos reading short stories via substack; and Rae Armantrout has two new poems and commentary up at Plume.

some author activity: Archer, mclennan, Caporaso, Pirie, Niespodziany, Straumsvåg + Ross,

Sacha Archer has posted a new concrete (poetry/fiction) audiobook to bandcamp; rob mclennan's fourteenth annual 'best of' Canadian poetry titles has landed via dusie, and has a new section of "the green notebook" posted at The Typescript; Angela Caporaso's above/ground press title has landed on the Asemic Front 2 Top Ten Vispo Faves of 2024 list; Pearl Pirie offers her "Self-audit and Best of" list of 2024; Benjamin Niespodziany has three new poems up at The Pi Review; Dag T. Straumsvåg has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; and a video of Stuart Ross reading at Carthage College as part of their Visiting Writers Series, Kenosha WI, October 8, 2024 is now online.

some author activity: Reid, Mohammadi, Weaver + Kemp,

Monty Reid has new work up at The Pi Review; Khashayar Mohammadi is interviewed over at The Mahalat Review; Andy Weaver has a small essay up at The Woodlot; and Harold Rhenisch and forthcoming author Penn Kemp have a collaborative poem and new interviews online at Canadian Literature.

new from above/ground press: The Peter F Yacht Club #34 : 2024 Holiday Special,

The Peter F Yacht Club #34
2024 Holiday Special
lovingly hand-crafted, folded, stapled, edited and carried around in bags of envelopes by rob mclennan,
$6

With new writing by a host of Peter F Yacht Club regulars and irregulars, including Frances Boyle, Ellen Chang-Richardson, Jason Christie, David Currie, Michelle Desbarats, AJ Dolman, nina jane drystek, Amanda Earl, Laura Farina, ryan fitzpatrick, Cara Goodwin, Chris Johnson, Margo LaPierre, IAN MARTIN, Karen Massey, rob mclennan, James K. Moran, Pearl Pirie, Colin Quin, Monty Reid, Joan Rivard, Stuart Ross and Grant Wilkins!

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 27, 2024 ; as the final above/ground press item of 2024!
[launching tonight at our annual holiday reading/regatta! you should come out!]
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com