some author activity: Martin, Lea, Barwin, Schmaltz, Reed + Jones,

Part seven of Camille Martin's Robert Zend essay focuses on the late Toronto poet bpNichol; profile on N.W. Lea now online at Open Book: Ontario; Gary Barwin wrote on Eric Schmaltz's typewriter poems for Paul Dutton, his recent chapbook, last summer (I'm just finding out about this now, myself) for Jacket2; Marthe Reed responds to Jennifer K. Dick's "what is YOUR fragment"; and D.G. Jones has a new poem posted as part of the Tuesday poem series.

Ryan Pratt reviews Hugh Thomas' Albanian Suite (2014) and N.W. Lea's Present! (2014)

Ryan Pratt was good enough to review Hugh Thomas' Albanian Suite (2014) and N.W. Lea's Present! (2014) over at the ottawa poetry newsletter. Thanks, Ryan!

some author activity: Dolman, Armantrout, Robertson, mclennan, Ladouceur + Hancock,

Anita Dolman has a new short story, "Happy Enough," appear as an e-book; Stephen Burt does the fifth in a series of five first readings of Rae Armantrout's "Spin" over at Jacket2; Lisa Robertson reads in Vancouver with Cole Swensen on Wednesday, March 19; rob mclennan has two new poems in the first issue of Fruita Pulp; Ben Ladouceur is the writer for the new web series, Other Men (and he writes on his blog here on how he started writing for a web series); and Brecken Hancock has a new poem up at Hazlitt.

new from above/ground press: THE STREAM and other poems, by Dennis Tourbin

THE STREAM and other poems
Dennis Tourbin
$4

We fish in a stream
near Millbrook,
for brown trout.
The stream ambles through
a beautiful countryside,
twisting and turning,
creating pools and holes
and wonderful homes
for fish...

And every year
the stream changes.
A tree falls in a forest;
it makes a great sound,
it splashes in the water
of the stream,
it alters the current,
changes the way
the water flows,
the way a fish,
a brown trout,
receives its food,
defends its territory.

We hunt for brown trout;
we do not fish for them.
It has been said before.
How do we hunt...
This is what I am interested
in now. How do we hunt
for fish; how do we hunt
for the elusive brown trout... ("THE STREAM")

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Co-published with Carleton University Art Gallery, as an extension of “Dennis Tourbin: The Language of Visual Poetry,” curated by Marcie Bronson; organized and circulated by Rodman Hall Art Centre / Brock University, 3 February – 27 April 2014.

Born in St. Catharines, May 8, 1946, and the eldest of five siblings, Dennis Tourbin grew up in Port Dalhousie, lived in Toronto, Peterborough, Paris (France), and in Ottawa, where he died of a stroke, aged 51. Poet, painter, performance and video artist, novelist, magazine publisher, artist-rights activist, and angler, Dennis Tourbin was a key part of the development of the lively regional art scene since the seventies.

A drummer in a rock-and-roll band with a growing reputation in Ontario in the sixties, Dennis Tourbin began publishing poems and stories in 20 Cents magazine in 1969. Ten books of poetry and fiction were published during his life. To name a few: The Port Dalhousie Stories (Coach House Books, 1987), the coming to age autobiographical story of a young boy; the poetry books, In Hitler’s Window (The Tellem Press, 1991), and Thinking of America (above/ground press, 1995); The Complete TV Angler (vol. 1 and 2, Penumbra Press, 1995, 1996), the reproduction of his hand-written fishing journal.

Dennis Tourbin painted words in vivid colours and referred to his paintings as visual poetry. He explored the area between painting and literature and moved the word beyond the printed page. He also had developed a multi-media form, which he called a painted play. He created five painted plays: The Writing of Painting of Martha, commissioned and performed at the Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto, 1976; FLC/CBC on the 1970 October Crisis, also performed at Theatre Passe Muraille in 1981, to name a few.

Dennis Tourbin was best known for his work on the 1970 October Crisis, which is a subject that inspired him throughout his life. In 1982, Dennis Tourbin was awarded the Canada Council studio in Paris, where he met his wife Nadia Laham, and which had a major influence on the development of his collage-like art works.  His works can be found in the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, the National Archives of Canada, and in private and public collections throughout Canada.

This is Tourbin’s second above/ground press chapbook, after Thinking of America (1995).

[THE STREAM and other poems launches as part of a poetry reading at Carleton University Art Gallery, 7pm on March 10, 2014 by Michael Dennis, Catherine Jenkins and rob mclennan. A limited number of copies of the chapbook will be available free at the door.]

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

above/ground press at AWP: Marthe Reed, Sarah Rosenthal + Jill Stengel, etc

above/ground press has (at least) three authors reading at this year's AWP in Seattle: Marthe Reed, Sarah Rosenthal and Jill Stengel, all part of an off-site reading hosted by Black Radish Books and the Dusie Kollektiv, Friday, February 28, 7:30pm at The Pike Brewing Company, 1415 First Avenue, Seattle. Even if I can't be there directly, maybe you can? See the Facebook invitation here.

new from above/ground press: Estelle Meaning Star, by Sarah Rosenthal

Estelle Meaning Star
Sarah Rosenthal
$4

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Produced, in part, as a handout for the 2014 AWP Conference and Bookfair, Washington State Convention Center & Sheraton Seattle Hotel, Seattle WA, February 26 - March 1, 2014. Thanks much to Susana Gardner for her (ongoing) help and support.

To pick up a free copy at AWP, head over to the combined Black Radish / Dusie booth.

Sarah Rosenthal is the editor of A Community Writing Itself: Conversations with Vanguard Writers of the Bay Area (Dalkey, 2010) and the author of Manhatten (Spuyten Duyvil, 2009) as well as several chapbooks: The Animal (Dusie, 2011), How I Wrote This Story (Margin to Margin, 2001), sitings (a+bend, 2000), and not-chicago (Melodeon, 1998). Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Dusie, Eleven Eleven, Sidebrow, Zen Monster, ecolinguistics, and Little Red Leaves, and is anthologized in Kindergarde: Avant-garde Poems, Plays, and Stories for Children (Black Radish, 2013), Building is a Process / Light is an Element: essays and excursions for Myung Mi Kim (P-Queue, 2008), Bay Poetics (Faux, 2006), The Other Side of the Postcard (City Lights, 2004), and hinge (Crack, 2002). Her book Lizard is forthcoming from Chax Press. She serves on the California Book Awards jury and manages programs for the Developmental Studies Center.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Jack Goodall reviews Camille Martin's Sugar Beach (2014)

Jack Goodall was good enough to review Camille Martin's Sugar Beach (2014) over at the Flat Singles Press blog. Thanks, Jack!